[Preview] Counterstrike at Quel'Thalas

thanks, and yeah I'd noticed the maps didn't completely line up, some rivers are shorter etc...

Man, I was doing some Male Archer updates and noticed that player color patch on the back of archer's head. Do all of you base your male archer models on Night Elf Archer?! I had to remake the whole model!

I'm making a male Ranger (WC2 style) out of Shandris for Rommel...

If you can do him Warcraft 2 style, you're a genius, man! All I did is load the High Elf Archer model into Aztec, reduced girls' breasts and converted her figure a bit to look like that Bobthetomato's model, then changed the skin and imported it. The model looks the same as before, it just has no colorful patch on the head.

By WC2 style I actually meant this Ranger is an upgraded version of the Archer... I may give a WC2 style Elven Archer a go though...

I know what you ment, I am just stuned :)

Ok, here's a quick scetch I made of the area I need. If any of you is drawing the map, please use this for reference. Oh, by the way, a couple of lines are for my use (like that human city name thingy). Ignore that.

It's time I tell you a bit more about the main characters of my campaign (later the same information will be added to a readme file of the campaign):

Added: Some information might be changed to sound better or to reflect character's personality:

Added no.2: Oh, bellow each character history, you can find a picture of him/her in the game. Later, art pictures might be added too.

Lord Thalion Silvershield

He is one of few original settlers from Kalimdor that founded Quel'Thalas. After the Sunwell and Silvermoon were built, Thalion was elected a member of the Council and had a leading role for several years, though he often publicly disagreed with High Elven ruler of that time, Dath'Remar, about the use of magic. The self-acclaimed King demanded that no boundries should be set for wielders of magic, enabling them to use magic of light and dark, while Thalion argued that magic of dark would inevitably turn against its users. Though Thalion's point of view was accepted and Dath'Remar was overruled, Thalion, accompanied by a few of his most loyal followers, left the Council and Silvermoon. Meanwhile, Quel'Thalas got involved into a bloody war with vicious Forest Trolls of Zul Aman, who killed the dark ruler of Quel'dorei and almost succeded in razing the capital city of Silvermoon. If it were not for the brave Humans of Arathor, High Elves would have lost everything. Silvermoon Council agreed into exchange of Elven knowledge for Human troops wich at last allowed Quel'Thalas to prevail.

All the while Quel'Thalas was fighting for survival, a small group under Thalion's leadership settled in a hidden valley deep in the Grey mountains northwest of Darrowmere and build them a new home. Thalion's wisdom proved vital to their survival, as he brought a portion of Sunwell's waters to his new home and created there a small Well of his own. This enabled his people to become independant from the central source in Silvermoon and later, when Sunwell's energies were corrupted, still flourish in the green valley. To protect their new home, a small, but highly effective strike group of highly trained archers was created, who became the sole guardians of the Valley, simply known as Green Rangers, because of their famous green clothing to hide amongst the trees. The Elves of the Valley lived for hundreds of years without any contact with outside world, though many of them longed to see their friends again. At last Thalion and others decided to establish contact with Quel'Thalas again, under the condition that no outsider be ever told of location or allowed to come into the Valley and this rule was only broken once ever since. When Thalion was on a visit in Silvermoon ages later, met a young Silvermoon Ranger, Altariel Goldleaf, who just finished her training. Impressed over her skills, lord Silvershield offered to further train her and she accepted. She was the only outsider ever allowed to enter the Hidden Valley and Thalion himself showed her the many secrets in magic of light.

When the Second Great War broke out and Quel'Thalas started gathering troops for the Alliance, Altariel left to follow her previous mentor, current Ranger-General of Silvermoon, Alleria. The Valley once again saw no outsider for several years. But Thalion was not worried about his beloved Ranger, who he cared about as if she was his daughter, nor was he concerned for the safety of the Valley. His main concern was centered on Quel'Thalas. He sensed dark clouds gathering and the time of their arrival was almost here. The time has come to show his full might and to prove that his ways were right.

EDIT: minor flaws in the story were corrected. More comming soon, together with more screenshots of missions.

Hello, boys n' girls. After a few days I'm back again. Anyway, I was really busy with spells lately. I've been able to make a 100% replica of Starfall spell, wich means I can now have both Starfall (for Night Elves) and Armageddon (as its High Elven equivalent is currently called - name candidates are Sunfall, Sunstrike, Rain of Anor,...) in the campaign. The spell is base on an empty Tranquility (effect is still visible, but since I don't have any hero using Tranquility in the campaign, I will manually remove the effect to achieve what I want (though it looks great now :)). Also done is Stream of Life, wich is another Altariel's spell. Now it heals exactly you and your allies, while it still damages Undead. This too will be removed, because damage to the Undead is achieved through Exorcism spell (one of both human heores will carry that one, probably that Half-Elf Adanion).

However, not all is great. I'm doing a small recoloring of the Town Hall/Keep/Castle and I figured out Human houses have but one flaw to become Elven: the roofs. I'd like to achieve a "natural" effect without loosing team color. However, all Elven roofs in the game are either flat stone (Barracks) or made of straw. Bellow you can see a screenshot of the Town Hall I was playing with (unfinished of course). Any ideas for roof changes will be welcome...

Here come another few screenshots of current progress. First if the "Armageddon" spell (will be renamed later), basically a trigger offshoot of Starfall. It might happen that I will rename it to Searing Light and change the attack animation to something like a ray of light hitting target units.

Another shot of Armageddon spell:

This final screenie today is also a call for help. I'm trying to create a small version of World tree with treetop (World Tree doodad doesn't have it). I'll try making a tree with a standard top and one with house just under the top. The later will be used as a Farm for Wood Elves who will only be able to build it on specific ("World") trees. If anyone can do this for me, I'll be grateful, of course, as I already have loads of stuff to do.

what sort of top to the tree? Canopy? Pine? Give me some hints so if I do do it.

Also screenies look great :D

Oooh if you want a canopy. Edit the Ashenvale Canopy Tree doodad, and scale it up big time. Then get rid of its pathing texture, and move its trunk into one of the world trees. That will hide the trunk, but the leaves will still show, making the world tree look like it has a canopy.

um or I could just take the canopy from the Ashenvale tree and put it on the World Tree :P