Who has played 'To the Bitter End', my Board-Battles themed Warcraft III mod?

[john greymore]

Except that unofficial releases become something like beta tests, which Soul doesn't really like... if I remember correctly.

Otherwise I'm all for it! It's one of the reasons why I haven't uninstalled my Warcraft 3.

[Fei]

Still waiting for Multiplayer Campaigns =P.  The people have spoken!  /holds up noose.

[Soul Reaver]

Except that unofficial releases become something like beta tests, which Soul doesn't really like... if I remember correctly.

Otherwise I'm all for it! It's one of the reasons why I haven't uninstalled my Warcraft 3.

Nah, I'm not opposed to Beta maps - in fact, all the current releases are beta maps, and I've learned about and fixed quite a few bugs thanks to that.  I'm mostly opposed to releasing a half-assed map - I do a lot of playtesting first to make sure there are no game breaking-bugs or that the difficulty is impossibly high etc.  By the time I finish Chapter VIII, that'll all have been taken care of for that Chapter.

Still waiting for Multiplayer Campaigns =P.  The people have spoken!  /holds up noose.

I don't see myself making multiplayer versions anytime in the near future.  Far too much hassle....

[Veldanya Venalla]

well just finished the final chapter (well thats been released so far that is) and gotta say its pretty good Soul

[Soul Reaver]

well just finished the final chapter (well thats been released so far that is) and gotta say its pretty good Soul

Thanks Jharm, I appreciate it!  Does it seem like a board-battleish adventure?

And did you succeed without having to resort to cheats?

[Veldanya Venalla]

yes it does seem very board-battleish....especially a lot of the big waves of fights which leads me to the next part....

sadly no I did not mange to beat all of it w/o cheats.  Completed like the first 2 chapters but after that I pretty much had the god-mode cheat on clipboard and pasted it in if someone in the group was about to die...course I won't lie...made it feel almost even more board-battleish with the whole "super beings pwning the shit out of everything" lol.  Overall it was a pretty awesome campaign...just felt kind of weird watching all the cut-scenes without any sound like there is for the actual WC3 (I know this is not something that is really able to be done...just commenting)

[Soul Reaver]

yes it does seem very board-battleish....especially a lot of the big waves of fights which leads me to the next part....

sadly no I did not mange to beat all of it w/o cheats.  Completed like the first 2 chapters but after that I pretty much had the god-mode cheat on clipboard and pasted it in if someone in the group was about to die...course I won't lie...made it feel almost even more board-battleish with the whole "super beings pwning the shit out of everything" lol.  Overall it was a pretty awesome campaign...just felt kind of weird watching all the cut-scenes without any sound like there is for the actual WC3 (I know this is not something that is really able to be done...just commenting)

Hehe, didn't think you'd finish it that quickly unless you did use cheats.  But honestly, it IS possible to finish without cheats (one guy actually managed to finish it without saving, which is quite insane).  I think it's a lot more satisfying to win through by sweating blood than by cheating.

I do kind of wish I could have some awesome voice acting for the cutscenes, but the problem is that it's either awesome voice work or none - half-assed voice acting is far, far worse than just having text.

Chapter VII is only really fun without cheats though.  Have you given that a try without cheating?

[john greymore]

sadly no I did not mange to beat all of it w/o cheats.

Ah, I know how you feel. Had to cheat through the entire game my first time round. But I went through them all again without cheating. Feels really really good after that!

(one guy actually managed to finish it without saving, which is quite insane).

Damn, the whole campaign or just one map? I gotta try it out sometime.

[Soul Reaver]

Damn, the whole campaign or just one map? I gotta try it out sometime.

He did it one map at a time - so if he died, he'd restart that map.  Still horrendously difficult, and I wouldn't recommend it.

Ah, I know how you feel. Had to cheat through the entire game my first time round. But I went through them all again without cheating. Feels really really good after that!

[Daccio]

I just found my Copy of Warcraft 3, so i beleive I may be giving this a try soon.

[Soul Reaver]

I just found my Copy of Warcraft 3, so i beleive I may be giving this a try soon.

Awesome.  Keep me posted - I'd like to hear what you think once you've given it a go.

[Danyael]

I remember you noting at some point in the FAQs section that you were once interested in voice samples. Is that still in effect or a moot point?

[Soul Reaver]

I remember you noting at some point in the FAQs section that you were once interested in voice samples. Is that still in effect or a moot point?

Well, actually the FAQ says:

Q:  You should do voice acting for the map!
A: While I do partially agree, there are two problems with this.  Firstly, unprofessional voice acting is liable to sound a lot worse than the voices you give to the characters in your imagination, and could thus seriously detract from the game’s atmosphere.  Secondly, the sheer amount of dialogue in some of the maps would cause them to balloon to insane sizes.  I’m not ruling out the possibility of doing that in the future, but it would only happen if I get a better place to host the maps on and some really dedicated and skilled voice actors to help me out.

So basically, although voice acting COULD be cool, it would most likely be downright awful unless it's done to a professional standard... which means I'd rather leave it as text rather than half-ass it.  Also, not everyone will be interested in downloading a massive (hundreds of MB, I'm sure) version of TTBE just for the voice acting.

Plus it would take a long time to implement and re-time the cinematics to match the voice acting (which would then eat away time from my work on Chapter VIII), so it's fairly low on the priority list.

[Danyael]

Plus it would take a long time to implement and re-time the cinematics to match the voice acting (which would then eat away time from my work on Chapter VIII), so it's fairly low on the priority list.

You're not done developing the game?

[Soul Reaver]

You're not done developing the game?

I wish!

To the Bitter End, in it's entirety, is supposed to consist of a Prologue cinematic, then Chapters I - VIII, then an Epilogue cinematic.

I've finished Chapters I-VII (which are downloadable and fully playable.  They're essentially done save for minor balance changes or bugfixes I might try to implement), but I'm still working on Chapter VIII.  The Prologue and Epilogue also still need to be done, though luckily they're both 'just' cinematics so the work required is less than for a full, playable map.

Chapter VIII is coming along slowly but steadily.  I try to work on it every day for about an hour (assuming no vital things get in the way), and I've been making noticable progress, but it's not done yet.

[Danyael]

Sounds like more's involved than I'd assumed. Sort of puts things into perspective.

[Shadow Chorus]

Yeah. Seems like You would release To The Bitter End VIII to the people who actually show the most interest in the story, I.E., the ones who joined the forum because of it (Such as me), or other such things, and then wait until you've finished the cinematics and release the official chapter with them to the masses. Win Win situation.

Also:

I do kind of wish I could have some awesome voice acting for the cutscenes, but the problem is that it's either awesome voice work or none - half-assed voice acting is far, far worse than just having text.

I'm always open. Theater is a wonderful wonderful thing.