Warcraft 3 Founding Of Durotar Part 2 After the battle of Mount Hyjal, Thrall led his orcs to the south of Kalimdor. There he founded the kingdom of Durotar. The orcs face many problems of different kinds that need to be dealt with, whether caused by fearsome beasts or the human forces. WarCraft 3 was revolutionary precisely because it found a way for all of the campaigns to be a continuous story. Possibly you could gut everything and retell the story of the first two games through the perspective of the Horde for 1 and mostly the Alliance for 2.
Warcraft 2 was one of the first PC games I played and to this day remains one of my all-time favourites. Not long after purchasing the game I discovered the custom mapping scene on the battle.net servers and was instantly hooked. Eventually I decided to start making my own maps, and my own interest in game design and development can be traced back to this point in time. While Warcraft 2 is a relatively simple game by today’s standards, the user-friendly editor interface combined with the ability to rapidly create and test maps really helped to hook me in. I would go on to make dozens of maps over the next few years (from about 2003 until 2008). The best of these can be downloaded here. Screenshots from a few of these maps are shown below while discussion about some of the interesting aspects of the map editor can be found further on.
Limitations in the map editor helped to drive innovation and creativity. For example, it was impossible to “program” a hero selection screen as is seen in many modern games. To let players select a hero the map editor would have to use tricks such as hiding “rescuable units” behind walls that could only be broken by goblin sappers or dwarf demolition squads. The player would then break the wall of the hero they wanted and move one of their units next to the rescuable hero to “select” it. An example is shown below.
There were other tricks a map editor could do with rescuable units. Rescuing the key structure of an allied player (such as a town hall or fortress) would instantly bring all units of the allied player under the human player’s control. For example, pictured below is a human player “rescuing” a castle only to find that they are now under siege.
This wasn’t the only way to create a siege scenario. Another trick involved placing a single enemy building in a place you would like them to attack. As soon as the map started the “defending” units would destroy the structure, triggering the AI to send all of its units to assault that location.
One other interesting quirk of the AI that could be exploited was the fact that the AI would refuse to attack walls, even if another player had troops hiding behind the walls shooting at their units. With this knowledge in hand it was possible to create maps where a human player could feel safe… For a time. Eventually area of effect damage such as catapults and spells would break the walls allowing enemy units to flood in.
Another trick that could be used was to create “healing stations” with paladins stuck on an island. The paladins could be used to heal the player’s hero units whenever they visited “town”.
Warcraft 2 Campaigns In Warcraft 3
Unfortunately, there were some cases in which the standard editing tool was insufficient. One issue in particular was quite annoying to deal with: it was impossible to put trees directly next to a body of water. This meant that players could send units down these paths, allowing them to bypass obstacles and reach areas they weren’t intended to discover. To resolve this issue a map developer would need to use a custom editing tool such as War2xEd. The first image below shows a map created with the standard map editor, the second image shows how a grid space can be modified with a custom editor to prevent a unit from moving through it.
A few years after creating my first Warcraft 2 map I started working with the Warcraft 3 map editor. With Warcraft 3 came the trigger system and many other advanced features that would make the above tricks obsolete. Despite this, the Warcraft 2 map editor is still my favourite of the two due to its elegance and simplicity.
Best Warcraft 3 Custom Campaigns
This article or section contains lore taken from Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, the manuals, and/or official bonus maps. |
This is a list of all campaigns and their chapters/missions in Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos and Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne.
- 1Reign of Chaos
- 2The Frozen Throne
Reign of Chaos
Prologue Campaign
- Introduction: The Prophecy*
- Cinematic: Thrall's Vision*
- Chapter One: Chasing Visions*
- Chapter Two: Departures*
- Chapter Three: Riders on the Storm**
- Chapter Four: The Fires Down Below**
- Chapter Five: Countdown to Extinction**
* These are not part of the demo version of the game and the Frozen Throne custom campaign.
** These chapters are part of the demo version of the game and the Frozen Throne custom campaign.
Human Campaign
- Cinematic: The Warning
- Chapter One: The Defense of Strahnbrad
- Chapter Two: Blackrock and Roll
- Interlude: Jaina's Meeting
- Chapter Three: Ravages of the Plague
- Chapter Four: The Cult of the Damned
- Chapter Five: March of the Scourge
- Interlude: The Prince and the Prophet
- Chapter Six: The Culling
- Interlude: Divergent Courses
- Chapter Seven: The Shores of Northrend
- Chapter Eight: Dissension
- Chapter Nine: Frostmourne
- Cinematic: Arthas' Betrayal
Undead Campaign
Warcraft 3 Custom Campaigns
- Chapter One: Trudging through the Ashes
- Chapter Two: Digging up the Dead
- Interlude: The Dreadlords Convene
- Chapter Three: Into the Realm Eternal
- Chapter Four: Key of the Three Moons
- Chapter Five: The Fall of Silvermoon
- Interlude: The Revelation
- Chapter Six: Blackrock & Roll, Too!
- Chapter Seven: The Siege of Dalaran
- Chapter Eight: Under the Burning Sky
- Cinematic: The Destruction of Dalaran
Orc Campaign
- Chapter One: Landfall
- Chapter Two: The Long March
- Interlude: The Wreckage of Lordaeron
- Chapter Three: Cry of the Warsong
- Chapter Four: The Spirits of Ashenvale
- Interlude: The Blood of Mannoroth
- Chapter Five: The Hunter of Shadows
- Chapter Six: Where Wyverns Dare
- Chapter Seven: The Oracle
- Chapter Eight: By Demons Be Driven
- Cinematic: The Death of Hellscream
Night Elf Campaign
- Chapter One: Enemies at the Gate
- Chapter Two: Daughters of the Moon
- Chapter Three: The Awakening of Stormrage
- Chapter Four: The Druids Arise
- Chapter Five: Brothers in Blood
- Chapter Six: A Destiny of Flame and Sorrow
- Interlude: The Last Guardian
- Chapter Seven: Twilight of the Gods
- Cinematic: Eternity's End
The Frozen Throne
Sentinel Campaign
- Cinematic: The Awakening
- Chapter One: Rise of the Naga
- Chapter Two: The Broken Isles
- Chapter Three: The Tomb of Sargeras
- Chapter Four: Wrath of the Betrayer
- Interlude: Unfinished Business
- Chapter Five: Balancing the Scales
- Chapter Six: Shards of the Alliance
- Interlude: Malfurion's Vision
- Chapter Seven: The Ruins of Dalaran
- Chapter Eight: The Brothers Stormrage
- Finale: A Parting of Ways
Alliance Campaign
- Chapter One: Misconceptions
- Chapter Two: A Dark Covenant
- Chapter Three: The Dungeons of Dalaran
- Secret Level: The Crossing*
- Interlude: The Dusts of Outland
- Chapter Four: The Search for Illidan
- Interlude: Illidan's Task
- Chapter Five: Gates of the Abyss
- Chapter Six: Lord of Outland
- Finale: Kil'jaeden's Command
* This level must be unlocked in chapter three.
Scourge Campaign
- Chapter One: King Arthas
- Interlude: A Kingdom Divided
- Chapter Two: The Flight from Lordaeron
- Interlude: Sylvanas' Farewell
- Chapter Three: The Dark Lady
- Chapter Four: The Return to Northrend
- Chapter Five: Dreadlord's Fall
- Chapter Six: A New Power in Lordaeron
- Chapter Seven, Part One: Into the Shadow Web Caverns
- Chapter Seven, Part Two: The Forgotten Ones
- Chapter Seven, Part Three: Ascent to the Upper Kingdom
- Interlude: Boiling Point
- Chapter Eight: A Symphony of Frost and Flame
- Finale: A Long Time Coming
- Cinematic: The Ascension
Bonus Campaign
- Act One: To Tame a Land
- Act Two: Old Hatreds*
- Act Three: A Blaze of Glory*
* Act two and three where added in patch 1.13. You need to update in order to continue the story.
Trivia
- The Reign of Chaos campaign was referred to as the Classic campaign in The Frozen Throne patch notes.
Patch changes
- Patch 1.13 (2003-12-16):
- The Frozen Throne
- Acts II & III, the conclusion acts to the bonus Orc campaign contained in The Frozen Throne, are included in this patch. To play these levels, you can simply click the 'Chapter Two - Old Hatreds' link from the Bonus Campaign screen. If you have completed Act I, your Heroes will carry over to Act II. Otherwise, your Heroes will be default-level Heroes with basic starting items.
- Acts II & III, the conclusion acts to the bonus Orc campaign contained in The Frozen Throne, are included in this patch. To play these levels, you can simply click the 'Chapter Two - Old Hatreds' link from the Bonus Campaign screen. If you have completed Act I, your Heroes will carry over to Act II. Otherwise, your Heroes will be default-level Heroes with basic starting items.
- The Frozen Throne
External links
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