[Campaign] Troll Campaign

[Gyrosphinx]

More trolls is always a good thing... I think...

 

[frostwhisper]

Update: Map 2 progresses steadily. So far it contains both micro missions like the first map and macro objectives. The following is a preview of the main hero you'll be playing as in the second chapter:

Rendar Kan is a Gurubashi Enforcer - a fearsome warrior charged with protecting the tribe's territory and interests. Along with his company of Ravagers, Rendar ensures the Gurubashi's influence over the smaller jungle troll tribes is on par with that of the Zandalari King himself. Above all the Enforcer enjoys the rush of battle, and often seeks to provoke strangers and tribemates alike to a fight. Those foolish enough to accept such challenges rarely survive Rendar's twin blades.

Rendar's abilities focus on his physical prowess and deadly weapon proficiency. All active abilities deal physical damage and can target enemies with magic immunity.

Starting ability: Mortal Wound (Passive)

Spoiler

Each time Rendar attacks an enemy, there is a 10% chance that he applies a Mortal Wound to the enemy he's attacking. A unit affected by Mortal Wound takes damage per second for a limited time. Rendar's other abilities benefit from targeting units affected by Mortal Wound.

Ability 1: Shockwave Slice (Active)

Spoiler

Rendar sends a powerful shockwave at an enemy unit, dealing damage that scales with his Agility to it and all enemies nearby. Applies Mortal Wound to the primary target. If Shockwave Slice's target is already affected by Mortal Wound the debuff is refreshed and Mortal Wound is applied to all enemies nearby. Each level of this ability increases the damage dealt.

Ability 2: Forged in Battle (Passive)

Spoiler

Each time Rendar attacks an enemy, his Strength and Agility are temporarily increased by 1. Each level of this ability increases the duration of the buff.

Ability 3: Lacerate (Active)

Spoiler

Rendar delivers a vicious blow to an enemy ground unit, dealing damage that scales with his Strength and applying Mortal Wound to the target. If Lacerate's target is already affected by Mortal Wound the damage is doubled and Lacerate's cooldown is reduced. Each level of this ability increases the damage dealt and the cooldown reduction bonus. At level 3, any unit affected by Mortal Wound targeted by Lacerate will explode on impact.

Ultimate: Into the Fray (Active)

Spoiler

Rendar instantly teleports to an enemy unit, dealing massive damage and applying Mortal Wound to all nearby enemies. Refreshes the cooldown of Rendar's other abilities.

​

I'm looking forward to showing you more previews of Map 2, the troll race, the new enemies and more.

 

[PROXY]

Yes! More updates. I love it. Looks great so far.

 

[Kyrbi0]

Great to hear of such progress. : )

The new Rendar looks neat (have always had a soft spot for Grendel's Manhunter model). The design seems really reminiscent of classic MOBA hero design, moreso than regular RTS heroes. Very synergistic & scale-y.

 

[frostwhisper]

Right on. Rendar is the one I'm intentionally taking in the MOBA direction with a very focused kit. Scaling with stats I think is a good way to represent a character who is very physical in nature.

It was thrilling to design a hero that is much more customized than the ones you play as in Map 1. It's also given me some amount of inspiration to revisit some of Oriss' skills in future updates.

 

[Explobomb]

Interesting and cool project, love trolls so really neat indeed!
Gonna play test this for sure.

 

[MogulKahn]

Great job. While I like his theme, I am not a big fun of MOBA-zation of spells and abilities. But that is just maybe me.

 

[Med. MapGuy]

As someone whose still working with an older versions of WCIII, what are the benefits on working with 1.29 for you as a campaign maker?

 

[frostwhisper]

When I actually started working on the first drafts of Map 1 I was still using a much older version (1.27 I believe).

When I decided to develop the project more seriously I upgraded to 1.29 because I saw that there were some much needed World Editor improvements in the patch. As for why I haven't upgraded further - it's partly because I've read about bugs in later patches (something I can't attest to but would rather not risk) but mainly because I've grown quite comfortable working on 1.29.

I was originally intending to stick to the latest version and upgrade with Reforged, but that didn't really turn out good - and for custom campaigns in particular.

 

[Med. MapGuy]

I haven't upgraded to 1.29 for some reason but I always thought 1.27 was the "most accessible" for players. That said, I can see how the increased unit caps for 1.29 make it possibly the best version of WCIII pre-Reforged for creating custom campaigns... Thanks for the insight!

 

[frostwhisper]

Accessibility for sure factored in my decision not to ugrade further.

 

[Kyrbi0]

I haven't upgraded to 1.29 for some reason but I always thought 1.27 was the "most accessible" for players. That said, I can see how the increased unit caps for 1.29 make it possibly the best version of WCIII pre-Reforged for creating custom campaigns... Thanks for the insight!

v1.26 is where it's at. ; )

 

[frostwhisper]

Here are a the first previews from the terrain on Map 2.

A large portion of the story will revolve around a troll fortress.
Think of it as a mixture of quest hub and base-building.

Spoiler: Entrance

Spoiler: Bridge

Spoiler: Quest Hub

As always, lots more to come, so stay tuned.

 

[stein123]

Beautiful

 

[Kyrbi0]

Gorgeous.

 

[lichao001486]

Good job.

 

[Med. MapGuy]

Refreshing to see a nice dense jungle temple setting. I wanna know what's in that barracks looking place!

 

[Hawkwing]

Thanks for sharing this on the beta site! It looks very cool. In the past, I repeatedly flirted with the idea of starting a project involving the Gurubashi and this brings back all those fun memories. The techtree looks cool and I love the models you've used. Often people fail to create a coherent palette of models but everything here really feels like it belongs in the same world and very much fits the style of Warcraft 3.

Small updates. Work on Map 2 is going slow, but steady.
In my spare time I've also been working on a main screen for the campaign missions. Here's a look of what I've got going so far:
View attachment 364355

I also think 3D selection screens add a lot and you've done a really great job with this one. I'm looking forward to seeing more!

 

[Kyrbi0]

...In the past, I repeatedly flirted with the idea of starting a project involving the Gurubashi ...

Not you too! :O

 

[Rayman90]

Played through a while ago. Very nice ! I legit had fun. GJ. Rly want to play future chapters.

An issue: When I encountered 1st big dinosaur, looks like I quickly sent my hero to attack it before the cinematic started. So in the cinematic my hero attacked the dinosaur and died, lol.

 

[Belifhet the 4th]

Just given it a try nice chilling music beautiful terrain and very fun overall, now just a random suggestion but have you fought about adding a totem to each hero representing a loa blessing unique to each one either in there skills menu or as an item, yes I'm ripping the idea from Rastakhan's Rumble from Hearthstone

 

[frostwhisper]

Have a look at the Zandalar soundtrack from WoW:BfA if you enjoyed the music. It is fantastic. I've been mixing a few tracks from it to match the feel of the areas and characters.

As for the Loa - they will be part of the story in a meaningful way and will be represented prominently in later stages of the techtree.

 

[frostwhisper]

I've begun working on the quests/triggering of Map 2.
The terrain framework is mostly there, it's the detailing that's missing from most areas so far. Here's a few more WIP screenshots of the level:

Batch5-1

• frostwhisper
• Feb 10, 2021

Batch5-2

• frostwhisper
• Feb 10, 2021
• 2

Batch5-3

• frostwhisper
• Feb 10, 2021
• 2

Over the last couple of weeks I've also done a lot of polishing on the techtree side of things, including but not limited to finalizing the available abilities and upgrades, tweaking the custom assets and creating new, befitting spell effects (all of which I'll be gradually uploading to the model database once Map 2 releases).

I'll be writing up a comprehensive preview of the techtree to replace the one in the OP soon, so keep an eye out. Lots more to come, and I can't wait to show you.

 

[Med. MapGuy]

Looking very good so far!

 

[superlich086]

The screenshots look beautiful and i like the direction of this campaign.

 

[frostwhisper]

Something a bit different today - a glimpse at the sinister Aqir's buildings.
Shoutout to @Retera for his wonderful Voidspawn pack that laid the groundwork and inspired the designs.

Aqir Buildings Preview 1

• frostwhisper
• Mar 8, 2021
• 2

 

[PROXY]

Permission to view the album is not there sadly.

 

[frostwhisper]

My bad, sorted.

 

[Stefan.K]

Something a bit different today - a glimpse at the sinister Aqir's buildings.
Shoutout to @Retera for his wonderful Voidspawn pack that laid the groundwork and inspired the designs.

Aqir Buildings Preview 1

• frostwhisper
• Mar 8, 2021
• 2

Those are looking awesome!

 

[Kyrbi0]

Dang, nasty. : )

 

[Retera]

Something a bit different today - a glimpse at the sinister Aqir's buildings.
Shoutout to @Retera for his wonderful Voidspawn pack that laid the groundwork and inspired the designs.

Aqir Buildings Preview 1

• frostwhisper
• Mar 8, 2021
• 2

I just remembered that I uploaded those assets and tagged them as open source! That's proof letting people modify what we create is a good thing. I think those models were mostly made from 2009-2011 and I sat on them all these years. It is easy for me to forget I ever created them.

 

[Lich134]

your first chapter is 48 mb, i don't care, as i all ways said(i don't care about the size only quality)
i'm pretty sure i gonna be one of the best campaigns ever made

 

[frostwhisper]

I've uploaded the latest version of the campaign in the OP.

Troll Campaign v1.1f Changelog

Chapter 1 - The Dark Stone
This should be considered the definitive version of Map 1.

• Oriss' basic abilities have been redesigned
• Venom Spray now leaves a damaging pool of poison behind
• Evasion is replaced by Serpent's Guile, applying debuffs (chance to miss, movement speed slow, attack speed slow) on attack
• Zan'do now has a custom voicepack
• Zan'do's armor corruption ability has been reduced from 3/4/5 to 1/2/4
• Xal'atath's critical strike chance reduced from 20% to 15%
• Xal'atath's critical strike damage reduced from 2x to 1.5x
• Branch of the Ancients damage bonus reduced from +8 to +2
• Hero experience is now capped at level 5
• Fixed several issues where floating text dialogue appears over the wrong unit or doesn't follow the speaker
• Forest Spirit floating text is now white to avoid a clash with the background
• The Devilsaur is now invulnerable
• The Devilsaur cutscene and dialogue have been updated
• Tree doodads at the grotto entrance are now invulnerable prior to the Jungle Trek quest completion
• Sapling creeps around the Forest Spirit are invunerable while neutral
• Added a Hearthstone ability to the Camp to avoid excessive backtracking during the Into the Unknown and Elemental Upheaval quests
• Oriss is now unable to enter the kobold cave without carrying the Blood Orb
• Minimap now pings dark stone location during the Into the Unknown quest
• Minimap now pings cave entrance during the Blood Harvest quest
• Minimap now pings dark stone location upon completion of the Blood Harvest quest
• The Void Revenant fight area is slightly larger
• The Void Revenant's abilities have been tweaked
• Some doodad models updated with higher quality versions
• Various updates to icons of abilities and items
• Optional Quest givers and units featuring possible dialogue now have graphical indicators matching the style of Map 2 and going forward
• Quest messages updated to match the style of Map 2 and going forward
• Various additional hints throughout the map
• Minor typos and tooltips amended

Chapter 2 - The Empty Fist
This version includes the as of yet unfinished version of Map 2. If you'd like to give the first few quests a go, keep in mind the triggering is not all there.

 

[Kyrbi0]

Excellent work!

• Zan'do now has a custom voicepack

 

[frostwhisper]

You'd be surprised how fitting some voicelines (Kazakus from Hearthstone) are with a little cut-and-paste.

 

[lichao001486]

1.1f is very good.

 

[DarkePacific]

Small updates. Work on Map 2 is going slow, but steady.
In my spare time I've also been working on a main screen for the campaign missions. Here's a look of what I've got going so far:
View attachment 364355

Wow!! That looks awesome!

 

[frostwhisper]

I have uploaded the latest version of the campaign (v1.2a) in the OP.
This is a milestone update for me because the second chapter is now fully playable, and development on Map#3 has begun.

Your feedback has helped immensely in polishing the first chapter, and I am really looking forward to hearing your thoughts on "The Empty Fist".

Troll Campaign v1.2a Changelog

Chapter 1 - The Dark Stone

• Minor bug fixes, tooltip, and name amendments
• Several abilities have updated icons
• New title sequence to match Chapter 2

Chapter 2 - The Empty Fist

• All quests now fully playable
• All cinematics complete, nearly all skippable
• Initial troll race techtee revamped, changes will be reflected in the OP soon
• Note: Kruppe's Shop of Wonders icon and model are placeholders in this version

 

[Kyrbi0]

• Initial troll race techtee revamped, changes will be reflected in the OP soon

: D

//EDIT//

you friggin didn't

//EDIT2//

@frostwhisper I'm checking out the 2nd Map but I'm not seeing the Techtree updates?

//EDIT3//

Ok so I noticed the Devilsaur (& his 'barracks') is gone. Also the "Merchant" hero only has 3 abilities? (although one of them is an AoE-mass Banish, which is kinda cool).

Man that "Bad Juju" is a sick SFX . So is "Darkness Rising" & a couple others. You got a Credits list so I know who to attribute those to (aside from you)?

 

[frostwhisper]

you friggin didn't

I did. Can you imagine this was a powerhouse in standard when I started making this campaign? Before the dark times. Before Uro.

As for the techtree let me elaborate. The changes are not overt. Mostly tech being moved around different tiers, production buildings and upgrades moved around, basically figuring out where the pieces fit and how I would like to use them narratively as well as mechanically. Perhaps "revamp" was too strong of a word. Either way, the information in the OP is outdated by now, so an update is due.

Going back to what we discussed earlier on, this will be a "basic" techtree for the troll tribes with specializations based on your alliance with the Amani, Gurubashi, Drakkari, Zandalari, etc coming in later with the story. Think something similar to Shar's factions in Arkain. One "main" techtree, many customization options. For example, this pretty lady is intended to be a spellcaster from the Drakkari faction.

The Merchant, as well as Oriss at this point both have three abilities because their ultimates are tied to the narrative and will be unlocked after certain events in the next chapter.

As for the SFX, the Bad Juju debuff is made by yours truly, while the gorgeous Darkness Rising effect is made by @Yours Truly
My credits list right now is a .txt file which is quite extensive already. It's definitely going in a proper credits sequence once I get closer to a full release.

 

[Kyrbi0]

ok new question wheRE THE HECK did you get actual LITERAL SHADOW HUNTER voicing the "not enough mana/gold/lumber/etc" lines?!?!
any & all of your lines really

//EDIT//

Ok I made it through all the imported sounds, very very cool, very useful. I'm particularly interested in the 'racial warnings' as I mentioned, but also the fem-troll lines ("Naisha") that are basically a dead-ringer for the 'Python Warrioress' model... can't quite tell the rest except for the expertly-stitched-together DOTA2 Witch Doctor; was thinking of doing the exact same thing myself. xD

Since they all have the names of the things they replace, I can't really tell what they go to, necessarily (except for the Town Hall sounds which are obvious; though I have a hard time telling the difference between the 3).

 

[frostwhisper]

The racial warnings and Builder voicelines are sampled from vanilla troll NPCs in WoW
Rendar uses edited Vol'jin dialogue from events in WoW patch 5.1, 5.3, and 5.4
Kruppe uses Witch Doctor voicelines from DotA
Oriss uses voicelines from Qhira in HotS
The Dire Troll uses voicelines from Zul'jin in HotS
Zan'do uses voicelines from Kazakus in Hearthstone

The building sounds are sampled from musical ques and existing in-game sound effects. I do agree that the three tiers of the main hall sound quite similar.

My plan is to make all voicepacks used in the campaign publicly available once I get to a full release. Now that we have a sound assets section this should be straightforward (barring potential copyright issues).

 

[PROXY]

ok new question wheRE THE HECK did you get actual LITERAL SHADOW HUNTER voicing the "not enough mana/gold/lumber/etc" lines?!?!
any & all of your lines really

//EDIT//

Ok I made it through all the imported sounds, very very cool, very useful. I'm particularly interested in the 'racial warnings' as I mentioned, but also the fem-troll lines ("Naisha") that are basically a dead-ringer for the 'Python Warrioress' model... can't quite tell the rest except for the expertly-stitched-together DOTA2 Witch Doctor; was thinking of doing the exact same thing myself. xD

Since they all have the names of the things they replace, I can't really tell what they go to, necessarily (except for the Town Hall sounds which are obvious; though I have a hard time telling the difference between the 3).

Or you can just hop onto Fiverr and pay 10-20 bucks for a custom voice set, as I did

 

[Kyrbi0]

The racial warnings and Builder voicelines are sampled from vanilla troll NPCs in WoW
Rendar uses edited Vol'jin dialogue from events in WoW patch 5.1, 5.3, and 5.4
Kruppe uses Witch Doctor voicelines from DotA
Oriss uses voicelines from Qhira in HotS
The Dire Troll uses voicelines from Zul'jin in HotS
Zan'do uses voicelines from Kazakus in Hearthstone

The building sounds are sampled from musical ques and existing in-game sound effects. I do agree that the three tiers of the main hall sound quite similar.

My plan is to make all voicepacks used in the campaign publicly available once I get to a full release. Now that we have a sound assets section this should be straightforward (barring potential copyright issues).

Thank you! That's pretty much everything I could ever ask for, credit-wise... Impressive sampling, mon.

Or you can just hop onto Fiverr and pay 10-20 bucks for a custom voice set, as I did

Sure for one or two characters in an RPG, but for 16+ unit/heroes in a custom faction? xD

 

[Rayman90]

Played through chapter 2 , 1.2a.

Here are some thoughts:

1) Rendars passives description definitely should tell how much damage it does. Btw does the damage scale with something ? I think it would be cool if it scaled, at least a little.

2) When hero enters a building, it becomes transparent, which is really cool. However when some simple unit enters building, transparency doesnt happen. Is it intended ? Doesnt feel right.

3) Rendars abilities felt a bit weak overall, but I suppose they will become super strong when he will get some stats and levels.

4) I am a casual player, so the difficulty is really fine for me. But I assume hardcore rts players would say that the chapter is too easy. Tho its only chapter 2, so, logically, it shouldnt be hard. I dont know, maybe making player to choose difficulty levels at the beginning of every chapter would be good idea ? Quite a lot of work tho...

5) Some units talking using floating text is pretty cool. However its a bit difficult to read if the unit is moving. Maybe could be nice if you make their talking appear in chat log too, by creating normal messages with the same text and instantly removing them. So players can read them afterwards if they missed them.

6) My game lagged hard during big battles with a lot of units. My PC is really weak tho, so fps drops during big battles are very expected. But this time it lagged so hard that I almost couldnt move my mouse. And even moving camera away from the battlefield didnt help at all. So something is definitely wrong. I would really like to other ppl to report if they had same issue or not. Btw, thankfully, my raptor riders were so strong that they finished everything off during the lags without problems

Overall, I enjoyed the chapter. Really curious whats going to happen next. Looking forward to the next chapter

 

[frostwhisper]

Appreciate the feedback, Rayman.

A damage description for Rendar's passive is certainly something to add. Thanks for pointing it out. Scaling is a possibility if/when I look into his kit again. More likely when than if. On the subject of Rendar's other abilities, I designed him with the intention of being relatively weak and lacking utility as compared to the other two heroes, then gradually becoming a very strong tank/damage dealer with levels/items.

Building transparency is intended to be triggered by Heroes only to avoid the transparency spazzing out as well as locking in the wrong position if two units enter and exit the region at the same time.

As a very casual player myself I can honestly say I designed the levels so far to fit my own skill level. Difficulty settings are certainly something I would love to look into, however. Currently, my priority is to finish the chapters at this level of difficulty and then potentially add difficulty modifiers.

Floating texts are an interesting issue for the reasons you listed. Flavourfully I like them, but they are sometimes easy to miss. I've considered your suggestion, however, I've noticed clearing the screen of text sometimes leads to an important quest message or tip blipping out because there just happens to be dialogue close to it time-wise. Another option I'm considering is a separate dialogue "log" recorded into the quest log, updated with each spoken line. Certainly something to think about more as I carry on.

I'm sorry to hear that you experienced strong lag spikes. The maps so far are riddled with doodads and basically, every asset is custom-made so that might be what's causing the issue. Perhaps another, detail-lite version of some chapters is in order. Again, something I will consider along with difficulty modifiers once I've done the actual release.

 

[Byamba]

Hello !

I've played the chapter 2 1.2a version (I have yet to retest the first chapter to see the changes) and here are the problems I have encounter :

-For the quest Troubled spirits, you have write "...yadda yadda placeholder", don't know if you're aware this is still in place.

-The name of the Totem Golem is Totem Golem Placeholder.

-The builder in the fist have a quest sign but don't give any quest.

-During the second part of the chapter, I find my self blocked on the path by a invisible wall, so I can't finish this quest (which is not on the quest menu)

-I can't launch a saved game, it make the game crash while I still can launch the first chapter (which was saved on the other version of your campaing)

I will try to see if some of these problems didn't came from my side only and in this case I will tell you to not worry about it.
Anyway, a very pleasant campaign so far, it's mind blowing how good the map design is ! Thank you for this !

 

[frostwhisper]

Thanks for your feedback, Byamba. Most of the issues you listed - the placeholder unit names, quest text/interface, and invisible walls are parts of an older version of the campaign which I had uploaded on here (1.1f). I double-checked and can confirm they're not present in 1.2a. Combined with the fact that your saves crash I feel like it might be an issue of different versions of the campaign clashing. Can't say I've encountered something like this before. Perhaps clearing your warcraft cache, deleting the old savegames and such might solve the issue? Do you mind sharing which patch you played this on?

 

[Byamba]

It was indeed a issue between a badly removed 1.1f version and the 1.2a version, my bad. Everything seems to work as intended.
Just a tiny little thing, in the map file, the campaign is still named 1.1f (but could be from my side again), it's not a problem at all but I thought you'd like too know.
I play on the patch 1.29 as you ask.

So now I can say, it's truly a wonderfull campaign so far !

 

[frostwhisper]

Glad the issue was resolved. And the label is indeed outdated within the file itself. Must have slipped my mind. Thank you for pointing it out.