To the Bitter End

[Soul Reaver]

This definitely deserves a director's cut, the campaign is just so much fun, the storyline is gripping, the cinematics are intense, the environment looks cool and most of all the combat is just so rewarding.

Here you go 6/5, have a nice day.

Thank both of you very much, I really appreciate the feedback and I'm really pleased this has been made a Director's Cut.

Some relevant suggestions there too, I'll see about incorporating some of them into version 1.0.02.

Congratz on DC

great map, nice and fun story, I'm gonna to play it again right now!

Thank you two as well!

it's so cool and all but how should I defeat the juggernaut?

There are hints for each Chapter (except for Chapter VIII... I'll need to remedy that eventually) on the official site. Take a look at http://www.familykrieg.com/tothebitterend/hints.htm#3 6 for some suggestions on defeating the Juggernaut.

 

[Tarek]

Wow, i really liked this campaign
I thank u really for such a great campaign Soul Reaver , if it was only with voices of the characters it would have been more competitive with the original Warcraft campaign , it seems that you put lots of work man and congrats. By the way , the intro pic is awesome, u know the pic with the characters in better body forms showing a better animation.
Well i am impressed , great work , take care.

 

[Ken-E]

Best looking campaign that should be remember for 2 more decades.
6/5, bro! You deserve more than this, but this is all I can give. Thanks Soul Reaver for making an awesome campaign.

 

[Necrofulos]

My own thoughts:
Gameplay: 5/5, haven't found any bugs or errors yet, and all spells work as intended
Models/terrain: 4/5, terrain is good and models fit for characters, thought you used only few custom models, but who needs those??? They'r great, but there's still something that makes me give only 4/5 (THOUGH I WANNA GIVE 5/5).
Music: 5/5, two words EPIC and fitting.
story: 5/5, though its basic go defeat the evil wizard, the story is still great, and it was actually really bitter to kill some of those bosses, especially that one with crypt lord and another one with ice wraith skin.
Total: 4,6/5=5 GZ for awesome campaing, keep doing more stuff like this

 

[Runetotem]

Help

My friend ( who is too lazy to register here) cant manage it to work. He have the latest version, frozen throne, and all that. Is it possibly that he downloaded the game?

 

[Soul Reaver]

My friend ( who is too lazy to register here) cant manage it to work. He have the latest version, frozen throne, and all that. Is it possibly that he downloaded the game?

In order to help, I need to know exactly what happens when they try to start the Campagin.

What SHOULD happen:

- First, download the campaign. If it is in a .zip file, then unizp the file first, and put the extracted file called "To the Bitter End.w3n" into the Warcraft 3/Campaigns folder.
- Start Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne.
- Check the version number on the bottom right. It should be at least version 1.26.0.6401. If it is a lower number than that, download and install the latest patch (Note that having an outdated Warcraft III version is the most common reason why people find themselves unable to run the campaign so be sure to double-check this!)
- Click 'Single Player'
- Click 'Custom Campaign'
- Select 'To the Bitter End' from the list and click on 'Play Campaign'
- The title/Chapter selection screen should appear. Select the Prologue or Chapter I and the game should load.

That's really all it should take. Get him to try this, and if at any point anything on the above list doesn't work/can't be done, please let me know exactly what the problem was.

 

[Silviu_cena]

This campaing is the best one i ever played!! 5-Awesome!!

 

[David]

Awesome Campaing..

Very nice...So i want to join your group for making maps .If you guyz let me...I desing good,make heroe abilities,furniture...So will you let me

 

[Soul Reaver]

This campaing is the best one i ever played!! 5-Awesome!!

Thank you very much. I'm really happy you enjoyed it!

Very nice...So i want to join your group for making maps .If you guyz let me...I desing good,make heroe abilities,furniture...So will you let me

Actually, 'To the Bitter End' wasn't created by a group - it's really just me. And the campaign is complete now and I'm hoping to move onto different projects (save for maybe the occasional patch in the future), so I don't actually need any help anymore at this point. But nonetheless, thank you very much for offering! I'm sure there are some other active mapmaking teams that could use your assistance.

 

[Deolrin]

This campaign is awesome. One of the best around, seriously.

I'm at the final boss fights - Do you have any tips for that? Especially for the final phase, when he uses the Void Gap\Black Hole thing. Basically, he kills me way too fast. I tried Sera's ulti, and he just teleported away, in a place where I had to move away from the beacon in order to fight him. Now he's low on health, and there's only two mana shards left(I'm guessing they stop spawning at this point), but he kills me every time. Been trying for several hours now! Any advice at all?

 

[Soul Reaver]

This campaign is awesome. One of the best around, seriously.

I'm at the final boss fights - Do you have any tips for that? Especially for the final phase, when he uses the Void Gap\Black Hole thing. Basically, he kills me way too fast. I tried Sera's ulti, and he just teleported away, in a place where I had to move away from the beacon in order to fight him. Now he's low on health, and there's only two mana shards left(I'm guessing they stop spawning at this point), but he kills me every time. Been trying for several hours now! Any advice at all?

If the boss is using the Void Breach spell, he's down to his last 10% of HP. It's hard to give good tips for this stage of the battle, but here are a few things:

1) If the Void Breach is around, AVOID it. If you let it get close, it will mess you up badly. Even just letting it get close will slightly slow your movement speed, so its best to just stay as far away as possible and run big circles around it. It does disappear after a while. While it's around, you might be able to take potshots at the boss but it's unlikely you'll have enough time for a proper fight before the Breach catches up with you, so you may need to leave the boss be.

2) More Mana Shards will still spawn - in fact, they'll spawn faster now than usual (I think for every 1% HP closer you get him to defeat now, though that's from memory). You'll definitely need some Mana Shards saved up for the final stint and it sounds like you're rather short, but it might still be possible

3) Stunning attacks will prevent the boss from teleporting away, but Sera' ultimate doesn't stun - the boss can still cast spells while affected, including his teleport.

4) The best way to do a lot of damage is to wait until there's no horribly damaging ultimate going, force the boss to teleport once, grab a mana shard, and then concentrate on laying into him. As long as the mana shard lasts, you'll likely be regaining HP faster than you're losing it. You should be able to do a fair amount of damage before it runs out.

Good luck, it's a very tough battle, but it is possible!

 

[Deolrin]

1) If the Void Breach is around, AVOID it. If you let it get close, it will mess you up badly. Even just letting it get close will slightly slow your movement speed, so its best to just stay as far away as possible and run big circles around it. It does disappear after a while. While it's around, you might be able to take potshots at the boss but it's unlikely you'll have enough time for a proper fight before the Breach catches up with you, so you may need to leave the boss be.

Mhm, I do manage to do that, usually. I hope he only uses this once? Either way, yes, I can usually escape the Void Breach, even though it hits the slower guys a few times(Kitharsis and Cameron, mostly).

2) More Mana Shards will still spawn - in fact, they'll spawn faster now than usual (I think for every 1% HP closer you get him to defeat now, though that's from memory). You'll definitely need some Mana Shards saved up for the final stint and it sounds like you're rather short, but it might still be possible.

Ohh, so THAT'S how it works? I see. Thanks! I didn't quite realize what makes them spawn.

3) Stunning attacks will prevent the boss from teleporting away, but Sera' ultimate doesn't stun - the boss can still cast spells while affected, including his teleport.

Ah, I'm sorry about not specifying that; I actually meant her healing beacon. I never really use her mass-entangling-roots ultimate, I find it to be rather useless(compared to her and the rest of the group's other abilities, such as her Heal and stunning arrows). I meant to say that I cast the healing beacon and stay at the center of it with my whole group, but he just teleports really fast afterwards. Might have just been a coincidence.

4) The best way to do a lot of damage is to wait until there's no horribly damaging ultimate going, force the boss to teleport once, grab a mana shard, and then concentrate on laying into him. As long as the mana shard lasts, you'll likely be regaining HP faster than you're losing it. You should be able to do a fair amount of damage before it runs out.

And then, when the mana splinter(yeah, mistake on the name from both of us, hehe ) runs out, I should just leg it out of there? I see... I'm going to try this out, maybe just start the level from scratch. None of my saves(I have like 6 of them) are actually in a good position, with various useful items\abilities on cooldown and with a bad amount of mana splinters, but he's done on his last 10% of HP on all of them.

Good luck, it's a very tough battle, but it is possible!

Thanks! I'm gonna keep trying, possibly tomorrow. Sort of late now. Either way, my biggest problems with the boss fight are: His Locust Swarm ability(because it lets him heal and it's difficult to escape\avoid it), his Circle of OwningEverythingRaipdly, and his mass-war stomp thingy that deals lots of damage(especially to Fei apparently?).
Oh, and the fact that Kitharsis and Cameron are just so damn slow. ><

 

[KaelThas1997]

WoW,the best campaign ever made .the music is supper great and there is almost nothing to complain but the difficulty of this campaign and endless story and mission.it's great that you make it possible to skip scenes by pressing esc.you should give some hint to save in some part.i always must restart some chapters when it was the final part and it's suck .5/5

 

[mckill2009]

never noticed you now make this as a campaign than separate maps, good job there!...
rating 6/5 ...

 

[Bloodmoon]

Models/Skins Request

Hey....I loved your campaign! Best I ever played.....Can you give a way to import fei serumen into my wc3 games? Thanks......

 

[Soul Reaver]

Mhm, I do manage to do that, usually. I hope he only uses this once? Either way, yes, I can usually escape the Void Breach, even though it hits the slower guys a few times(Kitharsis and Cameron, mostly).

Unfortunately he CAN use the Void Breach more than once. On the positive side, it has a long cooldown (comparable to other Ultimates).

Ohh, so THAT'S how it works? I see. Thanks! I didn't quite realize what makes them spawn.

That's right - when the boss first reaches certain percentage health levels, it will cause a Mana Splinter to appear - these percentage levels are further apart when his health is higher, but grown closer together as he's nearer to defeat. It only works the first time the boss reaches that percentage health though (ie, when you first reduce him to 10% health, a Mana Splinter will form. However, if he regenerates/heals a bit and then you reduce him to 10% health again, you won't get a second Splinter - thus, the total number of splinters you can get during the battle is limited).

Ah, I'm sorry about not specifying that; I actually meant her healing beacon. I never really use her mass-entangling-roots ultimate, I find it to be rather useless(compared to her and the rest of the group's other abilities, such as her Heal and stunning arrows). I meant to say that I cast the healing beacon and stay at the center of it with my whole group, but he just teleports really fast afterwards. Might have just been a coincidence.

I personally find Face of the Heavens difficult to use in an offensive capacity during the late stages of the battle. The boss will use his Teleport as often as possible if you're pressing in close to him (I think its cooldown is about 14 seconds, from memory), so unless you keep him stunned, it won't be long before he teleports away again. It's easier (but a little less useful) to use it defensively to catch your breath and regain some HP.

And then, when the mana splinter(yeah, mistake on the name from both of us, hehe ) runs out, I should just leg it out of there? I see... I'm going to try this out, maybe just start the level from scratch. None of my saves(I have like 6 of them) are actually in a good position, with various useful items\abilities on cooldown and with a bad amount of mana splinters, but he's done on his last 10% of HP on all of them.

Don't expect to ever be in a 'good position' near the end of the battle. When the boss is very low on health, I try to fight him on my own terms, ideally near two (or more) Mana Splinters and with several powerful abilities/items ready to go so I can keep him stunned for a little while. I then grab a splinter, attack him with everything I've got, and when the Splinter runs out (or is just about to) I'll go grab a second one. If it runs out, you can keep attacking as long as he's stunned, but once he starts hitting back it's a good idea to put some distance between him and yourself - depending what abilities he's using, he can easily do more damage at close range than you can.

Thanks! I'm gonna keep trying, possibly tomorrow. Sort of late now. Either way, my biggest problems with the boss fight are: His Locust Swarm ability(because it lets him heal and it's difficult to escape\avoid it), his Circle of OwningEverythingRaipdly, and his mass-war stomp thingy that deals lots of damage(especially to Fei apparently?).
Oh, and the fact that Kitharsis and Cameron are just so damn slow. ><

The Locust Swarm based ability can't really be avoided completely if your'e in range of it, but you can avoid some of the damage by staying on the move. The Circle of Suffering is a pain - in most cases you should prioritize to moving out of it and avoid attacking any enemy units inside it with physical attacks (since some of the damage will rebound onto you). The War Stomp ability does give you time to get out of the way - it starts with a large (but very weak) Shockwave type spell, and the area that it passes over will then start to 'ignite'. Those ignited points don't cause any additional damage, but they'll detonate into a War Stomp type thing shortly afterwards (which hurts a LOT). Your best bet is, once you see the Shockwave come towards you, to escape in a direction that is perpendicular to the path the Shockwave takes. That way even your slowest characters should have plenty of time to get away.

Keep in mind that Cameron has a teleportation device which he can use to get away quickly if he's in a pinch. Kitharsis is more of a problem and may need microing, but at least he has a lot of HP. The reason Fei seems to take a lot of damage from it is because his Ultimate Grace doesn't offer any protection against spells - he takes full damage from the explosions, and his HP level is notably lower than the other characters.

For a while now I have had a document written up with a guide to all of the final boss' abilities and how to avoid them, which I was planning on putting on the official site, but I never got around to it. You've reminded me I should get to doing that tonight.

In any case, good luck! Let me know when you manage to finally defeat him!

WoW,the best campaign ever made .the music is supper great and there is almost nothing to complain but the difficulty of this campaign and endless story and mission.it's great that you make it possible to skip scenes by pressing esc.you should give some hint to save in some part.i always must restart some chapters when it was the final part and it's suck .5/5

Thank you, I'm happy you liked it! Personally I hope most people enjoy the extensive storyline, but yes, it would be a pain to have to sit through the long cinematics when you didn't want to watch them (or had seen them before), so I made them skippable. Keep in mind you can reduce the difficulty slightly by typing in "easy" or "medium" into the in-game chat... though admittedly it'll still be pretty hard. And I think messages reminding you to save would be a bit intrusive in the gameplay... you'll just have to remember to save regularly I'm afraid.

never noticed you now make this as a campaign than separate maps, good job there!...
rating 6/5 ...

Thank you to you too! If you haven't played the Campaign version yet, be sure to do so: the seperate maps are older versions, and don't contain the conclusion (and various patches/bugfixes) that the Campaign does.

Hey....I loved your campaign! Best I ever played.....Can you give a way to import fei serumen into my wc3 games? Thanks......

Again, thanks for the praise! I'll be responding to you a bit later via PM regarding your request.

 

[Deolrin]

I'm trying the fight all over again... Thanks for your advice! I'm going to try and do this good now. XP

The War Stomp ability does give you time to get out of the way - it starts with a large (but very weak) Shockwave type spell, and the area that it passes over will then start to 'ignite'. Those ignited points don't cause any additional damage, but they'll detonate into a War Stomp type thing shortly afterwards (which hurts a LOT).

Yeah, I noticed that just now. I didn't see the connection between the weak Shockwave and the powerful Mass War Stomp before. Never saw those burning fires on the ground. I am also yet to realize what does the Blizzard\Eternal Winter\whatever thingy does. The one that makes it all snow. And finally, do you have any advice regarding all the 'adds'? The void arteries and all of the void children, that is.

 

[Soul Reaver]

I'm trying the fight all over again... Thanks for your advice! I'm going to try and do this good now. XP


Yeah, I noticed that just now. I didn't see the connection between the weak Shockwave and the powerful Mass War Stomp before. Never saw those burning fires on the ground. I am also yet to realize what does the Blizzard\Eternal Winter\whatever thingy does. The one that makes it all snow. And finally, do you have any advice regarding all the 'adds'? The void arteries and all of the void children, that is.

If you're not seeing the burning fires, it could be due to a bug in Warcraft III that can sometimes cause certain animations/special effects to not display properly (one example is the normal animation when building an undead building doesn't play the way it should - while some effects, like the fires from the Harbinger spell, don't show up at all). I'm not sure what causes it exactly, though it does seems to happen more often when re-loading a saved game after having quit and closed Warcraft III - it never seems to happen if I play a level through in a single sitting (regardless of how often I save/load). Since it happens to me during normal skirmish games as well it's clearly not a problem with To the Bitter End specifically, and unfortunately that means there's not much I can do to fix it.

Frost Surge affects an 800 area around the boss. The more of your units are in that area, the more rapidly/more often it will 'strike'. Each strike will randomly hit one of your units in the area with a potent, Frost Nova-like attack. This means you should keep your distance for as long as the Frost Surge lasts, since crowding around the boss (particulary with Summons) will mean you'll get rapidly hammered by numerous undodgeable and debilitating Frost Novas. Basically: keep your distance until the snow stops.

Void Veins can largely be ignored - if they're crowding you or you need to remain next to the for a long while though, use an AoE spell to get rid of them. I usually find them dying throughout the normal course of the battle without needing too much direct attention.

The Void Children are always dangerous - you can usually take out the likes of Fury and Fears just with the collateral damage from spells like Lightning Storm, Darkbolt Barrage, Dark Tendrils etc, but anything more powerful than Furies/Fears should probably be a pretty high priority to take down. Nonetheless, do feel free to ignore them if the boss starts casting Funeral Pyre or something equally horrible that forces you to run for it. Drop some Lightning Storms, Abyssal Masses or Skeletal Minions to keep them occupied and off your tail for a while if you get to a better position... but don't neglect to take them out eventually, as their numbers will become unmanagable.

The Dark Memory is exceptionally dangerous to leave alive since it will split into two every few times it hits you, quickly creating an absolutely huge army. It isn't very strong on its own though, so just hit it with two moderately damaging spells and it should go down - I typically use Darkbolt Barrage, Arrow Storm and/or Mass Fireballs to take them out quickly. Physical attacks work too but stunning them will keep them from attacking, and thus from splitting.

Check in on the official website (www.familykrieg.com/tothebitterend) in a day or so. I'm going to try and update the Hints section after work today with a (very large) guide describing the stragies needed to defeat the final boss.

Edit: Official website now updated. Check the Hints section for some tips and info on how to defeat the final boss.

 

[Deolrin]

If you're not seeing the burning fires, it could be due to a bug in Warcraft III that can sometimes cause certain animations/special effects to not display properly

No, you misunderstood me. I meant to say that I didn't notice the purple fires on the ground before. The 'mass war stomp' always caught me by surprise, because I didn't understand what was causing it, or how to avoid it.

Funeral Pyre

Yeah, btw, about that... Any hints for avoiding it? I'm guessing it's the mass flame strike. Should I spread out or something when he casts it? The situation I usually end up in is that the fast heroes run forward, and avoid everything, whereas the slow heroes suck up all the damage. It's not THAT horrible if you just run away from it, but it can deal some damage that piles up, together with the adds and such.

Oh, and I get a 404 error when trying to open the official site? :<

 

[Soul Reaver]

No, you misunderstood me. I meant to say that I didn't notice the purple fires on the ground before. The 'mass war stomp' always caught me by surprise, because I didn't understand what was causing it, or how to avoid it.

Ok, that's alright then.

Yeah, btw, about that... Any hints for avoiding it? I'm guessing it's the mass flame strike. Should I spread out or something when he casts it? The situation I usually end up in is that the fast heroes run forward, and avoid everything, whereas the slow heroes suck up all the damage. It's not THAT horrible if you just run away from it, but it can deal some damage that piles up, together with the adds and such.

Oh, and I get a 404 error when trying to open the official site? :<

Sorry, I wrote the URL incorrectly, it's fixed now.

To counter Funeral Pyre, I usually send one hero with a stun-inducing ability straight at the boss (either Sera, with Arrow Storm and naturally fast movement speed, or Soul Reaver, with Darkbolt Barrage and Iron Will-enhanced movement speed) and order them to cast the appropriate spell to stun him and interrupt the Funeral Pyre spell. The rest of the heroes I tend to keep together and move more slowly toward the boss in a different direction, microing them to avoid the emerging flame pillars as best I can. While scattering the heroes might seem to make sense, I find it's almost impossible to keep them far enough apart and micro them all effectively. You will take some damage (and yes, it'll typically be your slower characters) but if you have them all together so you can keep an eye on them and keep moving it should remain relatively low.

 

[Shaddowww]

I have very strange feelings about this game.
On one hand, if someone would ask how I feel about this game while I was killing Kathryn or (god help him) Morganem I would probably said that I hate it! It was as hard as hell! Some place I was even forced to play on medium (taking Kitharsis to the camp/ beating Kathryn and Morganem battle) and still most of the time was spending looking at the loading screen.
On the other hand, when I finally beated it - I LOVE IT! Superb work worth more than 5/5! Great animations, interesting story, intense battles, perfect balancing! And of course an achievement of beating one of the hardest game I ever played!
Great job, Soul Reaver!

 

[Soul Reaver]

I have very strange feelings about this game.
On one hand, if someone would ask how I feel about this game while I was killing Kathryn or (god help him) Morganem I would probably said that I hate it! It was as hard as hell! Some place I was even forced to play on medium (taking Kitharsis to the camp/ beating Kathryn and Morganem battle) and still most of the time was spending looking at the loading screen.
On the other hand, when I finally beated it - I LOVE IT! Superb work worth more than 5/5! Great animations, interesting story, intense battles, perfect balancing! And of course an achievement of beating one of the hardest game I ever played!
Great job, Soul Reaver!

I know EXACTLY what you mean.

My favorite gaming moments have always been those where I was facing what seemed like horrific, or even impossible odds, but after an initial unforgiving learning curve, I finally and desperately manage to scrape through just by the skin of my teeth. Those victories have always felt the most satisfying and real, and that's precisely the reason why I made To the Bitter End so challenging.

I'm pleased you enjoyed it, and thank you!

 

[252542477]

hello,Soul Reaver,you made a great campaign.
however, i think you should improve the skin of characters next update especially Soul Reaver in the game .Current skin is not high quality in my view,this is the only flaw.

5 /5 anyway.

 

[Eternal_hmm]

Picked this up after reading a thread on good campaigns.

Gameplay was generally superb, although bordering on impossible for bad players like me ocassionally. I had a few fights I just had to tone down the difficulty, but I don't mind since generally I am looking for a decent story.

My complaint about this is the story, mostly the presentation and lack of exposition throughout all these maps. It's mostly done in a hurry, while hardly ever taking the time to flesh out every character properly. While I understand the creator might have avoided this, to prevent long cutscenes that seemingly drag on forever. It creates a few problems, particularly in the chemistry between antagonists.There's any scenes whatsoever between the antagonists, which imo cheapens effect when you finally arrive to seal the deal. Morganem is seen once at the beginning and then he isn't present until the final map.....

The content of the story actually has a lot of depth though, even if the heroes tend to lean a bit too much on absolute justice from time to time. I just think it could have been something really memorable if the creator took some time to expand the story a few places. Mostly from the villains perspective, since that segment felt very rushed to me.

Everything else though, I really had no issue with. Fantastic job..

PS: Yes I did read the manual on the website. It added a lot to the setting.

 

[Altony]

I just can't describe it with any words... It is such a grandeur. I will absolutely rate it as 5!

 

[Soul Reaver]

hello,Soul Reaver,you made a great campaign.
however, i think you should improve the skin of characters next update especially Soul Reaver in the game .Current skin is not high quality in my view,this is the only flaw.

5 /5 anyway.

Thanks for the feedback. I'm not sure I'll be able to improve the skins much - they look pretty accurate as to how the characters are supposed to look at the moment, and besides, I'm not sure I have the 2D artistry to improve it much beyond what they're like at the moment. I might give it a try, but I don't want to make any promises.

Picked this up after reading a thread on good campaigns.

Gameplay was generally superb, although bordering on impossible for bad players like me ocassionally. I had a few fights I just had to tone down the difficulty, but I don't mind since generally I am looking for a decent story.

My complaint about this is the story, mostly the presentation and lack of exposition throughout all these maps. It's mostly done in a hurry, while hardly ever taking the time to flesh out every character properly. While I understand the creator might have avoided this, to prevent long cutscenes that seemingly drag on forever. It creates a few problems, particularly in the chemistry between antagonists.There's any scenes whatsoever between the antagonists, which imo cheapens effect when you finally arrive to seal the deal. Morganem is seen once at the beginning and then he isn't present until the final map.....

The content of the story actually has a lot of depth though, even if the heroes tend to lean a bit too much on absolute justice from time to time. I just think it could have been something really memorable if the creator took some time to expand the story a few places. Mostly from the villains perspective, since that segment felt very rushed to me.

Everything else though, I really had no issue with. Fantastic job..

PS: Yes I did read the manual on the website. It added a lot to the setting.

Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed the game! I sent you a PM with some further explanations regarding some of my storytelling choices, which I hope you'll find interesting - I avoided posting it here because it's pretty long and has some spoilers.

I just can't describe it with any words... It is such a grandeur. I will absolutely rate it as 5!

Thank you Altony! I'm very pleased you enjoyed it!

 

[PA3OPx2]

Nice work rly. But you should mby get some more chunks of the story in game play, how they got their magic items etc. And you could fix two things i noticed,
1: Fix Tree collision in 3d chapter
2: And rebalance chapter 4 its to hard.
But nice work i apriciete the effort!

 

[Soul Reaver]

Nice work rly. But you should mby get some more chunks of the story in game play, how they got their magic items etc. And you could fix two things i noticed,
1: Fix Tree collision in 3d chapter
2: And rebalance chapter 4 its to hard.
But nice work i apriciete the effort!

The backstory of many of the characters quite literally are thousands of years long, and they've travelled together for a long time already prior to their adventure in To the Bitter End. It would seem strange and forced for them to explain this stuff to each other (or indeed, anyone else) unless such an explanation was actually necessary for some reason - better to leave it out than to shoehorn it in just for the sake of completeness. They're focussed on a mission - they have more urgent concerns than reminiscing.

Regarding your two suggestions:

1) I can't easily do anything about this unfortuantely. Warcraft III's pathing doesn't handle large (particularly allied) units very well - this is a Warcraft III thing, not a 'To the Bitter End' thing. Reducing the collision size a little may slightly lessen the problem, but would also make the treemen crowd together (which affects gameplay too, since it makes them more vulnerable to AoE attacks) and if reduced too much, may cause the large models to 'pass through' each other.

2) Chapter IV only seems particularly hard at first. I've revisited it later and, while it is difficult, it's not more so than numerous other later Chapters. Chapter IV is where the difficulty first spikes up and really forces you to use everything at your disposal to win. I also like how hard it is compared to the previous Chapters - it's a great introduction to the nightmarish Void Children.

 

[warcraft321]

Not working

I've downloaded it three times now and it still wont work. I hit play and I end up on the screen with prologue and ch1 and i clicked them, but my screen goes black then back to the screen with prologue.

 

[Soul Reaver]

I've downloaded it three times now and it still wont work. I hit play and I end up on the screen with prologue and ch1 and i clicked them, but my screen goes black then back to the screen with prologue.

What you're describing is usually what happens when someone tries to run TTBE without having the latest patch for Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne installed.

You can get the latest patch at: http://us.battle.net/support/en/article/warcraft-iii-patch-downloads

Try installing that, then try running To the Bitter End again. If you still have issues, feel free to email or PM me.

 

[akqpars]

I played your campaign long ago but with the latest patch i gave it a go again yesterday.

I wish we had the opportunity to see another project based on the antagonists to comprehend us their inner relations and feel the story beforehand. The project has an esoteric aura that is imprinted in my hearth.

Best wishes for you.

 

[Wummy]

This is ONE HELL OF A WELL CREATED MAP! The storyline is fascinating, and the cinematics are truly well made. This is one map that no, absolutely NO Warcraft 3 players should miss out on. Thank you very much for creating such an awesome map for us to play!

 

[TheDreadlord]

Well well, what do we have here ?...
A real masterpiece !I've played several other custom campaigns but having enough experience in WcIII mapping and programming, i was often disappointed after playing them, especially because of lack of imagination and gameplay which includes creative and various spells, abilities, items and so on.
So in your campaign i found all i've been seeking for a long time,loved the spells and abilities, items, awsome cinematics, well tought storyline, good discussions...
Though, the only negative side that i maybe reproach is that the difficulty is a bit exagerated in some, if not most chapters, and it becomes sometimes discouraging to continue but after a pause it passes and i pursued the game.
In the whole, I really really reaaaaaally have enjoyed your maps and it's been a great gaming experience so thank you for making such entertainment by putting great efforts on it. Here's a 5 stars for your project

 

[DarkOscuridad]

You're amazing! To the Bitter End is the first best campaign of Warcraft I played

 

[Eagle XI]

My favorite gaming moments have always been those where I was facing what seemed like horrific, or even impossible odds, but after an initial unforgiving learning curve, I finally and desperately manage to scrape through just by the skin of my teeth. Those victories have always felt the most satisfying and real, and that's precisely the reason why I made To the Bitter End so challenging.

Exactly! I cant count you how many times i had to load, different curses ive thrown in several tongues, the time being a bitch flowing away like crazy and believe me ive been overly confident with that after all these cakewalk difficulty today's RPG's. Ive found your campaign and it effected on me like medicine when ive finished in the end i felt that "Ive finished this game,hellyeah!" haze again after such a long time. I mean was so good to feel that again, THANK YOU !

I especially appreciated the usage of unique evil characters,each of them are badass. It was amazing to play something different than the 2 out of 3 times 'Tank(preferrably Paladin),Wizard,Ranger-dps an healing dude(optional) and some other not so necessary dudes' type of group. Main characters nuke skill,Ranger's arrow barrage skill and Psychic Onslaught is awesome. Every character has its functions. That you have not used the popular nowadays 'staple pots/grind some gears and were good to go' type of gameplay was also much appreciated. Its obvious your an veteran Rpg'er by alone how strongly the entire construction is holding together,thanks again for creating this campaign.

Btw: Musics are all classy
Btw2: The act where you have to "line defense" (the one with the kingdom defense) has the potential to become a sucessfull D-day style map on its own.

 

[Soul Reaver]

Thanks akqpars, Wummy, TheDreadlord, DarkOscuridad and Eagle XI for all your great comments. I find it deeply rewarding to hear that you all enjoyed the Campaign.

 

[Warhawx]

help i dont know if this is the right place to post this but, in to the bitter end and a lot of different custom campaigns the loading screen where you choose the chapter loads but once i select a chapter the screen just goes black and nothing loads, i cant find help for it anywhere!!!!

Im really excited to play it, someoen help lol

 

[Soul Reaver]

help i dont know if this is the right place to post this but, in to the bitter end and a lot of different custom campaigns the loading screen where you choose the chapter loads but once i select a chapter the screen just goes black and nothing loads, i cant find help for it anywhere!!!!

Im really excited to play it, someoen help lol

I think this I already answered this same query for poster warcraft321 above, but here it is again:

What you're describing is usually what happens when someone tries to run TTBE without having the latest patch for Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne installed.

You can get the latest patch at: http://us.battle.net/support/en/arti...atch-downloads

Try installing that, then try running To the Bitter End again. If you still have issues, feel free to email or PM me.

 

[suiseseki]

The best campaign i have ever played. The story is so epic. I feel like this can be made into an actual RPG.
just one little suggestion... i care more about the look of the game, so i kinda expect diverse loading screens. I really really love the cover picture, so maybe some additional pictures can replace the same red vortex for every stage.
5/5

 

[Soul Reaver]

The best campaign i have ever played. The story is so epic. I feel like this can be made into an actual RPG.
just one little suggestion... i care more about the look of the game, so i kinda expect diverse loading screens. I really really love the cover picture, so maybe some additional pictures can replace the same red vortex for every stage.
5/5

Thanks suiseseki, I'm really happy you enjoyed it.

Your suggestion is fair enough, and personally I'd love to see Chapter-appropriate art before each Chapter, but I'm afraid it's something I can't really do. Although I did pretty much everything else in To the Bitter End, an artist called Stephen Cousins donated a lot of his time and effort to make the title screen art for me.

I don't think it's fair of me to ask Stephen Cousins to produce art for each of the Chapter transitions for free (since he's certainly talented enough to work for pay), and as I make no money off To the Bitter End, I've made it my policy not to spend money on it either.

As for my own art skills... well, I don't think they're up to the standard required to do the Chapter transitions justice.

That said, if an artist with the right sort of art style volunteered to do this for me, I would accept in a heartbeat.

 

[Map Designer]

The best and The Worst

I do not want to disappoint you. If you can bear criticism, you may read this post.

The best thing in this campaign: the prologue is so fantastic, especially with the Music. The music in all the game is fascinating and perfectly fits: it is much better than Blizzards', with respect.
A'a
ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT TO READ THIS?!!!!!!! YOU MUST BE TOLERANT AND JUST ACCEPT OTHER'S OPINION
The worst point : the campaign is hard, too hard to play. could you not make it a little easier and finishable. I did not not finish it without using "Whosyourdaddy" code. I wanted to play it for fun, not to stress myself with you-cannot-win-this game.

 

[Soul Reaver]

I do not want to disappoint you. If you can bear criticism, you may read this post.

The best thing in this campaign: the prologue is so fantastic, especially with the Music. The music in all the game is fascinating and perfectly fits: it is much better than Blizzards', with respect.
A'a
ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT TO READ THIS?!!!!!!! YOU MUST BE TOLERANT AND JUST ACCEPT OTHER'S OPINION
The worst point : the campaign is hard, too hard to play. could you not make it a little easier and finishable. I did not not finish it without using "Whosyourdaddy" code. I wanted to play it for fun, not to stress myself with you-cannot-win-this game.

I understand your comment, and I'm not insulted or disappointed by it. To the Bitter End was never supposed to be a game for a quick, casual, relaxing play. It's designed to be gruelling and difficult, and that's actually one of its 'features'. If you're not looking for a tough game, then I don't recommend playing To the Bitter End.

There was actually an interesting discussion about how the challenge makes victory more rewarding - see Eagle XI's comment a page back to see what I mean.

That said, the game really can be completed without cheating, and a number of people have done so (one person finished Chapters I-VII without even saving, though I certainly don't recommend trying that. ). The learning curve is steep, but with some experience, trial and error, and fast thinking, it becomes possible to get through most parts of the game consistently without ever having to reload a save.

Incidentally, you can reduce the difficulty too if you like - just type in "easy" in the in-game chat, and enemies will have reduced HP in the current Chapter. The reduction isn't huge, and the game will still be hard, but it'll slant things a bit more in your favour.

 

[Sotnikoff]

Good map. 92/100

 

[xulufriedrice]

This campaign is amazing. Will there be a possibility of seeing a multiplayer version of this?

 

[Map Designer]

further suggestions

The storyline is fascinating, and the cinematics are truly well made. This is one map that no, absolutely NO Warcraft 3 players should miss out on. Thank you very much for creating such an awesome map for us to play!

If you're not looking for a tough game, then I don't recommend playing To the Bitter End.

What did you say?

any way, the music and story line is very good: it makes it worth it.
Here are some suggestions:

1- You should change many hotkeys so that they be near each other. It is hard to click the "w" then "i": they are way too far. I would prefer that be near the left hand. You may want to consider making for both right and left handed people but I think it is hard to use the tab(to switch between the heroes selected) and the right-hand hotkeys.

2-I want you to change fix the ability of Soul Reaver. his animation appears to be too slow to me. He cannot cast it then run, especially in the first levels: he is casting the spell just as long as they are stunned. Also, spell interruption appears buggy to me. Sometimes I interrupt his animation and thus he wont stun; but if I interrupted a little later(0.n seconds) , I will have the stun( the full stun I think). I bet you should experimient to figure out what I say.

 

[Soul Reaver]

This is ONE HELL OF A WELL CREATED MAP! The storyline is fascinating, and the cinematics are truly well made. This is one map that no, absolutely NO Warcraft 3 players should miss out on. Thank you very much for creating such an awesome map for us to play!

If you're not looking for a tough game, then I don't recommend playing To the Bitter End.

What did you say?

That first quote is from Wummy (not me). While I'm glad Wummy enjoyed To the Bitter End enough to recommend it so highly, I nonetheless doubt that ANY game can please everyone. People who only enjoy multiplayer will get little mileage out of TTBE, since it's single-player only. Simiarly, people who don't enjoy difficult games will likely not enjoy TTBE all that much, because it is very hard.

any way, the music and story line is very good: it makes it worth it.
Here are some suggestions:

1- You should change many hotkeys so that they be near each other. It is hard to click the "w" then "i": they are way too far. I would prefer that be near the left hand. You may want to consider making for both right and left handed people but I think it is hard to use the tab(to switch between the heroes selected) and the right-hand hotkeys.

2-I want you to change fix the ability of Soul Reaver. his animation appears to be too slow to me. He cannot cast it then run, especially in the first levels: he is casting the spell just as long as they are stunned. Also, spell interruption appears buggy to me. Sometimes I interrupt his animation and thus he wont stun; but if I interrupted a little later(0.n seconds) , I will have the stun( the full stun I think). I bet you should experimient to figure out what I say.

Thanks for the feedback and recommendations.

1) I've actually been planning a change to the hotkeys already (and pretty much to what you suggested). However, TTBE version 1.02 will also include quite a bit of 'cleaning up' in the triggers, which is quite tedious/time consuming. In addition, I'm taking a break from TTBE to catch up on my gaming, so I'm only occasionally taking time to work on it. So it might be a little while before version 1.02 is finished. Once it is though, the hotkeys will likely have been rearranged.

2) I assume you mean Soul Reaver's Darkbolt Barrage ability? Unfortunately how much this can be 'fixed' is limited. Darkbolt Barrage is based on the ability Cluster Rockets, and Cluster Rockets has a sort of casting delay hardcoded in (see below). Cluster Rockets in general is an odd ability with a lot of strange quirks.

The way Darkbolt Barrage/Cluster Rockets works is that it delivers a number of 'shots', seperated by a certain time period (these shots are not tied to the number of visual projectiles it fires). From memory, Darkbolt Barrage fires a total of 4 shots, with one shot hitting every 0.25 seconds. The caster has to be standing still while the shots are fired. If you move before one of the 'shots' impacts on the target, then that shot (and any following it) is cancelled and won't hit (which is why the ability does nothing at all if you move away immediately). It takes only one 'hit' to initiate the ability's stun effect, but to cause full damage, you need to stay still until all shots have hit their target. Thus, while you can move away after only 0.25 seconds and still get the stun effect, you'll only be inflicting 25% of the total damage.

While I could change the way the ability works (do deliver one full damage hit at just 0.25 second, say) I don't necessarily see the delays as a failing though - it's just part of the balance, and Soul Reaver's inability to move while casting Darkbolt Barrage is part of the cost of casting it. You can choose to stay where you are and do full damage, or move away early to inflict the stun but only partial damage - it's the player's choice. But pretty much all abilities are largely useless at low levels, so its lack of utility at low levels isn't really surprising. It's definitely a lot better at Level 10.

 

[Soul Reaver]

This campaign is amazing. Will there be a possibility of seeing a multiplayer version of this?

Sorry, didn't see this comment before!

I'm very glad to hear you enjoyed the campaign. Unfortunately though, I don't have any plans to make TTBE multiplayer. For one thing, it would be a massive amount of work. But more to the point, it's not really designed or balanced as a multiplayer game either. In most battles, the amount of coordination required between the heroes is very high, which would make the game extremely difficult to win with multiple players controlling them.

Lastly, the maps are simply too large (in terms of filesize) to be supported in multiplayer - the only way to make them work in multiplayer would be to excise some of the content (such as some of the music, possibly even some of the other custom content) and I'm not keen to do that.

 

[RanchBurner]

I have to agree with the awesome soundtrack. I searched for "Welcome Within" by Godsmack, but I couldn't find where to download that song. Unless there was a misprint. I prefer to use "legalsounds" because I can buy single songs for less than a dime each.

 

[Soul Reaver]

I have to agree with the awesome soundtrack. I searched for "Welcome Within" by Godsmack, but I couldn't find where to download that song. Unless there was a misprint. I prefer to use "legalsounds" because I can buy single songs for less than a dime each.

"Welcome Within" is the menu music for "Prince of Persia: The Warrior Within" (and the music for that game, for better or worse, is composed by Godsmack). See http://www.soundtrackcollector.com/title/74416/Prince+Of+Persia:+Warrior+Within for a link that includes a song list for the "Warrior Within" soundtrack, but I'm not sure if it's available via 'legalsounds'

You can find an extended version of "Welcome Within" on youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7tr4hVY7Ig

 

[Map Designer]

Thanks for the feedback and recommendations.



2) I assume you mean Soul Reaver's Darkbolt Barrage ability? Unfortunately how much this can be 'fixed' is limited. Darkbolt Barrage is based on the ability Cluster Rockets, and Cluster Rockets has a sort of casting delay hardcoded in (see below). Cluster Rockets in general is an odd ability with a lot of strange quirks.

The way Darkbolt Barrage/Cluster Rockets works is that it delivers a number of 'shots', seperated by a certain time period (these shots are not tied to the number of visual projectiles it fires). From memory, Darkbolt Barrage fires a total of 4 shots, with one shot hitting every 0.25 seconds. The caster has to be standing still while the shots are fired. If you move before one of the 'shots' impacts on the target, then that shot (and any following it) is cancelled and won't hit (which is why the ability does nothing at all if you move away immediately). It takes only one 'hit' to initiate the ability's stun effect, but to cause full damage, you need to stay still until all shots have hit their target. Thus, while you can move away after only 0.25 seconds and still get the stun effect, you'll only be inflicting 25% of the total damage.

Almost correct assumption. I mean that ability particularly, but I also mean all your (you are the Soul Reaver, haha) spell animations, a bit slow they are.