[Campaign] Totem Tribe: Warcraft Edition

[The Nightmare Book]

TOTEM TRIBE: WARCRAFT EDITION

"Help Jun'tar, young troll chieftain of Saltwater Tribe, achieve his sacred destiny."

OVERVIEW

A single-player custom campaign in the RTS/RPG/Puzzle genre, featuring a loose recreation of an unusual game of the past - "Totem Tribe".
The campaign will feature all missions from the "Totem Tribe Gold" game, including secret ones and Great Desert-Egypt lookalike levels. But all will be done according to the lore of World of Warcraft.

Inspired not only by the game itself but many other campaigns like Lost Guardian, Troll Campaign, and Dwarf Campaigns, "Totem Tribe" will feature different scenarios to test your skills and courage, along with your perplexity and wisdom.

STORY

"Azeroth is home to dozens of races and landscapes. Among the others proudly stand a race with the story, full of rises and falls - Trolls.
Trolls feature many different tribes: from bloodthirsty Hakkari up to majestical Zandalari, but today the center of our stage will take the Saltwater Tribe.

Scattered across different isles in the Great Sea, chieftains of their kin rule kindly and in peace. But it was shattered by an unusual event - the fallen star.
You are Jun'tar, son of mighty Jan'gar, a newly sworn chieftain of the tribe. It is your task to expose the secret of Fallen Star and lead your tribe to prosperity.
Or more."

NOTABLE CHARACTERS

• 
  THE CHIEFTAIN

"Jun'tar shouldn't become a chieftain at such a young age. He wasn't properly trained by his father, Jan'gar, to follow in his footsteps and tackle everyday tribe affairs. Heck, everything shouldn't - but here we are. His father died in a hunting accident on one of the remote islands, and now Jun'tar rules the Saltwater Tribe.
For now, he hasn't encountered any issues with his peace-loving tribe, but will such things remain in the foreseeable future?"

• 
  THE HEXXER

"Mysterious Hexxer from Waterstrife Isle, Jun'tar did not know anything valuable about him - only rumors of his "connection to Da Other Side" or "he faced death twice, no thrice and still lives". His father knew this old troll better, but where is father now?..
It seems that the fates of Youngling and Hexxer will cross sooner than they both expected."

• 
  THE TAMER

"Izra - as Jun'tar will learn - loves raptors and the wilds of her home isle. She cannot ride a raptor due to childhood trauma, which saddens her, but her mojo seems to be dependent on such creatures. But Izra believes that one day she will see more lands than her own, and tame different beasts than raptors. She holds a vision about islands with primal dinosaurs, but is it reality or a blatant dream?"

And there is more than meets the eye...

FEATURES

LET SPIRITS GUIDE YOU
Saltwater Tribe is blessed by Loa. Living in a de facto paradise and with the benevolence of their gods, their kind is BLESSED BY LOA - a powerful otherworldly being, capable of wonders and justice.
No resources are wasted - only time, and you can boost it with your Harvesters' help!

JEWEL-FULL JOURNEY AWAIT
Travel through the Great Sea and its numerous islands and isles, featuring 10+ different scenarios to explore.
Collect gems through each chapter to get the blessing from one specifically interested Loa.

NEW ENEMIES, NEW FRIENDS
Beware - if you want peace, then you must be ready to fight for it.
Meet different enemies: some are small and petty, and some - numerous and deadly.
But don't panic - this journey holds not only enemies, but dozens of new friends to meet!

UNLEASH THE HIDDEN TREASURES
Prepare to test your mind, as many islands of the Great Sea contain ancient and forgotten places, full of relics with unimaginable powers.
Each relic will help You and Your Tribe, but can you find them all?

...AND FIND OUT THE TRUTH OF FALLEN STAR!

PROGRESS

Chapter 1 - "The Fallen Shard" - Completed
Chapter 2 - "The Hexxer" - Completed
Chapter 3 - "The Idol of Torga" - Completed
Chapter 4 - "Oh, nay - Raptors!" - 35%
Interlude - "The Isle of Giants" - 15%
Chapter 5 - "On Flight With Pa'ku" - TBA

CREDITS

MODEL CREDITS	ICON CREDITS	MISCELLANEOUS CREDITS	SPECIAL THANKS	DEVELOPMENT DIARIES
Troll Priestess by tillinghast Vol'jin (Re-Classic) by johnwar Witch Doctor Hero (Sen'jin) by loktar	Troll Priestess Icon by Aldea Vol'jin (Re-Classic) by johnwar Witch Doctor Hero (Sen'jin) by loktar	Totem Tribe, original game & Totem Tribe GOLD, by Enkord Wardruna; Kladvia Petrivna; Meiso - for Wow Classic SFX Bob Ross - for inspiration to do painting, Rest in Peace! HushBook - myself for not be lazy and replaying that game again	Parents; HIVEWORKSHOP site; HIVEWORKSHOP discord; XGM.GURU site; XGM.GURU discord.	01/01/2025 "Turtle Made Into The Water" 03/01/2025 "We In Warcraft 3, Folks"

MEDIA

VIDEO

I'd appreciate any bug reports, suggestions and tips!
Write down them here!

 

[tillinghast]

• Troll Priestess by tillinghast

Aldeia made the icon

 

[deepstrasz]

Don't want to be rude or anything, but don't you think it would be a good idea to finish the ones your started? I understand if you could work on 2, perhaps 3 but now you're at the fourth and I foresee continuing the trend which has a high probability of little to no results.

 

[The Nightmare Book]

Don't want to be rude or anything, but don't you think it would be a good idea to finish the ones your started? I understand if you could work on 2, perhaps 3 but now you're at the fourth and I foresee continuing the trend which has a high probability of little to no results.

Actually, I’ve been working on more projects than I’ve publicly announced on HIVE.

You’re right—this year, I’ve announced several different projects, and I’d describe that as being a bit “hot-headed”: I got inspired, worked on them for a while, and sometimes lost interest for various reasons. It’s easy to lose focus when IRL challenges arise (especially with the ongoing war in Ukraine), or when issues like Blizzard breaking something derail progress. In hindsight, I also think I announced some of these projects earlier than I should have.

That said, for all my “announced projects” (except for the Circle of Life, Darrowshire got an update anyway), I’ve released at least demo previews—so there’s something tangible to show for them.

At the moment, I don’t feel pressured to deliver news or updates on a strict schedule. I’ve tried doing weekly updates in the past, but that was hard to maintain. Right now, I’m working through my creative block and focusing on achieving results at my own pace. While I haven’t been able to fully release new projects as often as I’d like, I’ve found more success in updating and refining my existing ones. I’m also experimenting by combining and reworking showcased ideas into smaller “pet projects.”

Sometimes, stepping away from a project helps me avoid burnout and gives me the fresh perspective needed to return to it later with renewed energy.

Ultimately, I’m just doing what I can, enjoying the process, and letting creativity guide me. Thank you so much for caring about the outcome of my work—it truly means a lot.

 

[deepstrasz]

Is there a download link I'm not seeing since you ask for bug reports?

 

[The Nightmare Book]

Is there a download link I'm not seeing since you ask for bug reports?

For Totem Tribe - currently nothing to test, for now.
It's in case when I eventually release it, I will appreciate any sort of feedback you would give me.

 

[The Nightmare Book]

In the case of the first small development diary I want to share some essential gameplay information, that you will notice by yourself during, well, gameplay, but to prevent "If I only knew that before!"-like situations.
Here we are, hot 7 points 'Why Totem Tribe is Different in Warcraft 3':

1. There is no automated training of units like in the original Totem Tribe. I want to give you more control over gameplay.
2. But there would be a unit limit, along with food. To build more footmen - please build more barracks. However this is subject to change, I will gladly read your opinion about the unit limit;
3. You don't use any sort of gold or lumber to build/train your structures/units. At all. You waste only your time, but thanks to that you have 1 builder. Builder is invincible but can build only 1 structure at the same time, which could take a lot of your time.
4. But I said 1 builder, not a worker. Yes, your "farm" building will train your workers and they will gradually boost your building! All workers can automatically assist the builder with building - what do you think about that?
5. Your heroes won't resurrect. Even worse - losing a hero will result in defeat! To make things even worse - heroes will have cool stuff for battles to use!
6. Unlike the original Totem Tribe, in the current design flow, I wouldn't allow You to visit completed islands. It's sad news for all fans, but I will try to compensate for it with interesting puzzles and side quests.
7. And for the last point - resources. Your gold is gems and are transferred through chapters - you need to collect all gems to access some sort of hidden level, like in the original game; your lumber is Mojo and it's usage I will reveal in the coming future.

...And that's all for today, folks. The image is from Chapter 3, where you will meet some tortollans - Always wanted to include these folk in the campaign.
For the ending, I will say next:

Spoiler: A Turtle Made Into The Water!

 

[The Nightmare Book]

@The Nightmare Book:
In the case of the first small development diary I want to share some essential gameplay information, that you will notice by yourself during, well, gameplay, but to prevent "If I only knew that before!"-like situations.
Here we are, hot 7 points 'Why Totem Tribe is Different in Warcraft 3':

Before I charge into the next development diary (next time, friends), I have some design questions for you - and I would gladly read your opinion about those.

FOOD OR UNIT LIMIT?
In the original "Totem Tribe" game you don't have food or any resources at all. You are limited by buildable places on the map and each building has a limited amount of units it can train/retrain. Since I'm already standing myself aside from automatically unit training, I'm looking forward to using food instead of unit limit, thus it will be closer to the classical gameplay style.

BUILDING & ORDER?
Honestly, I'm lazy about recreating such a strange system with a lot of flaws. So, after a couple of tests, I decided to retain the classic WC3 building style, yet everything is free to build.
Group control will be similar to the classical gameplay style, as in the original game, we couldn't control units separately.

Oh, and in the sake of "Soon (c)" - the first playable version will have 3 first islands at full.
But I think that it won't be released soon. It's sad but true.

Until next time, ciao.

 

[The Nightmare Book]

News!

So long has passed since the last message here, but I can swear - "Totem Tribe" lives and marches on.
By current date, 06.04.2025, we have:

• Finished Chapter 1, featuring all required mechanics, story, and so on;
• Working on chapter 2, which will be a close recreation of the original Mushroom Island, but with some difficulty and gameplay quirks!
• Working over chapter 3, which will feature the second important half of Totem Tribe - puzzle-solving.

I can say that the first 3 islands will be released soon for playtesting. Note that this version will not include cinematics - the only thing that will be lacking, yeah.

That's all, folks.

Until next time, ciao.

 

[The Nightmare Book]

News!

So long has passed since the last message here, but I can swear - "Totem Tribe" lives and marches on.
By current date, 06.04.2025, we have:

• Finished Chapter 1, featuring all required mechanics, story, and so on;
• Working on chapter 2, which will be a close recreation of the original Mushroom Island, but with some difficulty and gameplay quirks!
• Working over chapter 3, which will feature the second important half of Totem Tribe - puzzle-solving.

I can say that the first 3 islands will be released soon for playtesting. Note that this version will not include cinematics - the only thing that will be lacking, yeah.

That's all, folks.

Until next time, ciao.

...And here we are, the first demo of the "Totem Tribe" campaign!

• Playable on Classic SD and Classic HD, but for latter one I cannot guarantee proper support.
• Contains the first 3 chapters of the campaign.
• No cinematics.
• Everything, from content to enemy positions, is subject to change.

Looking forward to seeing your impressions, suggestions, tips, and bug reports!

 

[The Nightmare Book]

...And here we are, the first demo of the "Totem Tribe" campaign!

• Playable on Classic SD and Classic HD, but for latter one I cannot guarantee proper support.
• Contains the first 3 chapters of the campaign.
• No cinematics.
• Everything, from content to enemy positions, is subject to change.

Looking forward to seeing your impressions, suggestions, tips, and bug reports!

...And I have done a little video showcase for completed missions, featuring mission 1 in one video and mission 2 in the following one.

Edit:
Chapter 2:

Edit:
Chapter 3!

 

[The Nightmare Book]

Decided to implement a new campaign preview screen and campaign background:

What do you think?

 

[LongbowMan]

I love how the troll buildings look. Very clever use of textures, nice level of detail - and at the same time, they blend seamlessly into oldschool aesthetics, like they were always there! My ony suggestion would be to make the basements of small buildings look more natural, some of them are a bit too edgy, especially those hexagons under Huts.

 

[The Nightmare Book]

I love how the troll buildings look. Very clever use of textures, nice level of detail - and at the same time, they blend seamlessly into oldschool aesthetics, like they were always there! My ony suggestion would be to make the basements of small buildings look more natural, some of them are a bit too edgy, especially those hexagons under Huts.

Thank you, but for models, you should truly thank @frostwhisper, since I merely used models that he had published - check his Troll Campaign too!
For now, I'm trying to hide some visibility problems witha specific landscape design.

 

[The Nightmare Book]

File was UPDATED:
From now I will notify you by such a post.

• Added a new campaign loading screen & campaign preview screen.
• Fixed some issues with Vileroots in Chapter 1 - now they should try to stop you.
• Replaced all in-game music with music from WoW Cataclysm and WoW Vanilla, jungle troll themes.

In terms of content - currently nothing new, but if you encounter any issue with music playing weird or disappearing, anything else - please, don't hestitate and report them.
As always, I will gladly answer your questions, ideas, and appreciate any kind of review: from positive down to negative.

Cheers!

 

[The Nightmare Book]

When I began doing this silly little campaign, I wondered - how much of the original game I would reconstruct inside Warcraft 3? Sooner than later, I decided to abort some main mechanics like the tribe system and focus on a more casual, familiar RTS style...
And yet - I managed to recreate it in total (@Xetanth87 - thank you for your Tribe GUI System for inspiration), fully scripted on vJass and utilizing @Bribe's NewTable library for data management.

Currently, my "Totem Tribe Village System" allows me to do next:

• Fully autonomous village behavior: each villager has their own role (scout, builder, guard, fighter, etc.), roams near their homes, and follows their flags of what to do.
• Each villager has their own home (footman - barracks, for example), which has a limited amount of, let's say, "bedrooms". This amount CAN be increased in-game, similar to original game artifacts and special research. When you construct a building and have an "orphan" footman, the building will adopt them in priority BEFORE training new units.
• Added flag support: you can put your attack flag, and all fighters will go killing everything on their path until they reach the destination, where they will idle again. You can easily remove it, and all fighters will go home.
• Added Enemy AI: absent in the original game, now your AI Enemies utilize the same Village System, can plant their own attack flags on YOUR BASE, and send waves. They can RETREAT when they lose too many, or they feel "tired" due to no progression. It also supports dynamic alliance changes, meaning that now Totem Tribe can have base battles between you, your AI Ally, and your enemy AI's!

All of that is configurable easily for me.
Take a look at this video showcase of this system. It may look bland, but it's just a matter of flashy SFX and flavor texts

I've already tested this system in developed chapters, and honestly, now it feels right.

For now, I aim to complete a few more chapters someday and release them as "Act 1" of this campaign.
When will it be?
"It will be done when it's done".

Until then. Cheers!

 

[The Nightmare Book]

For now, I aim to complete a few more chapters someday and release them as "Act 1" of this campaign.
When will it be?
"It will be done when it's done".

And I'm still standing by those words. Although I want YOU to test the first 3 missions with the new system, and shortly after the last message, it seems I have finished proper implementation and testing.
Take a look for yourself!

It contains the same first three playable missions, but with new gameplay mechanics, new AI, and some tweaks.
If you encounter any issues, have any propositions/suggestions, or want to leave your impression, don't be shy, leave it down here, in this thread.

Until then. Cheers!