(1) The Story of the Norj'Hal Elves [Download Broken]

CaptainPicard · 05-09-2006, 04:42 AM

The Story of the Norj'Hal Elves begins with the fall of the highborne at the ancient Well of Eternity and as far as outside scholars know it ends in the Reign of Chaos.

(From the introductory cinematic)

Quote:

"Ten thousand years ago, the Kaldorei rose up against the Burning Legion and sundered the world of Azeroth..."

"Broken, the world struggled to heal as its races clung to the quaking, divided remnants of Kalimdor."

"The Kaldorei returned to the surviving moonglades of Mount Hyjal, vigilant against the Legion's expected return."

"Another branch of the ancient Kaldorei took root to the East, in a land they would come to know as Quel'Thalas."

"But another seed of the Moon Children fell in snowy mountains to the North: a reclusive race called the Norj'Hal."

"As the Kaldorei kept their long vigil, their eastern descendants undertook a new elven kingdom: Silvermoon."

"And, inexplicably and in secret, the Norj'Hal elders consigned their history to a set of scrolls for none but their own order even to read again."

"Over time, even these Bahr'Tan elders came to disregard their history."

"Until an ominous twilight descended over their land, at that history returned, at last..."

The Norj'Hal Elves campaign is one of the most ambitious RPG mapping projects that you will find. Now complete, Act I features:

* Four maps all interconnected like the Orc-X campaign.
* Unique map transition method that allows units to transfer with heroes.
* Fifteen polished and original quests, some spanning multiple maps.
* Gorgeous terrain.

* Over 30,000 lines of trigger code.
* Twenty quality cutscenes, in total roughly an hour of cinematography.
* Over 150 custom enemy units.
* Four exceptional custom heroes.
* A playable custom race that opens up unique and exciting strategies.
* Over 60 custom spells.
* More than 100 custom items, plus the ability to build items at workstations.
* Custom doodads to create everything from a docked fleet of Undead battleships to the exquisite marble of Azshara's ancient temple.

* All open source and unprotected.

I've been play-testing as I go, and farming this out to various beta testors. I have yet to see them find a major bug--it's mostly been responses about gameplay, which I have taken to heart.

Act I opens with the text cards above, set to foreboding music. The story builds to an epic cliffhanger, foreshadowing an event that seemed marginal in the Reign of Chaos saga, which I have taken, expaned, and scrupulously checked against the rest of the warcraft lore.

"I am Aszune, ancient Princess of the Moon Children. None may pass until my heart is returned to me..."

If and when I get around to Act II, she's baaack. And nothing will stand in her way as she reclaims her lost heart. Let alone her former subjects.

Download:
Wc3Campaigns Official Download

Offsite Mirrors (those having trouble with the Official link might have luck with "Right Click, Save Target As..." on the UC San Diego Mirror):
UC San Diego
Dwarf Campaign

Again, if there are multiple-hosting issues we should just upload the map to the wc3campaigns server and host it there exclusively. But, I must say a nice word for the Dwarf Campaign people--they make quality maps as well, their Wiki is an excellent resource, and they've been a joy to work with. (END EDIT)

The first image, as per your request, is the campaign thumbnail. The next image is a shot of Ehl'Brun Caldera, an active volcano in the (otherwise frigid) Majh'Nam mountain range in the Norj'Hal homeland (note: when Norj'Hal speak of their homeland, they call it "Nojh'Hajahnah", and when spoken to by outsiders it is "Tomh'Hajahnah" (our land / your land). The last picture shows the icy peak Drakehorn Summit, near an ocean channel between the Norj'Hal homeland and Northrend.

Update:
There was a bug introduced between v38 and v39 that halts the game right before the very last cinematic. If you have played through v39, continue your game until your heroes are removed from normal play around a cave you've been directed to. Then, download the latest version (v40), start a new game, use whosyourdaddy and proceed directly to the spot where v39 halted. Engage cinematics by typing "play cinematics" and then type "i won damn it" or "end it now" to see the cliffhanger finale. For those who spent lots of time doing all the quests, there will be continuity between Acts I and II in later versions, but also an item reclamation and hero strength renormalization dialog at the beginning of Act II (for optimal gameplay) so your hard work will not be lost. Very sorry to all those who may have got left hanging. If this is your first time playing, v40 should see you through just fine.

Edited by Tim. Reason: Updated download locations.

Edited by CaptainPicard. Reason: Product recall and patch .

**Tim.** · 05-09-2006, 07:01 AM

Interesting. I will try and test this Wednesday night; if it is approved I will upload it to the server.

CaptainPicard · 05-09-2006, 08:43 AM

Thanks, Tim!

Feel free to email me at dcerutti(at)ucsd(dot)edu if you have any questions. There are some custom cheat codes, too--"power overwhelming" is the gaga cheat, while "stick and move" / "fight like a man" / "tea earl grey hot" get +5 agility /strength /intelligence for all heroes. The last one is a saying of good ole' Captain Picard.

**Tim.** · 05-09-2006, 05:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CaptainPicard

"tea earl grey hot" ...The last one is a saying of good ole' Captain Picard.

<3

GaDDeN · 05-10-2006, 06:50 PM

The download link doesnt work. It also freezes the internet program (at least for me), please fix it! ;-)

**Tim.** · 05-10-2006, 08:13 PM

Works for me no problem, right click save as.

GaDDeN · 05-10-2006, 09:06 PM

Its a textdocument when i right click and save as. If i click it, the broser shows a textdocument that freezes the computer untill i shut down the internet using ctrl alt del.

**Tim.** · 05-10-2006, 10:17 PM

Get a new computer :P I'l send you in via MSN.

BBDino · 05-12-2006, 10:40 AM

The first 10 minutes are not particularly inspiring, the gigantic creep mobs and the "spamulet" gameplay was rather unpleasant. After i died due to a failure to rapidly swap the amulet's back and forth betwen heroes in the middle of combat i decided to stop playing.

However if someone could give me an indication of when the map gets interetsing/fun, i may give it another go.

CaptainPicard · 05-12-2006, 06:35 PM

The first mission is quite clear--get to Majh'Nam. I suppose I could make the beginning slightly easier, but if your first goal is simply to complete this mission it's not that hard. There is a pack of wolves at the beginning which are fairly weak, and there are then a few furbolgs, more wolves, and finally some knolls to take on before you reach the outpost. It takes more patience and skill if you want to rescue all of the captured elves on your way to the outpost, but I have done it that way.

Once you get to the outpost, you receive the "instant revival" item which gives you the ability to summon a ward where your heroes will revive and be playable again after ten seconds. The item also gives a significant stat boost. At the outpost, you'lll also get the ability to hire units for your party which will make the whole thing a lot easier, the ability to purchase items for your heroes, and a wide variety of tomes to fortify your heroes (it is noted that the units automatically become more powerful as the heroes get stronger, so "toming up" is fine but it's still worthwhile you have units in your band).

The gameplay in the beginning is designed to be quick thanks to the amulets you start out with, but that doesn't give you license to take on every foe. I've been very careful about stating quest objectives, so use the Quest Log and plan accordingly.

**Tim.** · 05-12-2006, 10:05 PM

First off let me make this absolutely clear; this campaign belongs in our map database (and I’m not just saying that because your username is Captain Picard!) I played through the entire thing and I was very much impressed by your methods of accomplishing things (Such as the cinematic in the Volcano level, amazing!) Although it was a bit slow at the start it sped up quickly and became very entertaining. The dialogue was well written and not overly dramatic. Beautiful terrains were both practical for the gameplay and detailed for the cinametics. The plot was substantial and clear - with what little knowledge of Warcraft lore I have, I was able to follow along no problem. There was effective use of the Quest Menu, which helps to keep the quests organized. The learning curve was great, after that first five minutes I caught on no problem. The volcano level had gorgeous terrain, and that cinematic was remarkable! What did you do? Terrain deformations to rebuild the entire terrain for the flashback cinematic?

However as many know I love to nit pick even the best of works. Here’s a list of things that bothered me:

At the start you request 3 alphanumerical characters, but do not define clearly what they are for. You may want to say something more like “Please insert three alphanumeric characters via a chat message. This will be your ID that your progress will be saved to.”
In the intro you display the text on a fade filter as well as in the normal cinematic dialogue system. Why? I only found it distracting as the fade filter was so much better.
I constantly felt the pull of lag as new creatures appeared in the screen. Likewise for special effects and abilities. I highly suggest you preload as much as possible to avoid these lag spikes.
It’s a shame there is no voice acting for this campaign, it would greatly improve it’s quality in my opinion.
When the scene with the crashing rocks and demon cloud doodad appears, the sky goes completely agasint the fog. If you apply Fogged Sky for a split second, then the sky you used, it will blend better.
Are there any memory leaks? I seemed to have horribly long pause times as one map closed and another loaded.
The load times (Especially for the volcano level) were extremely long. I made a sandwich in the time it took to load.
The wolf summon triggered the cinematics sometimes, and so a transmission from the wolf came as if it was the hero. This should be fixed.
Why do the dragons in the volcano shoot ice?
The Frozen Mist ability’s dummy still has it’s shadow!! Fix it!

In its current state this campaign has my full approval; however I would like to see that which I mentioned above fixed anyway.

CaptainPicard · 05-13-2006, 12:09 AM

Hi Tim.,

Thanks very much for your excellent review. I'll get to your changes as soon as I can. I have just a one question, however.

1.) You mention that "summoning wolves triggers cinematics." I've never seen this effect, but it sounds like a serious bug if it can happen. Can you describe better what exactly occurred?

The cinematic after defeating Xan'Timus (the one that starts in the volcano) uses terrain that's elsewhere on the map. Load it in the editor and you'll see what I did.

As for the long map loads, yeah I know. There's no memory leaks that I can figure out (and I corrected a lot!) but there are a lot of triggers per map (as many as 1250). That seems to be what takes so long. I'll try to make a better creep management system in any future installments.

I have a list, ~60 pages long, of bugs and such I've found and corrected as I was playing, but it's always good to have a new pair of eyes.

Thanks again,
Dave

**Tim.** · 05-13-2006, 01:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CaptainPicard

1.) You mention that "summoning wolves triggers cinematics." I've never seen this effect, but it sounds like a serious bug if it can happen. Can you describe better what exactly occurred?

I was in the Volcano level and summoned my wolf. Then I walked it over to the right where it triggered the cinematic with an owl showing the crator of the volcano.

No problem, glad to help!

Pheonix-IV · 05-13-2006, 02:13 AM

I'm still trying to work out how to get past that damned energy barrier in the mountainy place. Frigging hell, i've been all over all 3 maps i can get too and my heros are so powerful that one of them can solo those golems near the barrier.

CaptainPicard · 05-13-2006, 02:33 AM

Well, if the energy barrier is all you have to cross then it's no problem. Near the iced-over watering hole where the mean Chin'Zon are guarding the fountain of life, scale the ramp and work your way along the ridge until the path dead-ends at some double doors. Approach the doors with any one of your heroes. The hero will talk to a dragon king behind the gates and that'll release the energy barrier.

On second thought, I'll consider this another "bug report" and add another hint about getting to the gates. You might have gotten to the gates with only a unit and not thought much of them.

After the energy barrier and the completion of the Drakehorn map (you've completed the Whar'Ten map, correct?), there's a "major quest" to complete in the main map, and then you're done! Thanks for playing!

Dave
_______________________________________________________

Forgot to ask, Tim., but how did you like the Chin'Zon dragons that you can control in the final phase of the game? As minor units go, I spent the most time getting those right. I was surprised by the effect of giving the dragons to an allied player with shared unit control--it effectively made the units auto-cast Banish and Forked Lightning! Works OK, in my estimation, and it would be hard for me to incorporate those units into Player 1's slots because of the unit supply cap I'm trying to impose (not to mention the fact that I don't want you to have lots of flying units in the sub-maps).

But, I was very happy with how the Chin'Zon riders came out, just haven't heard any feedback about them.

Also, roughly how long did it take you to complete the whole thing? How much less productive have I made the world by unleashing this little gem?

Dave

Edited by Tim. Reason: Merged a double post into this one post.

05-09-2006, 07:01 AM	#2
Tim. Missing You All at Wc3c Site Owner Join Date: Jul 2003 Posts: 4,475 Submissions (18)	Interesting. I will try and test this Wednesday night; if it is approved I will upload it to the server. __________________ "oO and if anyone called Tim. trys to make an account then kick there butts." -Mavus, moderator of the GTW forums Avast! Seen Pirates? Get it here!

05-10-2006, 08:13 PM	#6
Tim. Missing You All at Wc3c Site Owner Join Date: Jul 2003 Posts: 4,475 Submissions (18)	Works for me no problem, right click save as. __________________ "oO and if anyone called Tim. trys to make an account then kick there butts." -Mavus, moderator of the GTW forums Avast! Seen Pirates? Get it here!

05-10-2006, 10:17 PM	#8
Tim. Missing You All at Wc3c Site Owner Join Date: Jul 2003 Posts: 4,475 Submissions (18)	Get a new computer :P I'l send you in via MSN. __________________ "oO and if anyone called Tim. trys to make an account then kick there butts." -Mavus, moderator of the GTW forums Avast! Seen Pirates? Get it here!

05-12-2006, 10:40 AM	#9
BBDino Wc3c's resident llama. Join Date: Dec 2002 Posts: 944	The first 10 minutes are not particularly inspiring, the gigantic creep mobs and the "spamulet" gameplay was rather unpleasant. After i died due to a failure to rapidly swap the amulet's back and forth betwen heroes in the middle of combat i decided to stop playing. However if someone could give me an indication of when the map gets interetsing/fun, i may give it another go. __________________ Say Yes! to stroking Llamas!

05-12-2006, 06:35 PM	#10
CaptainPicard User Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 205 Submissions (4)	Get to Majh'Nam The first mission is quite clear--get to Majh'Nam. I suppose I could make the beginning slightly easier, but if your first goal is simply to complete this mission it's not that hard. There is a pack of wolves at the beginning which are fairly weak, and there are then a few furbolgs, more wolves, and finally some knolls to take on before you reach the outpost. It takes more patience and skill if you want to rescue all of the captured elves on your way to the outpost, but I have done it that way. Once you get to the outpost, you receive the "instant revival" item which gives you the ability to summon a ward where your heroes will revive and be playable again after ten seconds. The item also gives a significant stat boost. At the outpost, you'lll also get the ability to hire units for your party which will make the whole thing a lot easier, the ability to purchase items for your heroes, and a wide variety of tomes to fortify your heroes (it is noted that the units automatically become more powerful as the heroes get stronger, so "toming up" is fine but it's still worthwhile you have units in your band). The gameplay in the beginning is designed to be quick thanks to the amulets you start out with, but that doesn't give you license to take on every foe. I've been very careful about stating quest objectives, so use the Quest Log and plan accordingly.

05-09-2006, 08:43 AM	#3
CaptainPicard User Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 205 Submissions (4)	Thanks, Tim! Feel free to email me at dcerutti(at)ucsd(dot)edu if you have any questions. There are some custom cheat codes, too--"power overwhelming" is the gaga cheat, while "stick and move" / "fight like a man" / "tea earl grey hot" get +5 agility /strength /intelligence for all heroes. The last one is a saying of good ole' Captain Picard.

05-10-2006, 06:50 PM	#5
GaDDeN Map Dev ******* Respected User** Join Date: Feb 2004 Posts: 788 Submissions (3)	The download link doesnt work. It also freezes the internet program (at least for me), please fix it! ;-)

05-10-2006, 09:06 PM	#7
GaDDeN Map Dev ******* Respected User** Join Date: Feb 2004 Posts: 788 Submissions (3)	Its a textdocument when i right click and save as. If i click it, the broser shows a textdocument that freezes the computer untill i shut down the internet using ctrl alt del.

05-12-2006, 10:05 PM	#11
Tim. Missing You All at Wc3c Site Owner Join Date: Jul 2003 Posts: 4,475 Submissions (18)	First off let me make this absolutely clear; this campaign belongs in our map database (and I’m not just saying that because your username is Captain Picard!) I played through the entire thing and I was very much impressed by your methods of accomplishing things (Such as the cinematic in the Volcano level, amazing!) Although it was a bit slow at the start it sped up quickly and became very entertaining. The dialogue was well written and not overly dramatic. Beautiful terrains were both practical for the gameplay and detailed for the cinametics. The plot was substantial and clear - with what little knowledge of Warcraft lore I have, I was able to follow along no problem. There was effective use of the Quest Menu, which helps to keep the quests organized. The learning curve was great, after that first five minutes I caught on no problem. The volcano level had gorgeous terrain, and that cinematic was remarkable! What did you do? Terrain deformations to rebuild the entire terrain for the flashback cinematic? However as many know I love to nit pick even the best of works. Here’s a list of things that bothered me: At the start you request 3 alphanumerical characters, but do not define clearly what they are for. You may want to say something more like “Please insert three alphanumeric characters via a chat message. This will be your ID that your progress will be saved to.” In the intro you display the text on a fade filter as well as in the normal cinematic dialogue system. Why? I only found it distracting as the fade filter was so much better. I constantly felt the pull of lag as new creatures appeared in the screen. Likewise for special effects and abilities. I highly suggest you preload as much as possible to avoid these lag spikes. It’s a shame there is no voice acting for this campaign, it would greatly improve it’s quality in my opinion. When the scene with the crashing rocks and demon cloud doodad appears, the sky goes completely agasint the fog. If you apply Fogged Sky for a split second, then the sky you used, it will blend better. Are there any memory leaks? I seemed to have horribly long pause times as one map closed and another loaded. The load times (Especially for the volcano level) were extremely long. I made a sandwich in the time it took to load. The wolf summon triggered the cinematics sometimes, and so a transmission from the wolf came as if it was the hero. This should be fixed. Why do the dragons in the volcano shoot ice? The Frozen Mist ability’s dummy still has it’s shadow!! Fix it! In its current state this campaign has my full approval; however I would like to see that which I mentioned above fixed anyway. __________________ "oO and if anyone called Tim. trys to make an account then kick there butts." -Mavus, moderator of the GTW forums Avast! Seen Pirates? Get it here!

05-13-2006, 12:09 AM	#12
CaptainPicard User Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 205 Submissions (4)	Thanks Tim.! Hi Tim., Thanks very much for your excellent review. I'll get to your changes as soon as I can. I have just a one question, however. 1.) You mention that "summoning wolves triggers cinematics." I've never seen this effect, but it sounds like a serious bug if it can happen. Can you describe better what exactly occurred? The cinematic after defeating Xan'Timus (the one that starts in the volcano) uses terrain that's elsewhere on the map. Load it in the editor and you'll see what I did. As for the long map loads, yeah I know. There's no memory leaks that I can figure out (and I corrected a lot!) but there are a lot of triggers per map (as many as 1250). That seems to be what takes so long. I'll try to make a better creep management system in any future installments. I have a list, ~60 pages long, of bugs and such I've found and corrected as I was playing, but it's always good to have a new pair of eyes. Thanks again, Dave

05-13-2006, 02:13 AM	#14
Pheonix-IV I want you inside me... Join Date: Oct 2002 Posts: 4,006 Submissions (17)	I'm still trying to work out how to get past that damned energy barrier in the mountainy place. Frigging hell, i've been all over all 3 maps i can get too and my heros are so powerful that one of them can solo those golems near the barrier. __________________

05-13-2006, 02:33 AM	#15
CaptainPicard User Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 205 Submissions (4)	Well, if the energy barrier is all you have to cross then it's no problem. Near the iced-over watering hole where the mean Chin'Zon are guarding the fountain of life, scale the ramp and work your way along the ridge until the path dead-ends at some double doors. Approach the doors with any one of your heroes. The hero will talk to a dragon king behind the gates and that'll release the energy barrier. On second thought, I'll consider this another "bug report" and add another hint about getting to the gates. You might have gotten to the gates with only a unit and not thought much of them. After the energy barrier and the completion of the Drakehorn map (you've completed the Whar'Ten map, correct?), there's a "major quest" to complete in the main map, and then you're done! Thanks for playing! Dave _______________________________________________________ Forgot to ask, Tim., but how did you like the Chin'Zon dragons that you can control in the final phase of the game? As minor units go, I spent the most time getting those right. I was surprised by the effect of giving the dragons to an allied player with shared unit control--it effectively made the units auto-cast Banish and Forked Lightning! Works OK, in my estimation, and it would be hard for me to incorporate those units into Player 1's slots because of the unit supply cap I'm trying to impose (not to mention the fact that I don't want you to have lots of flying units in the sub-maps). But, I was very happy with how the Chin'Zon riders came out, just haven't heard any feedback about them. Also, roughly how long did it take you to complete the whole thing? How much less productive have I made the world by unleashing this little gem? Dave Edited by Tim. Reason: Merged a double post into this one post.

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