Hello everybody and a belated Merry Christmas and festivities to all! Sorry for my long absence. I have some news to all of you and this is going to be a (black)rocking post.
First off let me tell you all that this winter time has gotten already taxing for me, as work got increasingly busy and will stay this high till new year's eve and slightly beyond. Will try to stay on track but spare time is short, and I also have other stuff in life to keep on track with.
I had a sudden fault on my laptop some few months ago, and I had to send it in assistance. Unfortunately I also had to erase all data in the process but
fortunately I've been able to back it all up. Yet it took me a while to reprise the backlogs.
There were supposed to be some major updates within the Secret Campaigns release. There are but some imperfections in the actual campaigns plus some new ideas and I've decided to work on them and release it now. You'll find everything down below in the patch log, and as you'll see it's something I really couldn't wait for!
The hardest part is that I have the project split in 4 campaigns files: 2 standard campaigns and 2 extended campaigns where I have the work in progress of the secret campaigns. The problem is that when I need to update something(especially for this final update) I need to do it twice: one time on the original and one time on the expanded version, and this is a time-consuming factor which causes some annoyance, as you can imagine.
Also, I've been tinkering on these alterations for quite a while over the past few months, time to time & baby steps. The list of updates may not be full, but only a few elements may have been left unmentioned. Apologies in advance.
COSMETIC CHANGES
- Changed Dragons Fireball attack model with the one I originally had from the project Rebirth. This one has a sparkling effect upon hit like the Gryphons' one. Same model has been set to the Fireball spell.
- Swapped Gryphons/Dragons target effects' Death animation with Stand, so that the "clap" happens upon impact and hence without abnormal delay. Also, replaced the "clap" sound with the original fire explosion from Warcraft 2.
- Added new models for Doomhammer, Turalyon, Khadgar(from Tauer) and Lord Perenolde(Khadgar_Young by Stefan.K) with due credits.
- Added portraits for Gryphons and Black Tooth Grin Ogres. Gryphons' portraits have a bit of static lips when talking, and Ogres' portraits bug a bit(play not corresponding talking animations) due to the 2-headed Ogre voiceset, but they're both cool nevertheless.
- Fixed tooltips for subfactions Mage Towers not displaying the correct name of mages to be trained.
- Added a new skin for Dragons. This one looks even more like the one seen in Warcraft 2.
- Added a new model for Death & Decay effect. This one looks more like the "boiling" effect seen in Warcraft 2. Also added a customized debuff effect for said spell.
GENERAL CHANGES
- All artillery units(except cannons) "small damage AoE" increased from 70 to 100.
- Some maps show some excessive text croppings within their Subfaction Unit list tabs, so I made some fixes to make them readable.
- All AoE spells should now work correctly, being able to damage building and units(friendly or enemy) alike, with Monsoon and Mana Storm only able to attack enemy units.
- The "Khaboom!" ability couldn't target walls. Fixed. Also, damage increased by 410(total 810). In this way it should one-shot Farms like in the original game. Farms with Upgraded Masonry may still survive a blast.
- Silver Halo and Healing Salve visual effects were accidentally swapped between each other. Fixed.
- Added firing sound to the Ballista model.
- Unholy Armor removed from Enhanced Mode. The spell is scripted and thus can't be dispelled nor spell-stolen. The "remade" version of Exorcism, though, may dispel the buff, but the script will still keep the spell active till its duration.
- Added wc2 sound for Runes cast, Shipyard and Eye/Ward of Killrogg cast. Also, by popular demand: "I got the flying machine!".
- Due to the fact that Stromgarde can no longer build Cannon Towers from this patch, all the Orc maps which feature them have their Cannon Towers swapped with Guard Towers.
- Human maps 5 and 6 now have Black Tooth Grin Guard Towers swapped with Goblin Towers.
- Enemy Lordaeron or Black Tooth Grin subfactions will have their signature Masonry/Barricades upgrades researched according to how far you are progressing in the campaign.
MAP CHANGES
- Reworked rogue prisoners mechanic in Enhanced human map "The Prisoners". Now the attacking Peasants will not turn into neutral, nor hostile, but will periodically engage player's units whilst remaining "friendly" and will count towards the required number for map completion objective.
- Reworked cinematic in human intro map1. Human coastal town is now black teamcolored. Instead of depicting an orcish onslaught on a doomed human outpost, now the scene will better portrait what the narrator mentions as for "orcish marauders raiding coastal towns", showing a Gilneas outpost struggling with defenses, yet about to receive backup from a nearby party of Footmen.
- Reduced number of Footmen in human intro map2 to reflect the starting force of Enhanced Human map2. Same done on Enhanced Human map6, adding two Stromgardian Footmen joining Turalyon and the newly acquired Knight on their way to the Dun Algaz outpost.
- Enemy tankers weren't gathering oil in Orc map4. Fixed.
- Objective completion on Classic Orc map10 wasn't terminating the map. Fixed.
- Objective on Enhanced Orc map12 wasn't working as intended. Fixed.
- Lordaeron Knights are no longer available in Enhanced human map "The Prisoners".
- In Enhanced human map "The Dark Portal", the Blackrock Clan shows Warlocks in the intro but standard Death Knights in the actual map. Fixed.
- Removed a bunch of unused stuff from the Grim Batol building tabs in the orc map "Badlands".
- Repositioned enemy Troll Destroyers in Enhanced human map "Grim Batol". They will not patrol the river any longer, but will remain stationary within its inner section, so that none of your ground units can kite them from the shoreside.
- Removed unused trainable ships in Classic orc map "Fall of Lordaeron".
- In Enhanced "Betrayal of Alterac" the sun rises when the Archmage is rescued. This will now occour when the Archmage is teleported away at the Circle of Power.
- Removed pre-placed Demo Squads, Destroyers, Battleships, and Shipyard from Enhanced map "Battle at Crestfall".
- All Blackrock Clan's Guard Towers and Cannon Towers replaced with Frost/Hellfire Towers in Enhanced maps "Battle at Crestfall" and "Assault on Blackrock Spire". Improved Blackrock AI upon Burning Blade's defeat in the latter one.
- Gryphons and other flying enemy units now have their map patrolling patterns in both Classic & Enhanced version of the orc map "Fall of Lordaeron".
ARMOR & ATTACK TOOLTIPS COMPILED
Since the first release of this remake, armor types and attack types have been set to a different standard than Warcraft 3. But how? This is a list which you will also see in the game, from now on, by moving the cursor over the corresponding icons on every unit within the game.
"more/extra damage" is about 1.25 to 1.40 of the indicated amount.
"reduced damage" is about 0.75 of the amount dealt by the mentioned type.
CHAOS ATTACKS (i.e. Dragons, Gryphons) do more damage to Medium, Large and Fortified Armor. Other top-tier units in enhanced mode(including Archmages and Storm Knights) also have Chaos type attacks, mostly due to the fact that there are units whose abilities may make them immune to magic attacks.
Note: This tooltip appears unexplicably cropped off in game, terminating at "Chaos".
NORMAL ATTACKS (i.e. Footmen, Knights) do extra damage against Medium armor.
PIERCING ATTACKS (all ranged non-spellcaster units, with few exceptions) do extra damage to Small armor, Heavy armor, Fortified armor, and reduced damage to Medium armor. Note that damage from Piercing attacks can be reduced through abilities.
SIEGE ATTACKS (Artillery units and few melee units within the Enhanced Mode) do extra damage to Normal armor, Heavy armor and Fortified armor.
MAGIC ATTACKS (i.e. spellcaster units) do extra damage against Heavy armor, Fortified armor, Normal armor, and reduced damage to Medium armor.
TORPEDO ATTACKS (submarines) cannot hit ground units. This was set before I decided to make submarine able to target ships and naval structures only. Being able to attack land units, even with a next-to-zero damage factor, simply couldn't stand up.
NORMAL ARMOR (standard troops) takes extra damage from Siege and Magic attacks.
FORTIFIED ARMOR (i.e. buildings) takes extra damage from all but Normal attacks. This is due to buildings having an average of 17 armor points(50% damage reduction) by default. Some have 11, also Lordaeron and Black Tooth Grin can upgrade their armor, etc.
HEAVY ARMOR (ships) takes extra damage from Chaos, Magic, Piercing and Siege attacks. Same as above, the standard armor of ships has a high damage resistance percentage factor.
HEROES (in Beyond the Dark Portal, will) take reduced damage from Magic, Piercing and Siege attacks.
LIGHT ARMOR (unused?) takes extra damage from Magic and Piercing attacks.
MEDIUM ARMOR (Flyers, some artillery units and some other units(i.e. Genbu) which encourage a melee response over a ranged one) takes extra damage from Chaos and Normal attacks, and reduces damage from Piercing and Magic attacks.
NEW ENHANCED MASTER TRAINING MECHANIC
Upgrading spellcaster units for each subfaction in the Enhanced Mode will now unlock multiple advantages. These upgrades will not only grant additional spells for the corresponding unit, as usual, but will also stack up permanent stat benefits according to the type of unit, depending on which faction they belong to. The researches' tooltips will give you an idea.
SUBFACTIONS CHANGES
H U M A N S
AZEROTH
- Added independent Armor and Attack upgrades to the subfaction, with corresponding icons from Warcraft 1.
- Crossbowman: Armor reduced from 2 to 1. Point per upgrade reduced from 4 to 3. A large Crossbowmen/Clerics team proves an incredible wall of defense, nevertheless, and this subfaction shouldn't excel in defense, anyway.
- Conjurer: Increased attack range from 338 to 450. Replaced Fire Shield with Entangling Roots. This ability binds single targets in place for 6(3) seconds for 50 mana and 5 seconds of cooldown, also dealing 2 hit-points of damage per second.
- Cleric now has passive "True Sight", with range 600(submarines/Scout Towers/flying Machines have 300, Gryphons have 600). Reason to give them this ability is that without being able to build Flying Machines or Scout Towers the Azeroth subfaction would be pretty penalized by only having to rely on Holy Vision or Water Dragons to scout invisible units. It's the same reason of why I decided to give them their own Destroyers with a small innate detection radius. However, this ability won't be unlocked before the last map and for the only reason of showcasing since the Orcish subfactions featured there do not have any invisible unit whatsoever. It will but play a small key role in the Alterac Campaign.
STROMGARDE
- Added independent Armor and Attack upgrades to the subfaction. Sword Upgrades have a balanced cost between each level. 800-1600-2400 instead of 800-2400-3000(which should have initially been 800-2400-4000, had I not made Level 3 a custom separate upgrade).
- Peasant: Battle Hunger removed.
- Cannon Tower removed.
- Ballista upgrades removed.
- New siege unit: Manticore(by Mechanical Man). Replaces Ballista. Deals double the damage of a Guard Tower in a small area. Medium armor type. Has two dedicated levels of Attack Upgrade at the Blacksmith.
- Inquisitors were mistakenly given less base armor than Knights. Fixed.
- Ranger: Poison Arrows bonus damage removed. Now the ability will only slow down enemy targets for 3 seconds.
- Fiery Spirit can now be researched from the Barracks instead of the Church, with a Castle as Tech-requirement.
- Pyromancer: new spell added: Rain of Fire. Channeling spell. Casts 3 waves of fire, dealing 13 damage on all units in a 400 radius area.
- Phoenix: Tech requirement changed from Fiery Spirit to Pyromancer Master Training.
LORDAERON
- Added independent Armor and Attack upgrades to the subfaction.
- Peasant: Spiked Armor removed.
- Ballista upgrades removed.
- New siege Unit: Cannon(by Khazmo). Replaces Ballista. Damage of a Cannon Tower. Medium armor type. Shares attack upgrades with Ships and defense upgrades with Footman and Knights(up to level 3; 2 points per upgrade).
- Cryomancer: new spell added: Blizzard. Channeling spell. Casts 3 waves of ice shards, dealing 13 damage on all units in a 400 radius area.
DALARAN
- Added independent Armor and Attack upgrades to the subfaction.
- Ballista upgrades removed.
- New siege unit: (runic)Catapult(by Em!). Replaces Ballista. Passive Magic attacks and Spell Immunity. Cannot be upgraded.
- Iron Golem: changed model to JesusHipster's Siege Golem, which features teamcolor shoulder pads and a "Spinning Lariat" animation which inspired me to give it a new passive ability called "Whirlwind Attack", all and all matching the "Pulverize" ability from the Tauren.
- Archmage: Damage increased from 6-8 to 8-14. Changed Attack Type to Chaos(bypasses units with Spell Immunity). Training time decreased from 60 to 40 seconds. Added minor passive health regeneration.
O R C S
BLACKROCK
- Added independent Attack upgrade to the subfaction. This dual-level upgrade increases base damage of Grunts and Raiders by 1 point(as opposed to common 2 points).
- Cannon Tower removed.
- Warlock Tower: tech requirement changed from Stronghold to Blacksmith.
- Hellfire Tower: Damage increased from 2-6 to 5-9. The incinerate ability doesn't seem to stack damage, hence this building has never been that effective in Defense, yet it still caused explosion at the target's death.
- Grunt: Attacks now upgradeable.
- Raider: Base damage increased from 6-12 to 7-13. Armor upgrades reduced from 4 to 2 points per level. Blood Frenzy changed to a new ability which doubles attack damage and changes the unit skin to red(Fel). The reason is: Whether or not the Blood Frenzy could have been dispelled or Spell-stolen(it wasn't supposed to be but apparently it is in the Orc Campaign for some reason), a TRIPLE attack speed on top of a 2-levels attack/defense upgrade simply overshadows the rest of the subfactions' features for a unit of this tier, and the player would obviously cease training Grunts in favour of Raiders. In this way the player might still see some usefulness in the Grunts' Demolish ability in case of having to attack fortified locations.
BLACK TOOTH GRIN
- Spearthrower: Armor reduced from 2 to 1. Point per upgrade reduced from 4 to 3. "Defend" still makes it a good unit for ranged defenses. Not to mention that it can always be healed by Ogre-Tinkers, or buffed by Goblin Sorcerers.
- Troll Destroyer replaced with Goblin Destroyer(Goblin Steamboat by kellym0 & MiniMage). This clan really wants no Trolls, does it? Just a separate model without any difference in stats. And no, I won't call it Steamboat, because it's got to require Oil to be built!
- Catapult specific armor upgrades removed. Now the unit will benefit from defense upgrades for Grunts & Ogres(2 points per upgrade). Sharpened Tusks Upgrade still remains.
STORMREAVER
- Storm Knight: Attack Range increased from 336 to 567. Damage increased from 6-8 to 8-14. Changed Attack-Type to Chaos(bypasses units with Spell Immunity). Added Vampiric Drain ability.
BURNING BLADE
- Added independent Armor and Attack upgrades to the subfaction. Attack Upgrades have a balanced cost between each level(overall cheaper, considering you can only upgrade Grunt's weapons with it). 500-1000-1500 Gold and 100-200-300 Lumber instead of 500-1250-2000 Gold and 100-300-500 Lumber.
- Grunt model replaced with a variation from johnwar (sorry Tauer), which in my opinion has a closer look to a classic Wc2 Grunt(whose orange teamcolored pouldrons always seemed somehow bulkier to me). Also, the previous model showed a glitch which pasted some of its parts onto an enemy after being killed by it.
- Ogre/Fel Ogre: Base Armor reduced from 11 to 7.
- Fel Ogre now has a new spell called Fel Overdrive. It works as an Unholy Frenzy: increases attack speed by 300% but inflicts 4 hit-points damage per second.
- Commander's Ward renamed into Commander's Battle Vest. This upgrade now increases Ogre/Fel Ogre hit-points by +10 on top of the additional defense upgrade.
- Famine Knight: Increased attack range from 338 to 450. Added new Abilities called Vampiric Drain and Acid Web. Vampiric Drain restores life equal to 50% of the damage dealt by attacks; Acid Web binds single targets in place for 6(3) seconds for 50 mana and 5 seconds of cooldown, also dealing 2 hit-points of damage per second.
- Hatred: Tweaked the combination between standard armor and Gelatinous Skin ability. Now the unit should be properly tanky for its designated role.
BLEEDING HOLLOW
- Shadow Dragon: Decreased hit points from 100 to 70. Decreased training cost from 2500 to 2000. New animation for its breath attack. Passive ability Fel Breath renamed to Void Bolt.
- Spirit Walker: Added Vampiric Drain ability. Removed health regeneration during Ethereal form.
I'm going to run a final sweep of checks now and I shall release the updated campaigns in the next couple of days.
I'll have to think about something else.
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