Download the map(need Warcraft III & The Frozen Throne to play)
Motivation
While playing Warcraft III’s custom maps, I realized that the RPG maps were more about endless grinding and less about “role playing”.
Goal
So this map was designed to make the players play their “roles”, such as a warrior, mage, healer, enhancer and on. This was designed to make people cooperate, be challenged in terms of unit control and to encourage communication.
Features
It has character bounded items with different grades, along with the raid-like design. Grinding is not necessary while it is still possible. The character’s skills were redesigned so that they had a specific style, which made it extremely hard to play alone.
Play testing and tweaking
Players have to play their role, and cooperate to finish the map. In order to balance the map and skill sets, this map was posted on a Korean community website for custom maps. I played with the players, and also people posted their feedback in the comment sections. Mostly new players tend to get wiped out often, but they realized there are other ways to beat it so they played over and over to reach the end. The last part of the map is less balanced due to the small number of testers reaching those areas.
Layout
The map contains quite a few major encounters, along with some maze factors and hidden bonuses. The details of the map will be explained below.
A: Pick your character
B: Weak enemies that respawn
C: Boss1, summons skeletons and golems, the portal controls the spawn of area B
D: Extra Boss, it is strong and is healed by healers, grants the players an early access to powerful items.
E: Fairly powerful enemies that respawn, gives the players a challenge but also makes the next zone, G, easier
F: Extra Boss, many enemies spawn in a small area, while in the area players receive periodic damage, the portal controls the spawn of area E
G: Portal maze zone, has mines planted, enemies do not respawn but due to the mines the area could be challenging, contains a extra boss
H: Infinite swarms of weak enemies, due to the small area it is hard to proceed, gives players a chance to level up and farm gold
I: Boss2, summons enemies and uses magic, has healers close by, compaired to the extra bosses it is more of a rewarding stage for zones G & H
J: Player receives strong periodic damage, enemies are powerful and respawn, the portal controls the respawn and life of the enemies, need cooperation
K: Boss3, the second strongest boss, has strong minions around it and based on the time new/different minions are added, the boss has a shoot and pray type of attack which could do massive damage but also is his weakness, need cooperation
L: After boss3 this zone seems to be easy and very rewarding, each enemy is strong but the numbers in each incounter is small, powers up the player to help them survive the next zones
M: massive amounts of enemies await in a small chamber but due to the strength of the minions it makes the player feel good by killing massive enemies in a short period
N: A massive maze guarded by powerful towers and foes, players need to find all the levers that open the next door, the projectiles from the towers can be dodged, need cooperation
O: Final Boss, extremely powerful boss guarded by strong enemies, the boss transforms multiple times and grows stronger, towers seen in zone N are in the area which makes the battle more challenging
Seewon Park 