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- May 31, 2019
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The Reign of Chaos Beta has been shrouded in mystery... until now.
The aim is to recreate the gameplay of the of the first release of the Reign of Chaos Beta from 2002-01-25.
As far as I know, that's the earliest build of the game that people outside of Blizzard or game magazines were able to get their hands on.
Uses the latest version of WC3.
Right now, the earliest beta build you can actually play with is the 1.03 build from Feb 2002. Even if you run that build, it is very limited. You can only play by yourself, there's no AI, and it crashes all the time. It's also not the oldest build around. I felt it would be best to base this project on the earliest version of the game possible, since the further you go into the beta, the more familiar it would get.
If you somehow have a build from even earlier than 2002-01-25, please share it!
With this project, people will finally have an easy way to play around with the 'Beta' version of Warcraft 3, in actual multiplayer games, and with the QOL improvements brought by the modern version of the game.
Anyway, let me know if you like this idea!
The aim is to recreate the gameplay of the of the first release of the Reign of Chaos Beta from 2002-01-25.
As far as I know, that's the earliest build of the game that people outside of Blizzard or game magazines were able to get their hands on.
Download here
Uses the latest version of WC3.
Why?
The Reign of Chaos beta has always been a historical curiosity for me, and I'm sure many others.Right now, the earliest beta build you can actually play with is the 1.03 build from Feb 2002. Even if you run that build, it is very limited. You can only play by yourself, there's no AI, and it crashes all the time. It's also not the oldest build around. I felt it would be best to base this project on the earliest version of the game possible, since the further you go into the beta, the more familiar it would get.
If you somehow have a build from even earlier than 2002-01-25, please share it!
With this project, people will finally have an easy way to play around with the 'Beta' version of Warcraft 3, in actual multiplayer games, and with the QOL improvements brought by the modern version of the game.
Gameplay differences
Human
- Archmage
- Water Elemental does not attack air, but does splash damage to enemy ground units.
- Mountain King
- Thunder Clap stuns instead of slows, so it is like War Stomp.
- No Bash.
- Avatar drains mana while active, and can be turned off.
- Avatar does not confer spell immunity.
- Paladin
- Divine Shield drains mana while active, and can be turned off.
- Resurrection revives units in a target area instead of around the Paladin.
- Peasant
- No Speedbuilding. Enters a building to construct it like a Peon.
- No Militia.
- Footman
- Defend protects against ranged attacks of all types, except artillery.
- Priest
- Inner Fire is his Initiate spell.
- Dispel Magic is single-target.
- Heal is his Master spell.
- Steam Tank
- Uses a wrecking ball to attack structures at melee range.
- Can load up to 4 ground units of any type.
- When at least one Rifleman is loaded, gains a ranged attack against ground and air units.
- Each extra Rifleman increases the speed of both of the Steam Tank's attacks.
- Workshop
- Can be built at tier-1, only requires a blacksmith.
- Mage Tower
- Trains Priest and Sorceress.
- Arcane Sanctum
- Requires Mage Tower. Enables Sorceresses. Contains upgrades for casters.
Orc
- Far Seer
- Does not have Feral Spirit.
- Blademaster
- Mirror image only creates 1 image, that is more resilient with each level.
- Critical Strike always does triple damage, but the chance increases with level.
- Invulnerable while Bladestorming.
- Tauren Chieftain
- Does not have War Stomp.
- Has 'Command Aura' instead of Endurance, which increases damage.
- Reincarnation has a mana cost. It works the same way as it does in retail, but if his mana is too low when he dies he will not revive. It also has different effect art.
- Has different 'Pissed' lines.
- Peon
- The only unit that has Pillage, which doesn't need to be researched.
- Grunt
- Has a Berserker Rage ability that increases attack speed.
- Troll Headhunter
- Has an upgrade that increases night sight range.
- Kodo Beast
- Requires Fortress.
- Does not attack.
- Has a mana pool.
- Instead of War Drums, has two auras: Healing Drums and Speed Drums. They drain his mana while active.
- Wyvern
- Requires Wyvern Taming research to unlock.
- Shaman
- Bloodlust has different effect art.
- Voiced by Chris Metzen.
- Witch Doctor
- Instead of Healing Ward, has Ancestral Guardian, which is similar to the Shadow Hunter's Serpent Ward.
- Tauren
- Instead of Pulverize, has an ability called 'Warstomp', which functions like Critical Strike.
- Orc Burrow
- Attacks automatically without needing to load any units.
- Can still load Peons, but also Grunts and Headhunters. The unit type does not matter, loading units just increases the attack speed.
- Does not provide food.
- Techtree
- War Mill is split into two buildings: Lumber Mill and Forge.
- Pig Farms provide food instead of Orc Burrows.
- Orc Burrows function as the primary tower. Watch Tower does not exist.
Undead
- Death Knight
- Death Pact creates a damage-shield instead of restoring life.
- No Unholy Aura.
- Animate Dead raises units in a target area, instead of around the Death Knight.
- Lich
- Frost Nova damages ground units around the Lich, instead of targeting a unit.
- Death & Decay has different art effects.
- Dreadlord
- Face texture is slightly different.
- Instead of Inferno, has an ability called Dark Summoning, which works like the StarCraft Arbiter's Recall ability.
- Acolyte
- Can not unsummon buildings.
- Sacrifice requires research.
- Gargoyle
- Requires the Gargoyle Spire building.
- Stone Form costs mana, and drains mana while active. It does not confer Spell Immunity.
- Necromancer
- Instead of Cripple, has Corpse Explosion.
- Meat Wagon
- Trained from the Crypt.
- Requires Halls of the Dead.
- Attack requires research from the Slaughterhouse called Fling Corpse.
- Abomination
- Instead of Disease Cloud, has an upgrade to explode on death.
- Frost Wyrm
- Freeze Breath on buildings is a manually-cast ability.
- Attack is an artillery weapon-type, so it has an Attack Ground command.
- Buildings
- Regenerate health on blight.
- Hall:
- Can return gold. Though acolytes won't do this, it does prevent them from being built next to a gold mine.
- Tier 2/3 does not attack.
- Graveyard: Contains no research and does not return lumber. Only purpose is to generate corpses.
- Sacrificial Pit: Available at the tier-1. Contains armor/attack upgrades.
- Gargoyle Spire: Enables Gargoyles and contains the Stone Form upgrade.
Night Elf
- Demon Hunter
- Has Permanent Immolation while in Metamorphosis form.
- Keeper of the Grove
- Is a melee hero.
- Priestess of the Moon
- Instead of Scout, has a hero version of the Huntress' Sentinel ability.
- Starfall targets an area instead of happening around the caster. It also does not damage spell-immune units.
- Wisp
- Has a different icon.
- Instead of a standard repair ability, has a tier-2-researched healing ability for both units and structures that costs mana instead of resources.
- Consumed when constructing any building, not just ancients.
- Huntress
- Instead of Sentinel, has a Scout ability that sends an owl to reveal an area.
- No bouncing attack.
- Dryad
- Spell Immunity requires research.
- Does not have Slow Poison.
- Druid of the Talon
- Has a slightly different model.
- Crow Form is his only ability.
- Druid of the Claw
- Instead of Roar, has Battle Roar, a passive ability while in Bear Form that grants a chance on attack to reduce nearby enemies' armor.
- Instead of Rejuvination, has the Barkskin ability, which increases armor of a target unit.
- Chimaera
- Corrosive Breath is a manually-cast ability that deals damage-over-time to buildings.
- Attack is an artillery weapon-type, so it has an Attack Ground command.
- Entangled Gold Mine
- Harvests gold from the mine automatically, without any Wisps.
- Moon Well
- Replenishes mana only, not life.
- Regenerates mana during day and night.
- Ancient Protector
- When rooted, attacks like a StarCraft Sunken Colony.
- Bear Den
- Enables production of Druids of the Claw.
- Shadow Meld
- Has a different icon.
General balance differences
- Attack and Armor Types are different. How they work is hard-coded, not exposed like in the modern version, so I did some comprehensive testing by adding custom units into the beta build to work out what the %s are:
- Heroes are summoned from your Town Hall.
- Altars are tier-2 buildings whose only purpose is to revive your heroes.
- Heroes don't start with any skill points, they must level up first.
- Heroes can spend multiple skill points in a row on a single ability, no need to alternate.
- Agility increases movement speed, but not attack speed.
- Ultimate abilities are unlocked at level 5.
- Ultimate abilities ignore spell immunity. Interesting, because they don't in retail Reign of Chaos, but do in Frozen Throne.
- Max hero level is 15.
- No such thing as 'Hero duration'. Spells last their full duration on both heroes and units.
- Upkeep levels are 30, 60, 90.
- Players start with 4 peons. Night Elves still start with 5.
- Workers have more dps.
- Most units have less health, damage, and movement speed.
- Most units are cheaper, attack faster and see farther.
- Dispels do not damage summoned units.
- Siege units' splash only damages enemies, and they have a lower minimum range.
- All creeps sleep.
Known issues
- Frost Wyrm Freezing Breath is still applied to buildings passively, when it is supposed to be from a manually-cast ability.
- Orb of Fire tooltip is incorrect.
My plan for this project
- Make an edit of the Reign of Chaos campaign using this gameplay balance. Abilities found in the beta slk files but weren't actually used in the 1.00 beta build may also end up being implemented. Though I know there's already hundreds of variations of the campaign, I feel the changes this brings would make it stand out somewhat. Worth keeping in mind that for most of the campaign's development, the team was building the levels with balance similar to this, then making adjustments later.
Anyway, let me know if you like this idea!
Thanks to
- Xetanth87 for documenting and uploading different sound files from the beta.
- Ujimasa Hojo for uploading beta buildings.
- Retera for Death & Decay and his GOAT Model Studio.
- Kam for Necropolis texture fix
- Whoever made this tool.
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