Lordaeron the Foremath
Reforged Alpha Test Notes
VERSION 0.01 PATCH NOTES
SUMMARY: When LTA and LTF were first conceived many years ago, we decided to push the boundaries of what could be added into a macro RTS map, we added more and more content into the map, until it became bloated and overly intricate. We thought there was no limit to the amount of content we could add and were soon proven wrong by the instability that ensued.
With Reforged soon to release, Yousef and I are extremely excited for LTF's future and development in the crucible of this new re-imagining of Warcraft. But, this also comes with the realization that we cannot transfer LTF over to Reforged without some sacrifices. We have therefore had to remove a lot of content, most of which related to Outland and Dark Horde, and made some major gameplay changes in order to streamline the map.
The huge increase in model quality from classic to reforged has meant that the overall army size has had to decrease, and total number of buildings and doodads has been lowered as even modern computers would struggle with so many HD models in one map. However, these changes will future proof LTF and enable the map to survive into the next era of WC3 modding! It also provides us with a base to continue development and hopefully add some of the lost content back in the map.
I still hope we can add Dark Horde back in the map and finally add Kul'tiras as the final 13th and 14th players, but it will be some time before this happens.
This is still very much a work in progress and the map is not available for public testing yet, but as we move forward with Reforged there will be no more updates for LTF classic from now on. While the map transitions over to Reforged this thread will serve as a patch log to detail all the changes taking place.
GENERAL MAJOR CHANGES
- Lordaeron city has been expanded.
- The area around Lordaeron city and Tirisfal has also been expanded.
- Grim Batol instance has been added (Work In progress).
- Shadow Council starts off within Grim Batol instead of Auchindoun instance.
- Loch Modan has been expanded.
- All factions have been limited to a maximum of 4 heroes in play at once. (Details below, does not include god-tiers).
- New playable faction: Nerubians (Details to follow).
TEMPORARILY DISABLED: Will be added in later updates.
- Dark Horde.
- Players can no longer set their name.
- Blasted lands, Searing Gorge, Dun Morogh, Buring Steppes regions.
- Illidari path.
- Dreanei path.
- Ironforge related events and The Skybreaker.
PERMANENT REMOVALS: Unlikely to be added back unless Blizzard increase total map size.
- Outland and related events.
- Deepholm has been removed.
- Black Dragonflight path.
- Putress path.
- Blood Queen Lanathel
- Vareesa's empowered flying variant.
- Dreanei Exotar.
LORDAERON ALLIANCE
GENERAL ALLIANCE TEAM CHANGES:
- The Broken alliance mechanic has now been reworked into a different system which should be more accurate and take into account leaver players. See editors only list for more info. Unfortunately this won't take into account players who have left during load screen but once I know the basics work it can be modified.
- Shalandis Isile has been sunk into the ocean (Was just a pointless CP sniping island anyway).
- In an attempt to stop abusive gate "Open/close" tactics, there is a 5 second cooldown before the gate can be opened or closed again.
MAGISTERS
- The Sunreavers will now spawn in Dalaran rather than in Northrend, provided Blood Elves is still in the alliance and Dalaran city still stands.
- Sunreavers Archmage's Soul Burn spell has been replaced with Banish.
- Wretched heroes have now been renamed back to actual Wretched characters instead of San'layn characters.
- Wretched hero Keleseth is now Kael is wretched form again, Vampiric aura has been replaced with siphon Mana.
- Wretched can summon Dar'Khan Dathir as a bonus hero, this hero no longer belongs to Cult of the Damned as his spellkit goes much better with the Wretched.
- Blood elves can still go Blood nights but without needing to control Mu'ru in Outland, Mu'ru will spawn in Silvermoon.
- Blood Knights now replace Swordsmen when relevant path researched.
- The Shield around Silvermoon and the Sunwell dissipates when player goes Fel Elves.
- At level 10 Anastaran can draw power from the Sunwell without draining it, granting him +1 level, a powerful new ultimate ability, and adds an AOE effect to his basic attacks and the usual event gold bonus. Anastarien no longer has mana shield. (Provides some end game goal for Highborn and rewards player for defending sunwell.)
- Light of the Highborne upgrade grants Anastarien +1 hero level instead of unlocking his mana shield.
RANGER CORPS
- Windrunner spire has the same target restrictions as control points, so it can no longer be targeted by Air or battleship units to prevent base aims.
- Dragonhawk Riders limit reduced from 12 to 8 but HP, damage and gold cost has also been increased.
- Forsaken no longer gains base at Tarren mill.
- Sylvanas Valkyr empowerement requires level 10 instead of level 15. (Event is not powerful enough to require level 15).
- Malfurions Nourish has been set back to Renew Land like it was before (Regrows Trees).
LORDAERON
- Hydromancers Blink has been replaced with Lightning shield spell.
- Daelins Battle Bond spell has been replaced with Scatter Shot.
- DG Scourge Knights are now limited to 12 again, base hp increased from 1200 to 1300.
- New Lordaeron player may chose to permanently kick blood elves from the alliance and grant Garithos +2 hero levels and gold and lumber. (#Never trust and elf! #Make Lordaeron Great again!)
- Hyrdromancers require Kultiras Alliance.
- King Arthas can still go Scourge path if he is killed by Undead team and he wields frostmorne.
- Lordaeron no longer starts off with Galen Trollbane, instead he must be summoned at an altar. Lordaeron player must chose between Falric or Galen but cannot have both out at the same time.
- King Arthas path requires only King Terrenas and Broken alliance, does not require Stratholme.
SILVERHAND
- The Scarlet Onslaught Battlehorn no longer drops when Bridgette dies.
DALARAN
- Dalaran Arcane Defense crystals have resistant skin and cannot be fingered by Legion anymore.
- Dalaran Vault seal has been moved within the main chamber, it also has the unleash experimentals and Knowledge of Alodi ability (Requires Broken Alliance).
- There is a small costal beach area known as Smugglers cove on the eastern edge of Howling Fjord in Northrend, this is where the Scyth of Elune spawns.
- Summoning Genn Greymane as King of Gilneas is now a sub faction path which allows Gilneas to rejoin the Alliance of Lordaeron.
- Darius Crowley hero no longer requires the Lorna resue event, he can be summoned at an altar and is reviveable as long as Gilneas city is within the players control.
DWARVES
- Dark Iron requires Khardros' Anvil in Grim batol before this path can be triggered, Dark Irons main base where they can summon Ragnoros is now within Grim Batol.
SCOURGE TEAM
GENERAL SCOURGE TEAM CHANGES:
- Undead Battleships can no longer target control points.
- Ghouls no longer have lifesteal.
LICH KING
- Cast range of Frozen Thrones "Armies of the Dead" ability has been reduced so no longer castable on elven islands.
- Nerubian Ziggurats of Azjol Nerub and Ice Crown have had their HP reduced from 3000 to 2500.
- Blue no longer has access to Damned mages or anti-magic shell (Now with their additional allies they should be less self-sufficient).
- The Helm of Domination now casts Frost Nova instead of Charm (was causing toon many issues with being able to charm elites.)
- The Lich King player has been renamed "Scourge" and if Lordaeron go undead path they are named simply "Death Knights". (This is to simply confusion caused by the terms Lich King and Scourge.
- Cost of Nerubian Towers increased from 30 to 35, hp decreased from 1200 to 1000, base damage decreased from 42 to 38.
- If the Lichking is destroyed then all blues units, including control points, now go over to Dark Green/Pink if they have triggered their undead paths. Forsaken also joins neutral Renegades team if LK is destroyed.
- Blue has Alexi Barov as a summonable hero instead of Anub'arak.
CULT OF THE DAMNED
- Heart of Naxxramas has decreased repair time and +2 base armor.
- Stone spine duration of Death Strike slow on heroes reduced from 15 seconds to 5 seconds, initial damage has also been slightly reduced.
- Duration of Deathwhispers Death grip spell reduced by 1 second when cast on enemy heroes.
- Kel'Thuzad ghost is no longer granted if he dies in human form.
- Darion's Mana Void ultimate has been replaced with Heartripper ultimate. (Mana Void was bugged and used a triggered ability featuring dummy units.)
- Cults Damned mage's Plague Couldron has been replaced with a simple summon Zombie spell (For performance reasons).
- Patchwork HP regeneration has been increased from 0.50 to 2.50 and no longer requires him to be on blight in order to regenerate.
FALLEN NERUBIANS
- The fallen Nerubian Empire has been added as a playable faction within the game. They are an elite, small army with very powerful front line and casters, but they are few in number. They have excellent mobility but are extremely dependant upon their ancient and mystical city of Azjol-Nerub.
LEGION TEAM
GENERAL LEGION TEAM CHANGES
- All sea transport ships have resistant skin and cannot be fingered by Legion anymore.
- Orc workers also have the unsummon suicide ability.
LEGION
- Cooldown on Demonesses charm inCreased from 60 to 120 seconds.
- The preliminary Invasion of Azeroth will automatically trigger soon after Archimonde is summoned, thus opening the gateways to Mardum.
SHADOW COUNCIL
- Shadow Councils starting base has been moved from Auchondoun to within Grim Batol.
- Shadow council have the event to Summon a Legion Gateway instead of Dragonmaw.
- Duration of Shadow Councils Fel Lord summon increased from 2 minutes to 3 minutes.
- Gold cost of Shadow council death knight increased from 80 to 100.
DRAGONMAW CLAN
- Deathwing can be summoned from within Grim Batol instead of Deepholm.
- If Twilights hammer control Khardros's Anvil they gain a new base within Grim Batol and Erudax hero.
- Ogre armies subpath is still available for Dragonmaw clan, but instead of Gruul they gain a base down south: Mo'grosh Stronghold, and hero: Gor'kresh, the Ogre lord.
- Deathwing is summoned from within Grim Batol instead of Deepholm.
BUG FIXES
- Camera no longer perma shakes for Undead When an Obelisk is destroyed.
- Vorpils Sacrifice no longer requires Fel Hammer
- Malfurions summoned tree of eternity now has improved stats and uses upgrades.
- Murmur no longer has higher priority than heroes.
- Other players cannot summon Patchwork on Stratholme.
- Many buildings can no longer train infected inns.
- DG gaining all Blues units has been disabled due to reports of bugs and desyncs caused by this.
- Dwarves no longer require SIege bombs upgrade to use ground attack on Gyrocopters.
- Cultists can no longer go into shade form (This had a risk of crashing the whole game sadly). Of course theys till have perma insivibility.
- Dalaran experiments can no longer be eaten by Kodo Beasts (Transport size increased to 2).
- Tyrande now gains xp from Undead Sylvanas.
- Hyppogryth Riders use correct upgrades, they can no longer take CPs.
- It should no longer be possible for Shadow Council to retain old heroes when going Syndicate Path.
- If Lordaeron Palace is taken by a player from Neutral old gods team game now correctly kills off king Terenas.
- Dar'Khan Dathir in living form can no longer be carried over to Fel Elf path.
- Pathing hole in Azjol Nerub has been fixed.
- Cultists, acolytes, Ganargs, now all have the suicide ability.
- Purge slow duration of Vykrul Death Knight elites on enemy heroes has been halved.
- Frost Nova slow duration on enemy heroes has been halved (Hero version of Frost Nova).
- Kel Thuzad's "Summon Corpses" and Anubaracks "Spawn Eggsacks" no longer stun enemy units while spawning.
- Darions rebelion ahs been renamed back to Ebon Hold.
- Dar Khan Dathir and Anastarian can no longer level ultimates to level 2 on level 12.
- Calia can only grant ankhs to allied heroes, she can no longer give it to alliance god tier unit: Aegwin, the Guardian.
- Vykrul Death Knights are no longer a higher priority than heroes.
- Tranquilen Forsaken base spawn no longer happens if Forsaken have gone Night Elf path.
- Game now correctly recognises Arthas as being level 15 and allows him to merge with Nerzhul.
- Archimonde's Demonic Rune spell now correctly applies buffs.
- Night Elves can no longer Gain Varimathras.
- Blue no longer gains Varimathras and Nathanos when Forsaken turns Night Elf.
- Long Staves and Spirit of the Quel Dorei now correctly works on High Elf heroes.
- Forsaken can no longer trigger 5 minutes into game.
- Legion can no longer train more than 4 Pitlords during Invasion of Azeroth initiation event.
- Healing Salve item, kinor replenishment potion has correct CD group.
- Darkgreen player no longer gets a warning when Stratholme is destroyed when they have already gone Scourge path.
- Range of anti build arua to stop players towering event locations has been increased.
- Elites no longer have higher priority than hero Nathanos Marris.
- Frost Bolt has correct hotkey.
- Alterac Alliance and Ebon Blade path can no longer absorb sunwell when in alliance.
- Pitlords Hotkey abilities have been fixed on english versions.
- Undead Sally Whitemane is correctly classed as undead.
UNIT COUNT REDUCTION
- In order to enable playable with Reforged the following changes have been made to lower the general unit count of the map.
- Maximum army size has been decreased from 200 to 100.
- Income from control points have been reduced: 15cp --> 10cp, 25cp --> 15cp.
- Income from bonus special structures reduced from 20 to 10, income from gold mines and Heart of Naxxramas has also been reduced.
- Damage tables adjusted, all armor typres except fortified and hero now take 10% less damage.
- Gold cost of all upgrades have been reduced by 50%.
- Number of starting units and creeps has been reduced slightly.
- Workers food cost decreased from 2 to 1.
- Amount of units summoned from spells and triggers has generally been decreased.
- Gold given as reward for events has generally been decreased. PROGRESS UP TO ILLIDARI AND SUNFURY PATHS
- Starting gold has been reduced.
- Each unit kill grants +10% more hero experience.
- Defensive towers no longer cost food.
- Old gods team can no longer trigger Forsaken by killing Sylvanas.
EDITORS ONLY:
- Triggers associated with hiding units in the hero storage area have been disabled, another simpler solution must be found for players entering this area, hiding heroes means added complications when heroes need to be unhiden when triggered.
- The "less than 5 factions" techtree dummy units have been removed. (Will need to find a simplier solution to alliance player counts as this is buggy and complex).
- Blue and Grey both have access to the same shade unit, removed 2 other duplicate shade unit types.
- The obsolete capital city flag system has been removed.
- Broken Alliance checks: There are now 2 Aliance player groups, the first one handles alliance changes when someone betrays, the other group keeps a runnign count of players within the alliance and includes leavers. Players are removed from the alliance count player group but they are retained in the normal alliance player group, this means leavers won't be classed as playing factions. This is a simple solution and does no rely on - or + variable integers.
- Destructable doodad variables for Twilight Rocks have been replaced without the use of variables to show/hide them.
- Wandering spirits effect has been removed from Icecrown and Deathknel to reduce unit unit lag.
- Removed to the wait on anti-magic shell autocast triggers.
- labeling system guide has been added as a note within general trigger tab, this details the color codes used for various headers on event messages and ability descriptions.
OPTIMISATIONS
- Various Unused Doodads have been removed (Too many to list).
Deleted unused abilities:
- Demonic Runes (2-3)
- Battlestations (Undead 1
- Battlestations (Undead 2)
- Battlestations (Elf)
- Stratholme
- Deatholme
- Ladys Necklace Dummy Abil
- Summon High Elf Workers
- Summon troll workers
- Subdue all the troll Loa gods abilities x3
- Holy Strike spell has been removed (throwback to LTA)
- Place teleportal crystal
Deleted unused units:
-Hawk ???
KNOWN BUGS UNABLE TO FIX:
- Income command displays income twice (No idea why).
[END OF VERSION 0.01 PATCH NOTES]
