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 is a list of all campaigns and their chapters/missions in Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos and Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne. Contentsshow Reign of Chaos Prologue campaign Exodus of the Horde 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.
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 3 Custom Campaigns Download
Since the release of Warcraft 3 Reign of Chaos and Frozen Throne - I had a dream to recreate Warcraft 2 campaigns using the Warcraft 3 engine capabilities. I've been creating maps and models, doing long pauses, quitting and remaking stuff for years. When Warcraft III: Reforged was released it inspired me to finish this campaign. Are there any Warcraft II campaign mods for Warcraft III? As the title says. Has anyone created a custom map or mod in warcraft III to replay the 'Tides of Darkness' or 'Beyond the Dark Portal' campaings?
Warcraft 3: Tides of Darkness is a reinterpretation of the events and gameplay of Warcraft 2 on the superior Warcraft 3 engine. The horde and alliance will once again clash in an epic war for supremacy on Azeroth and Draenor. I'm part of a team that is recreating Warcraft 2 Campaign using Warcraft 3 Reforged assets and custom models made from scratch, this is a tremendous task which requires a lot of skill, resources and time, everything's put into motion and we have a solid 'pool' of assets so far, we'll keep updating our progress! But we do appreciate your donation and support to help us compensate our efforts and dedication in delivering a fresh experience of Blizzard's old game to the newer generation.
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.
Warcraft 3 Campaign Download
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.