Naga Campaign: Seas of Sorrow!

Well, I've been into Naga lately and I decided that they deserve a campaign! This is the story of a Serpentine Knight, one of the elite guards of the Society of the Naga. They guard the throne rooms in the citadels and they are also sent on dangerous missions, since they are so powerful, the empire doesn't need to worry about them failing. The name of our Knight is Verra Serpentscale, and he is one of the new recruits to the Knight's Society. To prove himself, he has been sent out to take care of a mysterious being who has been manipulating the Naga, causing them to attack unexpectedly, and later causing them to go mad. Fortunatly, he grip hasnt extended to the higher societies. Altough he is a threat, the Naga aren't taking him too seriously, as the Naga are known to think highly of themselves, and are quite confident in their strength. Their undersea adversary isn't too happy about this so he is beginning to cause some serious damage to the Naga Capital City. Verra is now prepared to chases down this menace and put an end to his evil ways. Who knows what will happen in the time he's gone, but for now, The Hunt is On!

You will control Verra through varies underwater cities, temples, and even Shipwrecks! As he continues through his adventure, he will meet new allies that will aid him in his quest. Your ragtag group of adventurers will explore through a full campaign of underwater levels in which they can take on various optional quests will pursuing their ultimate goal, could their adventure even lead them to the world of above?

At the moment I've finished terrain for the first playable level, its a linear map that leads you through a giant shipwreck where you will square off against long dead pirates, then you will duel with their captain on top of the sunken ship! After getting through the ship, you'll be at the outer gates of a sunken temple. I set up a switch puzzle thing that lowers bridges so you can go further, once you flip the switch that lowers the gate to the final switchs, you'll awaken a resting Revenant! Once you finish off the Depth King, you'll be free to enter the temple. After entering the temple you need to take down the massive Sea Butcher at his bloody altar. Once he's dead you have acess to the gate switches. Once past the ruined gates, you'll be face to face with the enemy you've been seeking! Unfortunatly for you, he takes off through a massive gate, which you dont have a chance of opening by force, but no need to worry, after taking down the Boss that appears, you'll have safe passage through!

To give the map an underwater feel, I added lots of giant fish school doodads, and a nice blue fog. I'm also going to enhance it with some sounds. If you have any more ideas, speak up! At the moment I'l need everything a campaign team needs, but I might do without a modeler, but some skins would be nice ;)
I'm not too concerned with how fast it will progress at this point, so no need to rush. Ideas would also help, so if you're interessed, post!

Sounds great, Naga are the living embodiments of coolness!
I've always wanted to see a campaign such as this. I can help with storyline ideas, and main object editing.
There are enough main models and icons to flow through it without too much editing, which is good. I'd love to see this progress, don't give up! ;)

Eh go on ahead and makle your naga campagne i play anythiing that shows fairly good terranes and story such as mathias or cryptrobbers just dont make maps to plain or small that will immediatly get you a 3 from me

Great idea, I can help with thinking of a storyline bits and quests/"tiddly bits".

I can also help with some skinning if i can re-install my "modified" photoshop.

hmmm, i don't know you. are you capable of leading a team? well anyway, you sound like you are.

story could be better, im not really impressed. it sound like the story of illidan and Maiev. but the underwater world is interresting.
show some pics of the map, i want to see the underwater world. (if you don't mind)

anyway, if this project continues, i can help you skin and also with story writing.

Well, I didn't put much effort in the storyline yet, but I'm sure it will develop as it goes along. I'l post some screenshots of the characters and some of the terrain, tell me what you think. Also, I'm not planning on make this a linear game where you just follow the path and kill creeps, I'm going to make full use of the underwater enviroment, I have a good idea for a map based in a really deep trench, so visibility will be poor and the water will be dark and murky. I like the red skin for the main character, it looks more menacing then green. I've decided that all Serpentine Knights are red, thats how they're chosen. That means I'l need a red icon for him, shouldn't be much trouble. Now, I really like the naga demon hunter, but I having trouble naming him, so I'l have to see what we can come up with. Although the ship might not look like much, its fully pathed, and it works well ingame, the only thing is I'l need to add custom camera angles when he enters because lots of stuff gets in the way :\

I like the idea, but there are a lot of questions unanswered to even lift this project from the ground.

When I play custom campaigns, I look for a great overall look, a compelling storyline and/or unique gameplay/ideas. Since it is a bit premature to talk about the look of it, I will only comment on storyline and gameplay.

The current storyline
If I read correctly, the story is about Verra, a young Serpentine Knight that needs to prove herself.

The Naga are indeed arrogant and self-confident, but I doubt they would send only an apprentice against a monster attacking their capital..
The fact that the Higher Societies are not affected (yet?), sounds like a way to get Verra through the campaign sanely. Maybe it would be more interesting to let her go insane slowly, attacking her friends, killing her loved ones, and losing her mind, while still trying to do her mission. But maybe that was already the idea?

The campaign storyline is a bit generic, summarized it looks like
Shipwreck -> kill captain -> Outer gates Sunken Temple -> kill Revenant Depth King -> Enter Temple -> kill Sea Butcher -> Ruined Gates -> kill some Boss -> Massive Gates -> final enemy
You could make a program that has a database with some locations and villain names, and generates a story like this in a second..

Also, who is this enemy the Naga are facing? In all the time I have been writing, I have learned that, while having mysteries in your book, as a writer it shouldn't be a mystery to you. Such things shouldn't be postponed.

Since the Naga are originally Night Elves who were willing to make a pact with an evil like Sargeras, I guess they could do that again. I don't know that you are familiar with the extended Warcraft storyline, which talks about the ancient Gods. One of them is Neptulon the Tidehunter. Although banished by the Titans, another one, Ragnaros the Fire Lord was already able to return to Azeroth by the Call of the Dwarf Thaurissan. So maybe, Azshara did try to summon Neptulon, hoping for power, but things went terribly wrong(as did it go wrong with the dwarfs), and are even getting worse. Just thinking aloud.. There are of course many possibilities.

Writing a decent storyline, is even more difficult because the lack of enemies and allies under water. As far as I know, the enemies of the Naga are almost all landdwellers. You could add a Royal Guard Hero, maybe a Murloc Hero(those arent even underwater people, but you can presume they are amphibious given their fish look), but who else? Sea Giants are the common enemy of the Naga, so they should definitely be included. They are some kind of underwater Dwarfs (and, on a sidenote, definitely no magicians, so probably no good choice for the final enemy). Dead pirates, Revenants, Elementals, Turtles, insane Naga.. what other enemies will there be? If you are planning on a campaign with multiple maps, I think you need more of them. Well, just thinking aloud again, in the end it is up to you of course. This said, I don't think it's a good idea to try to get models of sharks, more sea giants, and other underwater enemies, before the project even started. It would doom it, I think.

Gameplay
The underwater world should be cool. Minor point of interest would be that Naga swim (as should most creatures there) under water and not walk(to my knowledge). A solution to this would be to make them all flying units and make their walk animations swim animations, although that might ruin it a bit.

EDIT: Nice screenshots

You're right, the story is a major element, but I just thought of a quick idea to get the project going. I'm liking your idea about the summoning thing, maybe the naga are getting fed up with the landwellers, so they called to Ashara for aid. Ashara attempted to bring back Neptulon, but the spell failed horribly. Now from the point of the summoning there is an immense energy field that is beginning to seep through to the Naga, although they become filled with power, the corruption is too much for them (kind of like the energy itself is tainted) Some of the Naga are beginning to be gripped by this terrible madness, so they have sent out the Serpentine Knights to destroy the artifact that was used for the summoning (some kind of statue that is used to channel magic) At the moment, Verra is off exploring outside the city, when he meets a strange foe that retreats out of the temple. In light of recent events, he decides to tell the empire about this strange being. As he begins to make his way back, the ruined doors that teh enemy escaped through open... Verra is caught between 2 descisions, should he return or should he chase after this strange foe. Verra cockiness overcomes him and he goes through the gate. Little does he know that he is being led closer to area of the summoning, and madness is beginning to grip him...

That can work as a basic plot maybe, but I want to include the other Naga that are being sent after the artifact, maybe some cutscenes for them, showing how they're progressing. Unfortunatly for them, when they get to the center of the summoning area, the power overcomes them and they are twisted into horrid abominations of their former selves. Will this happen to Verra? We shall see ;)

As for enemies and allies, the Naga don't accept much help, so they've made common enemies out of most sea creatures, but nothing serious. As for allies the guy in the screenie will be one, a Mur'gul hero too, maybe a ranged spellcaster?
Three heroes is plenty at one time, but they may split up into groups at some points, they might meet companions then, but they're not premanent.

As for swimming, I've tried it, but it looks sloppy when you can see the bottom of them. I think walking is enough, I may use swimming in some cinematics, but other thebn that, I don't think so.

About time I commented on it eh? I got a cold, so I'm pretty unactive right now, so excuse me for any mistakes.

You said that the Naga deserved their own campaign, yes, well, many people thought that, and as far as I can recall, no one succeeded in it. There was a nice discussion about it in the Warcraft III Discussion forum quite some time ago as I recall... I didn't pay much attention to it though.

The story is decent, but as I can see, it is still under progress. I do suggest that you try and finish the story (completely) above anything else though. Seeing as you got quite the wall in front of you regarding WW.

But as HolyAngel said *cough* as well, "Are you able to lead a team?" people often take it as granted and think it is 'easy'.

*cough* *cough*
-Fladian

Well, I prepared to lead a team if others are willing to help. I'm sure that the burden of being a leader is quite a job, but I'm active on the forums and this is about the 20th time I've checked my threaad today....Yes, the story is the main issue, and I don't want to start anything major until its ready.

Btw, gl with that cold

*cough*
Well, glad that someone agrees that it is harder then most people think ;) I often am scolded because the leader disagrees.

Anyway, checking a thread for about 20 times is not too special ;) Why not? Because I used to check about every thread out here in the Team Gathering forum about 20 times (at least, those who had a post since the same day) because I am fond on my position ;)... but then again, that was in the time when I still had a lot of free time, which I don't have these last few weeks...

Thanks, my cold isn't anything bad though, just some headache and somewhat dizzy, it really won't stop me from posting, but it does affect my common sense... probably...
-Fladian

Well, I was pretty busy, so I'm trying to juggle this in along with numerous other things... Anyways, I've checked back again, just what? That makes 21 Well, we'll have to see if your cold is affecting your judgement, you havnt posted anything out of the ordinary...

You could give a good start on your project when you're somewhat 'less' busy otherwise.

21 eh? Becareful that you don't break my record ;)
*cough* *cough*
-Fladian

Lol, I wasnt exactly busy, just doing other things.... well you might call that busy, but...err... I guess I did too... Anywho, this is n. 22, look out bub, I'm catchin up

There is already a mod campaign called Seas of Sorrow here: http://forums.samods.org//index.php?showforum=45