Warcraft IV: Red Horizons

[radeonmaster]

Hey guys, I've spent a lot of time making a mod of what I hope and imagine Warcraft IV to be. There are tons of new features and hundreds of new abilities - all while using only the highest quality models and icons to maintain a (near) Blizzard level of polish. I tried to take the game a couple strides back in the direction of a more traditional RTS; I'd like to think it's in the middle between WC3 and SC2. Base building is more important, there is a fully-functional navy, and heroes are retained but are not the centerpiece they once were, as army sizes have increased to 160.

http://www.moddb.com/mods/warcraft-iv-red-horizons1

Formerly, I submitted this as an altered melee map to this Web site's resource section. But due to the file size - it uses a modified mpq - I decided moddb was a better host.



Version 1.1:

- Added oil patches to the seas, which function as a time-based income system
- Added the Ancient Collosal to the Night Elves; a wisp can merge its spirit with a Mountain Giant to create the massive unit capable of hurling boulders long distances
- With their Well of Wonder, the Night Elves can grow trees to create a defensive barrier anywhere within a large radius (They can no longer build walls)
- Orcs can build War Stations, mobile units that can repair machines and train Grunts, Raiders, and Axemen
- Humans can upgrade their walls to allow Archers to garrison and fire from them
- Mercenary naval units: Pirate ships that plunder from enemy units each attack, Gnomish repair vessels, a kamikaze Orc rowboat
- If a Hero kills the Dragon King, he reaches max experience
- Killing the Dragon King drops the lucrative "Dragon Gold" item, it's worth 10,000 gold

Version 1:

- Added high-resolution terrain textures for the Lordaeron tileset
- Decreased wait time for Prince

Version .9:

- Orcs and Humans have a "super unit." If the Orcs build 15 Ogres, they acquire the Ogre Master, a powerful hero with unique spells.
- If the Humans build enough defensive structures, they acquire the Royal Family. First come the King who can create Vassal states, knight Royal Captains, and marry a Queen. When the Queen appears, the prince will also soon appear. The prince is himself a hero, but can choose to murder his father (you just have him attack your King) to become even more powerful.
- Vassals generate an income stream
- The "Knight" ability when applied to Royal Captains summons a horse, allowing the unit to become a Royal Crusader
- The Humans now have the "Enforce Prayer" ability at the Church. Activating it will allow a chance that an Angel appear in 5 minutes to provide extra defense to your forces
- The Dragon King now has a knock-back ability
- To make directing large armies even easier, every unit has a "Command Comrades" ability. Clicking anywhere on the map will order all units of its type to attack-move the target location

Version .8:
- Orcs, Humans, and Undead workers have an "advanced build" button; Night Elves can train Blood Elf engineers; you no longer have to purchase builder units as mercenaries
- Human footmen are promoted to Royal Captains once they accumulate 5 kills
- Night Elves can build a Blood Elf Observatory, which can reveal the entire map for 10 seconds
- To ease micromanagement of large armies, heroes have a "command coordinates" ability that allows them to order all of your military units to attack-move any point on the map.
- Races are now balanced

Other major features:
- Food limit is now 160
- Units' attack strength has been multiplied by 1.5

Minor features:
- Humans can upgrade Knights to Paladins. Paladins have a 25% chance of surviving the death of their horse to continue the battle as a foot soldier.
- Orcs can increase the armor of Ogres further with a special upgrade that equips them with shields
- Siege weapons have a badass explosion impact
- Abominations have been replaced by Hell Riders who can set building on fire with their raze ability
- Human archers have a flaming arrow ability that sets units on fire
- Siege towers can be garrisoned, and when garrisoned by archers can attack
- Kodo Beast Tower can be garrisoned by Troll Beserkers
- Undead can build the Lindormr Dragon, which can take off and land, functioning as both a land and air unit
- Dwarven Cannon team can lay mines
- When heroes die, they drop "spoils," an item recoverable by both enemy or friendly heroes which gives the owner 250 gold
- an independent population limit for ships, just like in Age of Empires 3, which avoids problematic trade-offs between land and sea units
- Many more unique units and abilities!

NOTE: This map is designed to be played LAN with a friend, since the AI will not take advantage of many of the features.

UPDATE: Fixed some of the tool tip errors and balanced creeps.

Thank you to the many talented artists below who created the models in Red Horizons.

forelmashi (for the map template), HFR, Balnnazar, Beepo, Callahan, Blade.dk, Blizzard Entertainment, Cookie, Darky27, Dmitry Rommel, Elven Spellmake, General Frank, Ghan_04, olofmolem, Miseracor, General Frank,Hueter, Happy Tauren, FrIkY, Amigurumi, jatter2, Kitabatak, Tenebrae, Illidan(Evil)X, Hubcool, ahtiandr, IceFrog, maskedpoptart, Metzen, Moyack, Paladon, Pitzer Mike, PurplePoot, quaisio, richie_lich, Red XIII, Rising_Dusk, Strategy Master, The_Mechanic, Tiki, Tim., Vexorian, w3catlegio, Whitehornm, Tranquil, Olofmoleman, Mechanical Man, wingednosering, Kallimachos

 

[andrewsarch6]

Topic needs moar poasts! Na really though, people are lazy and don't like clicking links, it would be cool if you organized your information into tables and showed us some screenshots.

 

[rcshaggy]

I like your ideas.
Kinda missed the features for Warcraft II in Warcraft III.

Well anyway, would be cool too have a armada of ships. :3

 

[radeonmaster]

Thanks. I'll plan on adding screenshots to the post later and attaching a demo map. I think that people are more prone to click on a topic if they see a paper clip graphic next to it.

 

[Odellia]

I like your ideas, never thought of a Warcraft IV based map. Your post is not 'that' organized, since when I just stared at it about 3 seconds ago, I lost motivation of reading the whole thing out. Maybe put some tables and organize your thread so it will motivate more people to read the whole thing out.

Good luck at your map .

:3

 

[PROXY]

Mhmm.. I tested the map with humans...

Lots of units and buildings just don't show up, for example the elven archer.
the gameplay doesn't really differ from the original wc3, just a few changes in models and a really few new buildings...

 

[radeonmaster]

Lots of units are probably not showing up for you? Chances are that you didn't replace the war3patch mpq with the modded one.

The gameplay isn't suppposed to differ substantially. I started with the premise that Warcraft III's core gameplay didn't need to be overhauled; it was already refined to a very high level. I tried to add on to what Blizzard perfected rather than replacing it. By multiplying units' attack by 1.5 and raising the pop limit to 160, I kept the balanced unit relationships and hero system while making the battles a little more "epic" and adding a couple of other gameplay systems. Namely, ships, an oil-economic control point system, and offensive and defensive gameplay systems.