Dear HiveWorkshop
I've been working on this map for about a month now and I think it has a potential of becoming a cool Single-Player RPG.
Map size: 480x480
Tileset: Village
Suggested Players: Single Player
Category: Medieval / Warcraft
Type: Rpg (Campaign)
This map has a little history. I mentioned in my introduction that I've been working with WE for a couple of years now. This is the 4th attempt to create The Soul of Killarmin, and by far the most promising one.
-First one was really bad with no triggers, no custom models, just a bunch of units with weird oversized abilities put in a considerably bad terrain. Nevertheless, even though it very remotely resembled the current project, it became a blueprint for the first map of "Killarmin". I drew the firs map just on a paper, and unlike the lost versions of the map in editor, I didn't lose it.
-Second one was kind of interesting. I made a pretty complex terrain with a dalaran tileset. 250x250. I shaped the whole world. I was planning to create a WoW-like RPG out of it, considering that each one of 6 races would have their own starting zone. *sigh* I felt sorry when my USB broke, and at the same time my PC was infected with a malware. The map was lost.
-Third was nice. Still an amateur-like terrain made out of dalaran tileset 250x250. It wasn't a custom-race RPG anymore. You were supposed to have only certain heroes which associate with the story. And it had custom music and sounds, which made it extraordinarily large in capacity. It had a starting cinematic, which introduced the viewer into the story. It was quite long, and I spent a lot of time with it. This was the time when I kind of wanted to merge Diablo-style fantasy with WoW, and put some themes from the movie "Mummy Returns" and the "Scorpion King". Yet, little could be done, because I had no access to custom models.
The fate of the map was sealed when another system crash struck my PC and it struck it totally. The machine dropped dead, and I was so stupid that I didn't save it on other media. (Although in theory I could've burned it on a dvd and lost the disc.)
-----Now after dealing with lots of lost data, I decided to draw another "world map", but this one would have only a couple of zones and large-scale areas like forests, glaciers, deserts and mountains. The map had two major continents (One of which is actually terrained in the w3x map). This map is actually the first one where I didn't use the old-school cliffs, because I always hated them . I used modified MiscData, creating the vertical cliffs with Raise Terrain brush.
As a base I used the Ultimate Terraining Map 3.0 , for which I must be very grateful because it would kill me if I had to import so many different models for doodads. In a few weeks I made 2 lands: Northlands of Tal'Morgoth (Only partially with correct pathing) and the second was the starting area: The Stillwood Forest. As I finished Stillwood I went on with the first units of the map and then the main hero, hero abilities and first quests.
The first problems came with the collect and kill quests in starting area, I wanted to use something original, but eventually I made all of these quests cout kills with leaderboard. Although you can't have two leaderboard quests at one time.
Then there were battle quests, defense quests, cinematics, and just a few hours ago I made the last adjustments in the starting area quests triggers (well there's still stuff to fix)
So my current progress is:
Terrain:IIIIIIIIII 40%
Units:IIIIIIIIII 45%
Hero/Mob abilities: IIIIIIIIII 31%
Items: IIIIIIIIII 15%
Triggers::::
Quests:IIIIIIIIII 25%
Respawn:IIIIIIIIII 19%
Ressurections:IIIIIIIIII 25%
Cinematics: IIIIIIIIII 24%
Item System: IIIIIIIIII 0%
Other: IIIIIIIIII 9%
The World:
There are 4 major lands on Killarmin, all of them are divided into smaller subzones like areas in WoW.
1. Stillwood Forest/ Truthangel
Stillwood forest is a continental climate dedacious forest, growing in large vales, surrounded by rocky hills. It has a couple of caves, rivers, mountains and even a devasted area. The whole atmosphere resembles Elwyn Forest from WoW. The starting village is called Surdrassen. It's quite small and has the first quests at levels 1-5. To the south from the starting village there's an area called The Crop Hills. It's like westfall. A large open area with fields. You will have a couple of interactive quests in this region.In the southeatern corner of the map there's a large city, the human capitol - Truthangel. It's a giant square-shaped fortress with 4 different sections, each holding a few quest NPC's and some shops. To the far north from Truthangel, behind a range of hills there's a town of Nardefield, in which one of the major quests will be done. To the north from Nardefield there's a bridge through a river which leads to the Nardefield cemetery, with a small destroyed church. To the west from Surdrassen, the starting zone, there's a range of mountains called Stonewrath Cliffs, with Stonewrath pass, being the transition area to the Sandspring coast. The coast has a small city called Falsmeade Harbor. At the northern side of the coast there's the Eastern Monastery, which is a place where the king's paladins are trained.
2. Pantheon Mountains
It's a sub-tropical area resembling barrens or Greek coastal areas. It's basically an Antique zone, which will be the homeland of various mythical creatures of greek mythology. The Tauren, actually called the Minotaur, live in a cavern-city called Borelnidas. Through Borelnidas you will access 3 dungeons in this area: The Labyrinth, The Grand Coliseum (Minotaur fight arena), and The Underworld Caverns. To the east of Borelnidas there will be a centaur area called the Hellstomp Crag, in which you will fight centaur marauders. Farther to the east there's Epidauros Port, a small antique Minotaur city with access to another continent.
3. Tal'Morgoth Highlands
A viking area, with cold pine forests at the south, Norsemen capitol, Valorheim in the middle, and a deep canyon. After you cross the canyon through a rope bridge you will enter the Tundra. The tundra is being covered by a large glacier. On top of the glacier there is a very ancient dungeon - Tal'Morgoth Temple. The temple is home to a very ancient evil, which will be revealed in the story. After beating this area the story will continue as you sail overseas to another land
4. Amun'Shedar Desert
This area resembles ancient egyptian kingdoms and oases in the middle of scorching desert. The port at which you will arrive is the great city of Namusferat. It's the orc capitol. Orcs in this story have much more cultivated culture than in warcraft. They are something between medieval muslim/persian empire and ancient egyptian. They are an old race of desert riders. The city of Namusferat is like an arabian bazaar, a desert metropolis with simple structures, mosques, temples and a huge market quarter. The desert itself has some canyon areas in the south and a couple of ancient pyramids and obelisks which you will have to activate to proceed in the story. At the very end of the desert there's a dry mountain rande with the highest peak on the planet - Mount Killarmin. An ancient doorway leads to the tomb that is located inside this mountain. It will be the map's largest and final dungeon, in which many epic bossfights are planned.
Heroes
The starting hero and the main character is a paladin called Dancus Whitestar. He is a righteous warrior who fights evil at all costs. His abilities are:
Holy Light
Retribution (Immolation)
lvl 12+ Holy Guidance (attack power aura)
lvl 30+ Angelic Essence (AoE heal - Tranquility)
lvl 50+ Divine Shield (Mana Shield - not absolute invulnerability)
As you advance in the starting area of Stillwood forest, you'll recruit a talented female human mage, Emma Skyfire. Her abilities:
Shockwave
Arcane Nova
lvl 12+ Siphon Mana
lvl 30+ Flamestrike
lvl 50+ Tempest (Monsoon)
When you reach the Minotaur city, a powerful minotaur warrior will join you. His name is Thalassus. He's the game's tank. He will have specialization for one-handed weapons and defensive abilities. His abilities are:
War Stomp
Defensive Stance (Footman -Defend)
lvl 12 + Berserk
lvl 30 + Cleave (Passive)
lvl 50 + Reincarnation (Tauren Chieftain Reincarnation)
You will get no hero in Tal'Morgoth, but you will get a powerful orc Medjai - Seth'Gor - a devout warrior, who's task is to protect ancient secrets from dark forces. He will be the group's dps/rogue with specialization on aggility. His abilities are: Battle Swiftness (Demon hunter Evasion)
Critical Strike (Blademaster)
lvl 12+ Wind Walk
lvl 30+ Howl of Terror
lvl 50+ Bladestorm
Quests:
The quests are divided according to standard wc3 campaign style into: main and optional. Main quests are a part of story and must be completed in order to continue. Optional quests are typical village quests. You will use hero's ability "Talk" to accept and complete the quests. Optional quests have some important XP, gold, token, and item rewards, so it will be in the player's interest to complete them. In each zone you will have Lvl up time, when you will have to gain some level in order to advance in story. So you can either do some interactive cool quests or just kill monsters which will take a bazillion years to level up.
There's also an unconventional enter-building system. Of course when you enter large dungeons I use typical Enter Region - move Triggering unit to the dungeon. But in cities there are no big indoor areas, so instead I made a system in which you have a destructible roof on top of the building, covering the interior and as you enter the building through the entrance the roof is invisible, and when you leve its visible again. Well, I haven't seen this kind of system in any map whatsoever. If you know of a map that uses something like this, tell me.
So I'm posting up some pics, and I still don't know if I'll have time for this project. The truth is that the story itself is very appealing to me and I will slowly advance until the map is finished.
I will submit the story when I finish it. I have it almost done, but I still need some details to be completed. Of course, model and icon credits will be on the initial version of the map.
Final Questions:
- Is it good if I use blizzard WoW music as zone ambience? It shouldn't be a problem. I'm not using it in any commercial way, right? Also according to the size of the files that are and will be imported with the gigantic music files will make the initial version of the map kind of big. It's not an ORPG, so no download size will matter, but You will have to deal with the fact that if you want cool music along with voiceacting and ambient effects, you need to accept the fact that the map will have over 150 mb of size.
- I will have a problem farther on with item system, so I will appreciate any advice for that, provided that it will not be too complex (I can't use much JASS yet. I did all triggers in old-fashioned way). I don't know how to make item kicking, alternative backpacks and inventories and many other things.
- Also, should I upload the beta version with half of the things unfinished?
So I hope this description wasn't too long, LOL . Wish me good luck with working on this big guy.
I've been working on this map for about a month now and I think it has a potential of becoming a cool Single-Player RPG.
Map size: 480x480
Tileset: Village
Suggested Players: Single Player
Category: Medieval / Warcraft
Type: Rpg (Campaign)
This map has a little history. I mentioned in my introduction that I've been working with WE for a couple of years now. This is the 4th attempt to create The Soul of Killarmin, and by far the most promising one.
-First one was really bad with no triggers, no custom models, just a bunch of units with weird oversized abilities put in a considerably bad terrain. Nevertheless, even though it very remotely resembled the current project, it became a blueprint for the first map of "Killarmin". I drew the firs map just on a paper, and unlike the lost versions of the map in editor, I didn't lose it.
-Second one was kind of interesting. I made a pretty complex terrain with a dalaran tileset. 250x250. I shaped the whole world. I was planning to create a WoW-like RPG out of it, considering that each one of 6 races would have their own starting zone. *sigh* I felt sorry when my USB broke, and at the same time my PC was infected with a malware. The map was lost.
-Third was nice. Still an amateur-like terrain made out of dalaran tileset 250x250. It wasn't a custom-race RPG anymore. You were supposed to have only certain heroes which associate with the story. And it had custom music and sounds, which made it extraordinarily large in capacity. It had a starting cinematic, which introduced the viewer into the story. It was quite long, and I spent a lot of time with it. This was the time when I kind of wanted to merge Diablo-style fantasy with WoW, and put some themes from the movie "Mummy Returns" and the "Scorpion King". Yet, little could be done, because I had no access to custom models.
The fate of the map was sealed when another system crash struck my PC and it struck it totally. The machine dropped dead, and I was so stupid that I didn't save it on other media. (Although in theory I could've burned it on a dvd and lost the disc.)
-----Now after dealing with lots of lost data, I decided to draw another "world map", but this one would have only a couple of zones and large-scale areas like forests, glaciers, deserts and mountains. The map had two major continents (One of which is actually terrained in the w3x map). This map is actually the first one where I didn't use the old-school cliffs, because I always hated them . I used modified MiscData, creating the vertical cliffs with Raise Terrain brush.
As a base I used the Ultimate Terraining Map 3.0 , for which I must be very grateful because it would kill me if I had to import so many different models for doodads. In a few weeks I made 2 lands: Northlands of Tal'Morgoth (Only partially with correct pathing) and the second was the starting area: The Stillwood Forest. As I finished Stillwood I went on with the first units of the map and then the main hero, hero abilities and first quests.
The first problems came with the collect and kill quests in starting area, I wanted to use something original, but eventually I made all of these quests cout kills with leaderboard. Although you can't have two leaderboard quests at one time.
Then there were battle quests, defense quests, cinematics, and just a few hours ago I made the last adjustments in the starting area quests triggers (well there's still stuff to fix)
So my current progress is:
Terrain:IIIIIIIIII 40%
Units:IIIIIIIIII 45%
Hero/Mob abilities: IIIIIIIIII 31%
Items: IIIIIIIIII 15%
Triggers::::
Quests:IIIIIIIIII 25%
Respawn:IIIIIIIIII 19%
Ressurections:IIIIIIIIII 25%
Cinematics: IIIIIIIIII 24%
Item System: IIIIIIIIII 0%
Other: IIIIIIIIII 9%
The World:
There are 4 major lands on Killarmin, all of them are divided into smaller subzones like areas in WoW.
1. Stillwood Forest/ Truthangel
Stillwood forest is a continental climate dedacious forest, growing in large vales, surrounded by rocky hills. It has a couple of caves, rivers, mountains and even a devasted area. The whole atmosphere resembles Elwyn Forest from WoW. The starting village is called Surdrassen. It's quite small and has the first quests at levels 1-5. To the south from the starting village there's an area called The Crop Hills. It's like westfall. A large open area with fields. You will have a couple of interactive quests in this region.In the southeatern corner of the map there's a large city, the human capitol - Truthangel. It's a giant square-shaped fortress with 4 different sections, each holding a few quest NPC's and some shops. To the far north from Truthangel, behind a range of hills there's a town of Nardefield, in which one of the major quests will be done. To the north from Nardefield there's a bridge through a river which leads to the Nardefield cemetery, with a small destroyed church. To the west from Surdrassen, the starting zone, there's a range of mountains called Stonewrath Cliffs, with Stonewrath pass, being the transition area to the Sandspring coast. The coast has a small city called Falsmeade Harbor. At the northern side of the coast there's the Eastern Monastery, which is a place where the king's paladins are trained.
2. Pantheon Mountains
It's a sub-tropical area resembling barrens or Greek coastal areas. It's basically an Antique zone, which will be the homeland of various mythical creatures of greek mythology. The Tauren, actually called the Minotaur, live in a cavern-city called Borelnidas. Through Borelnidas you will access 3 dungeons in this area: The Labyrinth, The Grand Coliseum (Minotaur fight arena), and The Underworld Caverns. To the east of Borelnidas there will be a centaur area called the Hellstomp Crag, in which you will fight centaur marauders. Farther to the east there's Epidauros Port, a small antique Minotaur city with access to another continent.
3. Tal'Morgoth Highlands
A viking area, with cold pine forests at the south, Norsemen capitol, Valorheim in the middle, and a deep canyon. After you cross the canyon through a rope bridge you will enter the Tundra. The tundra is being covered by a large glacier. On top of the glacier there is a very ancient dungeon - Tal'Morgoth Temple. The temple is home to a very ancient evil, which will be revealed in the story. After beating this area the story will continue as you sail overseas to another land
4. Amun'Shedar Desert
This area resembles ancient egyptian kingdoms and oases in the middle of scorching desert. The port at which you will arrive is the great city of Namusferat. It's the orc capitol. Orcs in this story have much more cultivated culture than in warcraft. They are something between medieval muslim/persian empire and ancient egyptian. They are an old race of desert riders. The city of Namusferat is like an arabian bazaar, a desert metropolis with simple structures, mosques, temples and a huge market quarter. The desert itself has some canyon areas in the south and a couple of ancient pyramids and obelisks which you will have to activate to proceed in the story. At the very end of the desert there's a dry mountain rande with the highest peak on the planet - Mount Killarmin. An ancient doorway leads to the tomb that is located inside this mountain. It will be the map's largest and final dungeon, in which many epic bossfights are planned.
Heroes
The starting hero and the main character is a paladin called Dancus Whitestar. He is a righteous warrior who fights evil at all costs. His abilities are:
Holy Light
Retribution (Immolation)
lvl 12+ Holy Guidance (attack power aura)
lvl 30+ Angelic Essence (AoE heal - Tranquility)
lvl 50+ Divine Shield (Mana Shield - not absolute invulnerability)
As you advance in the starting area of Stillwood forest, you'll recruit a talented female human mage, Emma Skyfire. Her abilities:
Shockwave
Arcane Nova
lvl 12+ Siphon Mana
lvl 30+ Flamestrike
lvl 50+ Tempest (Monsoon)
When you reach the Minotaur city, a powerful minotaur warrior will join you. His name is Thalassus. He's the game's tank. He will have specialization for one-handed weapons and defensive abilities. His abilities are:
War Stomp
Defensive Stance (Footman -Defend)
lvl 12 + Berserk
lvl 30 + Cleave (Passive)
lvl 50 + Reincarnation (Tauren Chieftain Reincarnation)
You will get no hero in Tal'Morgoth, but you will get a powerful orc Medjai - Seth'Gor - a devout warrior, who's task is to protect ancient secrets from dark forces. He will be the group's dps/rogue with specialization on aggility. His abilities are: Battle Swiftness (Demon hunter Evasion)
Critical Strike (Blademaster)
lvl 12+ Wind Walk
lvl 30+ Howl of Terror
lvl 50+ Bladestorm
Quests:
The quests are divided according to standard wc3 campaign style into: main and optional. Main quests are a part of story and must be completed in order to continue. Optional quests are typical village quests. You will use hero's ability "Talk" to accept and complete the quests. Optional quests have some important XP, gold, token, and item rewards, so it will be in the player's interest to complete them. In each zone you will have Lvl up time, when you will have to gain some level in order to advance in story. So you can either do some interactive cool quests or just kill monsters which will take a bazillion years to level up.
There's also an unconventional enter-building system. Of course when you enter large dungeons I use typical Enter Region - move Triggering unit to the dungeon. But in cities there are no big indoor areas, so instead I made a system in which you have a destructible roof on top of the building, covering the interior and as you enter the building through the entrance the roof is invisible, and when you leve its visible again. Well, I haven't seen this kind of system in any map whatsoever. If you know of a map that uses something like this, tell me.
So I'm posting up some pics, and I still don't know if I'll have time for this project. The truth is that the story itself is very appealing to me and I will slowly advance until the map is finished.
I will submit the story when I finish it. I have it almost done, but I still need some details to be completed. Of course, model and icon credits will be on the initial version of the map.
Final Questions:
- Is it good if I use blizzard WoW music as zone ambience? It shouldn't be a problem. I'm not using it in any commercial way, right? Also according to the size of the files that are and will be imported with the gigantic music files will make the initial version of the map kind of big. It's not an ORPG, so no download size will matter, but You will have to deal with the fact that if you want cool music along with voiceacting and ambient effects, you need to accept the fact that the map will have over 150 mb of size.
- I will have a problem farther on with item system, so I will appreciate any advice for that, provided that it will not be too complex (I can't use much JASS yet. I did all triggers in old-fashioned way). I don't know how to make item kicking, alternative backpacks and inventories and many other things.
- Also, should I upload the beta version with half of the things unfinished?
So I hope this description wasn't too long, LOL . Wish me good luck with working on this big guy.
Attachments
-
Dancus Pic.jpg161.9 KB · Views: 218
-
Emma Skyfire Pic.jpg176.8 KB · Views: 247
-
MapKillarmin1.jpg817.2 KB · Views: 260
-
Seth'Gor Pic.jpg106.1 KB · Views: 173
-
Thalassus Pic.jpg1.2 MB · Views: 389
-
WC3ScrnShot_080611_145505_23.jpg595 KB · Views: 227
-
WC3ScrnShot_080611_190129_02.jpg701.4 KB · Views: 285
-
WC3ScrnShot_081511_010411_11.jpg614.1 KB · Views: 208
-
WC3ScrnShot_081511_130314_01.jpg610.2 KB · Views: 231
-
WC3ScrnShot_081711_164603_02.jpg647.9 KB · Views: 270
-
WC3ScrnShot_081911_103541_01.jpg756.3 KB · Views: 169
-
WC3ScrnShot_082011_151758_07.jpg86 KB · Views: 214
-
WC3ScrnShot_082011_163817_04.jpg122.3 KB · Views: 229
-
WC3ScrnShot_082011_170802_18.jpg632.5 KB · Views: 209
-
WC3ScrnShot_082011_170825_22.jpg576 KB · Views: 203
-
Bandit Camp.jpg99.7 KB · Views: 402
-
Cathedral1.jpg86.4 KB · Views: 1,021
-
CropHills2.jpg83.2 KB · Views: 171
-
CropHills3.jpg93.5 KB · Views: 1,867
-
CropHills.jpg119.6 KB · Views: 171
-
DragonIsland.jpg79.1 KB · Views: 180
-
Eastern Monastery.jpg86.5 KB · Views: 322
-
Falsmeade Harbor.jpg55.4 KB · Views: 163
-
FalsmeadeHarbor1.jpg72.9 KB · Views: 397
-
GideonsRestInn.jpg90.4 KB · Views: 210
-
GideonsRestInn2.jpg77.4 KB · Views: 2,609
-
HellsRift.jpg101.4 KB · Views: 386
-
HolyWing.jpg106.2 KB · Views: 388
-
Jokullheim.jpg50.6 KB · Views: 383
-
MagicShopInterior.jpg102.1 KB · Views: 1,030
-
MonasteryInterior.jpg88.3 KB · Views: 336
-
Nardefield.jpg74.5 KB · Views: 2,598
-
Nardefield2.jpg123 KB · Views: 327
-
RockfallCrystalMine.jpg108.7 KB · Views: 379
-
Stonewrath Cliffs.jpg110.7 KB · Views: 314
-
Surdrassen.jpg115.3 KB · Views: 2,650
-
TalMorgothHighlands1.jpg85.3 KB · Views: 312
-
TalMorgothHighlands2.jpg75.3 KB · Views: 314
-
TradersTier.jpg109.1 KB · Views: 318
-
Truthangel1.jpg94.8 KB · Views: 157
-
Tundra.jpg49.8 KB · Views: 367
-
WarriorsTier1.jpg81.4 KB · Views: 309
-
WizardsHall.jpg90.1 KB · Views: 333
-
Minimap beta1.jpg102.7 KB · Views: 2,520
-
MinimapBeta1.0.jpg9.5 KB · Views: 1,743
Last edited: