Hi all,

I want to showcase a new project I have been working on the last few weeks. It’s another(!) Game of Thrones project - but with some twists. It’s current and working name is Game Of Thrones: Pawns And Players. The name is a reference to S01E05 of the Game of Thrones series. The name should reveal one of the central features of the map: who are the pawns and players in the race for the Iron Throne?

In this map, Heroes are central for your faction. Well, it’s Warcraft, heroes have always been the central units of your army. What I mean is, when you choose to play Robb Stark - and Robb Stark dies - you are defeated.

Game over that quickly? No, you get to roll a new character. Maybe this time you will play as Beric Dondarrion? Instead of commanding a large army, you play a faction with 2 heroes and a few demi-heroes, to engage in guerrilla warfare.

At this point in time a player has 3 lives and gets to play 3 different characters. You accumulate points by completing a character’s objectives, at the end of the game the player with the highest score wins.

We already have Game of Thrones… What’s the difference?

You probably know the beloved maps Robert’s Rebellion and Song of Ice and Fire, great in their own respect. The gameplay in those games is fun but simple: a grand strategy battle between set alliances where individual players with the best micro can excel in performance.

A faction can comprise of 4 or more heroes, with timed spawns that sometimes lead to controlling five or more unit groups. While these heroes level up, they become the deciding factor in determining battle outcome. A group of fully-leveled heroes will surely defeat 3 unit groups of footmen.

In GOTPAP, you will never control more than 3 heroes. Sometimes it’s only 1 hero - for instance Brienne of Tarth - will you be able to find Catelyn’s daughters with her?

I believe one of the biggest flaws in Warcraft is the ability to select units en masse. What a drag it is to attack-move your 8 control groups to your enemy. Warcraft is supposed to be played with 2 or 3 control groups, so let’s aim for that.

Oh, and no Essos. Nobody wants to play on Essos.

So the big differences are:

1. You play a HERO, not a FACTION. Some heroes come with armies, some don’t.
2. You will play up to 3 different heroes, instead of 1. Do you know the board game “Small World”? Yea, I got the idea from there.
3. The winner is determined by a score that is tracked in scoreboard
4. Due to the nature of picking heroes, sometimes some heroes will not be chosen. This will lead to entirely new and dynamic games and what-if situations. What could Renly have done if Stannis never assassinated him, because Stannis never left Dragonstone?
5. Leavers do not ruin the game
6. There are 10 player slots, but a game can be viable with e.g. only 4 people

Goal of the game

As I explained in the introduction, you will aim to achieve the highest score. Some heroes naturally have higher potential scoring than others. Robb Stark can capture King’s Landing and Casterly Rock to gain a total of 250 points. He can make decisions that will lead to more points.

Beric Dondarrion has only 1 objective: Protect the smallfolk. It will give him 100 points. Maybe you are cunning enough to stop other players from getting points, gaining victory through this method? Or better, maybe you don’t care about the score and just want to hit and run the big armies.




Faction showcase



So I briefly talked about Robb. The current start date is just before Robb is assembling his bannermen. Ned Stark is still alive, though be it in complete mercy of Joffrey.
Robb’s initial objectives are:

• Capture King’s Landing
• Capture Casterly Rock

Robb’s initial decisions are:

• Call the banners
• Send Theon to parlay with Ironborn (potentially backfires)
• Send Catelyn to parlay with Renly

If Robb is picked, some other heroes become available as well.
Edmure Tully, who will instantly be Robb’s ally. Walder Frey, who will be Robb’s ally unless he.. changes his mind. Roose Bolton, who will be Robb’s ally unless the Tywin-player offers him a certain something.

Walder and Roose are designed as counters to Robb Stark, who has a massive scoring potential. If you are playing Robb, and Walder is picked… start scoring your points as fast as you can.

What will be added in the future - after the beta-stage

- AI (if a major faction is not picked after X minutes, they start spawning computer-controlled units that attack-move to player-owned holdings)
- Brief cinematics for major events
- Game of Thrones theme & sound effects
- Variable lives?
- Variable start dates?

What am I hoping to find here

Testers, and ideas.

A lot of the triggers in the map are dependent on player interaction, that means I won’t be able to unit-test a lot of functionality right now.

Also, while I do enjoy creating maps, making triggers and custom units… I find abilities tiresome. If you have any ideas for custom abilities, please fire them at me. A thing to keep in mind is that I try to differentiate Fighters from Rulers from Commanders.

• Jaime Lannister, a fighter, would have abilities like Critical Strike
• Robb Stark, a commander, would have summons and auras
• Mace Tyrell, a ruler, would have abilities that boost his food, score, or spawns?

If you have an idea for objectives or decisions, I’m also eager to hear that. It’s easy to map out Robb or Stannis, but for Doran it’s a different ballgame. We know Doran is a cautious diplomat, who tries to secure alliances through marriages. I am not sure if he has any other objectives than that … so let’s hear it.

- Additional Hero Blink range increased to 800 from 600 (used by Vashji, Vereesa and others).
- Lesser Clarity Potions now being sold in Human Markets.
- Loading screen resolution fixed (special thanks to BlademasterRush for doing this!).
- New player command added: -countcheck. Once typed it will show you the actual number of factions in the Grand Alliance.
Note: factions of left players are still counted there, and if you want to reduce the count and allow other players to join the Alliance, you have to kick leaver factions if there’s any.
- Sargerite Fragment time requirement increased from 15 min. to 30 min.



Fel Elves:

- The base at Sunstrider Isles will remain yours upon going Fel Elves.



- Worgens path will be unlocked to research again 5 seconds after New Dalaran falls.

Worgens:

- Darius Crowley got Combat Training again as an additional ability on «T».
- Gilneas Knight changes:

• Base damage increased by 6.
• Now has passive damage reduction - Rigged Armor, decreases Range and Melee damage taken by 10 to a minimum of 3.
• Now has a new passive ability in Nightbane form - Viciousness: Worgen fights with the ferocity of an apex predator and has an increased chance to hit with critical strikes.
• Cannibalize ability removed.

- New ability added - Devouring. With each attack the unit will steal 4% of his damage to heal himself.
Units affected: Worgen (Footman), Worgen Nightbane (Gilneas Knight).
Note: this passive is hidden, and cannot be seen in the unit's abilities.

- Synced Upgrades: if the levels of your Melee/Ranged upgrades are lower than 4, then they will be upped to 4/4.

- Sons of Arugal in Worgen form now have Lycanthropic Regeneration ability as well.

- Gelbin hero icon updated.

Wildhammer:

- Wildhammer Thane Forked Lighting:

• Cooldown increased to 28 seconds from 20.
• Number of targets decreased to 4 from 5.
• Damage increased to 150 from 50.

- Maz Drachip Invigorate cooldown decreased to 28 seconds from 35.

Dark Iron Dwarves:

- Dark Iron is now a Rogue Alliance faction, but you can still make allegiance to the Old Gods and obtain Twilight Hammer Clan as an ally.


- Summoned Dragonhawks will now immediately go towards the Rally Point of the Elven Lodge.
- Dragonhawks:

• Attack range increased to 400.
• Base health increased to 900.

- After researching Silver Covenant subpath, if Dalaran is destroyed or belongs to Rogue Alliance, Vereesa will appear at Falconwing Square.
- Vereesa Windrunner can now found the Allerian Stronghold in Outland for resource rewards.

Forsaken:

- Nathanos, Putress and Sylvanas will no longer transfer to the Scourge when Forsaken leaves the game or goes to Night Elves. Instead, Arthas’ Scourge or Lich King will get a research in Altar of Darkness to obtain Sylvanas.

Sentinel:

- Watcher's Guild now does not require Illidari to happen.
- Wisps are available to train from most of the neutral buildings (like Observatory or Dun Morr).
Scarlet Onslaught:

- Objective Reward for going Scarlet Onslaught increased from 300/300 to 700/700.
- Inquisitor gold cost reduced to 23 from 25. Consuming Frenzy ability replaced with Purify.
- New ability added - Purge Evil, which purges enemy units dealing extra damage to summons, otherwise deals 10 damage to non-summoned units.
Units affected: Crimson Legionary, Crimson Knight.
Note: this change should make Onslaught units more specialized in fights against the Scourge.
- Scarlet Marksman gold cost reduced to 19 from 20.
- Renault Mograine changes:

• Unholy Conversion ability replaced with Avenging Wrath, a Thunder Clap-like ability.
• Fanaticism ability replaced with Hammer of Justice, a Storm Bolt-like ability.
• Now has +2 more base Intelligence.
• Can once again reconstruct and fortify the Tirisfal Monastery, doing this will give you resource rewards, will unlock Exorcism ability on Renault and will grant a new hero - High Inquisitor Sally Whitemane.

Her abilities:

• Q - Purgation.
• W - Light’s Shackles.
• E - Silence.
• R - Gift of Resurrection (does not work on enemies and Demi-god heroes like Goldrinn).

- Crimson Knight changes:

• Health increased by 100.
• Armor increased by 1.
• Base damage increased by 4.
• Now has passive damage reduction - Rigged Armor, decreases Range and Melee damage taken by 10 to a minimum of 3.
• Zealous Faith passive got a new icon.

- Brigittes’ abilities:

Retribution Aura changes:

• Attack Rate will be decreased by 14% | 21% | 25 % | 35 % up from 10% | 15% | 20% | 30%.
• Movement Rate will be decreased by 18% | 25% | 30% | 35% up from 18% | 22% | 26% | 30%.

Onslaught Banner changes:

• Cooldown increased from 25/20/15/10 to 30/35/45/50.
• Banner health reduced to 500 from 1000.

Draenei Alliance:

- Successful defending or early escape will now save the Draenei units, and you will regain them later with the Draenei Alliance path.
- Sigil of the Naaru affects Velen once again. Healing increased to 200/250/300/350 from 100/150/200/250.
- Benevolence (A’dal hero spell) heal increased to 175/225/275/325 from 150/175/250/325.
- Draenei Priestess base damage increased by 2.

- War Zeppelin gold cost decreased to 50 from 75 (also used by Syndicate).
- Northrend Expedition is unlocked only after the Culling of Stratholme now.

Arthas Scourge:

- Undead Falric now has a new mounted model and new icon, thus movement speed increased to 290 from 250.
His ultimate ability level increase requirement is also lowered to 5 from 15 (means he needs 15 levels to get his ult maxed instead of 25).

- Shockwave on King Ymiron replaced with Wrathful Blow: a melee-range ability which deals damage to the main target, and to the units around it.


- Once Green player goes Syndicate or leaves the game, a research to receive Vorpil will be unlocked in your altar.

Note: this change is made mainly to prevent Green players from abusing Teron and Vorpil in Syndicate, but it also gives Legion and Dark Horde the option not to receive these heroes if they don’t want to.

- Legion base in Stratholme now spawns with 1 Tomb of Relics instead of two Altars of Darkness.

- Crown of the Eredar damage increase reduced from 25% to 5%.


- Draconic and Fel Horde Advanced Upgrades are locked behind the 20 mins mark now.

- Shockwave on Kargath reverted to Mighty Blows ability, which has been also buffed:

• Damage dealt increased to 50/65/80/95 from 40/50/60/70.

- Once Green player goes Syndicate or leaves the game, a research to receive Teron will be unlocked at your altar.

- Hellfire Citadel now has a Siege Aura.

- Fel Ray changes:

• Base health decreased by 340 (to 560 down from 800).
• Base damage reduced by 4.
• Is no longer magic immune, but has a 75% magic damage reduction (including spell damage).
• Gold cost increased to 21 from 19.

- Lesser Demon Portal cannot produce Nether Dragons and Voidwalkers anymore.


Syndicate-Alterac:


- Resource rewards for going Syndicate increased to 1000/1000 from 500/500.

- Alterac has been slightly retterained and now has 10% more space inside. Lower passage to the city removed, so you can enter it only from north.

- Tower of Alterac now has Reveal ability.

- Crown of Alterac item changed: it can be used to heal nearby allies for 250 health (has the same cooldown group with Lordaeron Crown). The Crown does not drop upon death.

- Horn of Alterac ability will no longer affect allies, and also has a new, less bright effect.

- Lord Falconcrest changes:

• Will now get a +1 lvl for establishing a base on the ruins of Stromgarde.
• Shadow Meld ability replaced with Wind Walk.
• Rapid Fire ultimate will now increase attack rate by 120/180% instead of 100%. Duration increased to 45/70 from 25/40 seconds.
• Paralytic Shot now stuns the heroes for 1.5 / 2.5 / 3.5 / 4.5 seconds up from 0.50 / 1 / 1.5 / 2 (also affects the same ability from Nathanos).

- Resource rewards for occupation of Stromgarde increased to 300/300 from 150/150.

- Synced Upgrades: if the levels of your Melee/Ranged upgrades when you were Shadow Council were lower than 4, then your Melee/Ranged upgrades as Syndicate will be upped to 4/4. Your Evil variant of Power Infusion will also apply to your Human variant of Power Infusion.



- Shadow Warlock:

• Mind Rot ability removed.
• Shadow Minions base damage increased by 5 and they got new abilities: Blink and Equilibrium Shield, which reflect melee damage back to the enemies.
• Now has a new model and icon.

- Exiled Priest:

• Raid and Pillage ability got moved on Q.
• Now has Healing Wave on E.
• Gold cost reduced to 18 from 20.

- Rogue Knights:

• Now has passive damage reduction - Rigged Armor, decreases Range and Melee damage taken by 10 to a minimum of 3.
• Base Damage increased by 2.

- Pillager gold cost reduced to 16 from 18.

- Instead of Nagaz you will now start with a new hero - Beve Perenolde. She’s adept at fire magic.

Her abilities:

• Q - Healing Wave.
• W - Wise Council.
• E - Ember Feathers (deals AOE damage and stuns enemies in area of effect).
• R - Meteor (calls down a meteor which lands at the target location after 3 sec, dealing 350 Fire damage and burns the ground, dealing 10 Fire damage over 8.5 sec to all enemies in the area.).

- New Subpath: The Argus Wake.

• Nagaz will return, he’s always revivable but will be removed with Alterac Reformation.
• Replaces your current Assassin elites with Arch Warlocks.

Arch Warlocks abilities:

• Q - Cripple.
• W - Fel Burst: Hulrs a deadly surge of Fel Energy at a target enemy unit, dealing 140 damage to primary target and 30 damage to nearby enemies every second. Reduces movement speed by 10%. Lasts 4.5 seconds.
• E - Shadow's Embrace: Shields nearby allied units in Shadows, instantly restoring 160 health and 90 mana.
• R - Mark of Argus, a Doom-based ability.
• T - Demon Circle.

- Maximum number of units summoned by Dark Summoning from Nagaz increased to 35/45 from 25/35.

- Light Blue and Purple players will now get an invite message to the Rogue Alliance Team when Syndicate is formed.

- When going Syndicate, Teal player will now get all of your control points and buildings. If the Legion is destroyed, they will turn neutral hostile.

Darion's Rebellion:

- Undead Sally is replaced with Arch-lich - Amal’thazad. He can be called from the Altar of Darkness.

• Purify ability replaced with Frost Nova.

- Undead Thoras Trollbane is replaced with Champion of the Ebon Blade - Koltira Deathweaver. He is your starting hero.


- Dragon’s Breath Cannon is no longer invulnerable until Dragonmaw Port is destroyed.

- Warlock Archer damage dice reduced to 1 from 2.

- Necropic Blaze now has an effect on target-unit, damage dealt decreased from 30 to 25.

- Brute Strength upgrade gold cost decreased to 100 from 150.

- Fel Orc Grunt base armor increased by 1.

- Clan Ogres from Bloodmaul Outpost have been moved to Zuluhed, one of them got removed.



- Various tooltips fixed.

- New Dalaran and Naxxramas can no longer enter Dalaran Dungeons via Outland portal.

- Dar’Khan Drathir demi-unit is no longer available in the Ashen Verdict path.

- Prince Arthas has more priority than any other Lordaeron hero or unit now.

- Kul-Tiras pathing corrected.

- Silver Hand cannot research the Argent Crusade right after Uther’s death anymore, it will be unlocked a minute later now. This allowed players to abuse it, and get both Argent and Scarlet Crusades.

- Fixed several memory leaks in Blood Elves/San’layn/Sunfury and Silver Hand/Scarlet Crusade triggers.

- You can no longer keep Barean Westwind with Briggite by abusing reviving in Altar.

- Tirisfal Councilors cannot be charmed by Forsaken Elites or Yogg-Saron anymore.

- Dragonmaw Clan allies can now destroy Menethil Harbor for him, and a base with demi-hero will spawn.

- Scarlet Onslaught base can now be a target of Teleport Scroll.

- Ogre Stone Thrower and War Drummer models fixed, they caused graphic glitches in large-scale fights.

- K'ure Surge of Power now won’t restore mana to enemies too.

- Coilfang Reservoir fixed, it didn't move to the Outland and was being destroyed in Storage.

- New Dalaran now properly requires 3 mins. after the destruction of Old Dalaran to be founded.

- Thori'Dal will be removed from Sylvanas when she turns Forsaken.

- Void Walker model fixed. It was too bright-pink.

- Shield upgrade is unavailable for Ranger Corps now.

- Blackwing Major-domo cannot be trained after canceling Black Dragonflight path research anymore.

- Scarlet Onslaught and Worgens will no longer count as -2 for Grand Alliance count.

- Faceless Commander Vezzax model fixed.

- Genn now appears with the proper type of Archers.

- Ashbringer should no longer appear on the ground under any circumstances.

- If the unit-target of Archimonde’s Favor has 6 items in inventory, the Crown of Eredar will move under his feets instead of being perished.

- You can no longer summon the Burning Legion from the enemy controlled/invulnerable Sunwell.

- San’layn will no longer start with -1 control point.

- Ashbringer will be cleansed and given to Renault/Tirion no matter who killed Fallen Alexandros.

- «Unleash the Beast» ability now properly available only at level 10 and 15, icon fixed, effect changed.

- Aerie Peak pathing corrected, units shouldn’t stuck anymore.

New version of LTF will come very soon, but before it can be officially released, we want to make a planned game of it.
The game will take place on Sunday 30/08/2020 at 20:00 CET.
For details and game status keep an eye at #Planned-games channel in Marsh Sanctum.Participants of testing game will also get an access to changelog.

Game rules:

1. Shadow Council, Dalaran and Silver Hand are forced to betray and join Rogue Alliance before 1 hour mark.

2. Try to bugg out and abuse everything you can, to find as much buggs as possible.


Lordaeron Alliance:
Highborne:
Dalaran:
Dwarves:
Ranger Corps:
Silver Hand:
Lordaeron: Awers

Evil Forces:
Lich King:
Burning Legion:
Dark Horde:
Shadow Council:
Cult of the Damned:
Dragonmaw Clan: