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Archon mode turns a standard 1v1 or 2v2 melee map into a 4-player co-op format inspired by the StarCraft II mode of the same name. Each team has a main who owns the base and a support who shares full control of every unit. Both players move, build, micro, cast spells, and use the tavern — but only one base exists per team.

It plays exactly like normal melee, just with two minds sharing each side. Good for friends who want to play together without sandbagging into a 1v1, for coaching sessions where a coach can drive economy while a student practices micro, or just for chaotic-fun nights.

This release includes the Archon Deployer, an open-source tool that converts any standard 1v1 or 2v2 melee map into its Archon version. Use it on maps you want to convert.

Map pack made by this tool is available here.

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Why a mod? Can't I just enable shared control and play?

You can, and for most of gameplay it will work. This mod also tries to solve the outliers, so that the second player (support) is able to:

1. Interact with the tavern (revive/get a hero)
2. Buy mercenaries correctly
3. See the UI for gold/lumber/food as if he was the first player
4. Use F1/F2/F3 keys for heroes and see them in the right place
5. Buy and sell items correctly

If you do not need these, chances are simple shared control is fully sufficient for you.

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How to use

Convert a map through deployer (GUI or CLI) and host it. The lobby shows two teams of two; each team picks a main slot and a support slot. The support shares full control of the main's base — no extra setup needed. Main refers to the first slot in the team, while support refers to the second slot in the team.

Slot assignment (the same on every map, 1v1 or 2v2):

• Player 1 (red) and Player 2 (blue) are the two mains — they own the army.
• Player 3 (teal) and Player 4 (purple) are the supports — they share full control but own nothing.
• The teams pair up as red + teal vs blue + purple.

Fill both main slots (red and blue) — they directly own the units and buildings. A support slot may be left empty, in which case that side just plays as a single normal player.

A main slot must be filled at game start (the army needs a present owner). If a main leaves mid-game, that's fine — the support keeps full control of the base and the units and plays on.

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The Deployer

The deployer is a Python-based tool that takes a vanilla melee .w3x and produces its Archon version. It's additive — your original map is never modified, only copied and converted.

Source and downloads: GitHub - magus215/WC3-Archon-Deployer: Convert any standard Warcraft 3 melee map into Archon mode- two players share control of one base per team.

Requirements: Windows + Python 3.8+. Both GUI and CLI are supported. No external pip dependencies — only what ships with Python.

Compatibility:

• Frozen Throne 1v1 melee maps — primary target, fully supported.
• 2v2 melee maps with 4 player slots — supported.
• Reign of Chaos 1v1 maps — should convert cleanly. RoC maps have no tavern, which means the most complex part of the mod is simply unused. (Note: converted maps will be marked as Frozen Throne due to the added object data)
• Modified ladder maps (e.g. W3Champions versions) — usually work. The deployer is additive and merges rather than overwrites, so maps with their own custom units typically convert fine.
• Out of scope: 3v3, 4v4, FFA maps, and maps with heavily rewritten scripts. The deployer errors out rather than producing a broken map, so a failed conversion is the tool protecting you.

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Patch compatibility

This mod targets Warcraft III Reforged (current patch 2.0.4). Maps stay on the patch they were originally created on, and the recommended setting is "Latest Melee Patch". Maps should be resistant to patch changes unless they heavily change the tavern or the way map structure works.

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Development notes

It is true that for the most of functionality, features of this mod were not hard to make. Biggest hurdle was definitely the tavern. Buying of items or mercenaries had simpler workarounds. Of course, added benefit also comes with deployer which can be used to deploy this onto any valid 1v1/2v2 map.

I tested the interactions I saw as potential pain points, but due to clunkiness of how events do (not) fire correctly per some of my tests, I had to work through workarounds in some places. If you do encounter a bug, please let me know — a replay file would help, but even a brief description might be useful to improve experience for others.

I used Claude AI to help me with implementation of both JASS and Lua parts of the project as well as to ease the deployment of it.

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Credits

• MPQ archive handling via MPQEditor by Ladislav Zezula.
• Archon mode design and implementation by magus215.
• Testing by my friends was very appreciated, shoutout to Arius, coldrefreader and Kuzuri.

License: Deployer tooling is MIT-licensed. See the GitHub repository for full details.

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Known limitations

• Tested solo and with friends, but not at scale — broader public feedback is what I'm looking for now. If you find bugs, please report them in this thread.
• The 0.1s polling for shared-control enforcement is intentional — the engine's alliance-change events don't fire reliably on the current patch (at least from my tests).
• Modified maps with extensively rewritten scripts may not convert. See the deployer's compatibility notes.

Thanks for trying it out. Looking forward to seeing what people do with two brains on one base.