The League of Engineers

The league of Enginners campaign tells the story of Engineer Gazlowe, who, long before working for Thrall in Durotar was a humble tinker in the league of engineers. The campaign is set about half-way through the human campaign in Reign of Chaos, when Gazlowe is sent to investigate a cry for help from the league of merchants who have come under attack by undead forces.

The campaign tracks Gazlowe's struggles to unite the squabbling, greedy, rival goblin leagues to fight for their own survival. It will also try show the inner-workings of the goblin society (as I see them) and answer several questions such as why goblins can be found in Kalimdore.


I have conceptualized most of the maps and plan to do pratically anything involving the World Editor (terrain, triggers, object editing) but I will need some extra models, especially buildings, to create the goblin race, and, as with any campaign, voice acting.


If you would like to help, or to make a suggestion please reply, thanks.

Wilbo


PS: this is not a rip-off of "dwarves and goblins". I have especially not looked at that mod in case I accidently copy somthing, which is not my intention. Other people are allowed to have a go at goblins too.

1. It's engineers =P
2. Rags to riches/Zero to hero/One person uniting everyone tales are cliched in every sense of the word - try to come up with something more interesting? (I think the people in the stories forum might be able to help you out [/shameless plug] :P)
3. Kalimdor
4. The inner-workings of the goblin society is a good idea - I like it =)
5. Try to give us more details, if people like what you've got so far they'll usually help out.

Sorry about the late reply, been rather busy. I'm not going to use quotes, as I'm not very good at them:

2. I would think the whole goblin idea itself would be hopelessly cliched, but you do have a point. However, it is hard not to be drawn to this type of story if you have a hero starting on level 1 and working his way upwards. As for the stories forum, I would rather write one myself, imagination one of the only things I have going for me in terms of modding. Besides, it's half the fun!

5. Okay, good idea, but I'll start at the start:

I was playing ROTD, mainly for the goblins, and thinking to myself: This guys done a brilliant job with spiders, surely the same thing could be done with goblins. So I had a look at what Blizzard has written on goblins and, as far as Warcraft III is concerned, there is practically nothing except the mension that "goblin have struck of alone because of their greed" (and this harder explained why we find goblin in kalimdor working for Thrall).

So I thought to myself, this is a brilliant opportunity to play around with goblins and make up a society and history for them. All it needed was a story, but because this story evolved around the society, and not the other way round, I'll admit it wasn't probably the best. So mabye I should talk about the society itself and not the story:

Goblins were one of the lesser races of Dreanor who the orcs press-ganged/recruited during the second war. Though many (in fact, most) gave their lives in battle, the orks did little to reward them (sore losers) and so after the second war, the miserably small number of remaining goblins broke off from the horde, united in their will to survive. They had to set themselves up as travelling jack-of-all-trades, having no real home, but they soon discovered a knack for wheeling and dealing. Thus they began to settle permanently as merchants and artisans, and were soon creating new items and contractions to satisfy their customers.
They split themselves into many different guilds and leagues, the most powerful of which being the league of merchants whose shops soon sprung up around Azeroth and Lorderon, and the league of engineers, from whose factories the frist Shreders soon sprung.

As soon as the goblins began to thrive however, feuds sprang up. Though the guild of notaries had published numerous agreements and treaties stating that goblins must all work together for the good of goblin-kind, getting the goblins to actually help each-other without payement became harder and harder as the years went on.
They forgot that trading was merely a means to and end and so never established themselves as a nation, simply calling themselves the association of free goblin traders.

I'll write some more later, but I think this is enough for now.

Well, I have no idea if anyone cares, but I will continue:

Obviously the goblins keep their best creations to themselves, in-case they are one day attack by an enemy (so that they won't have their weapons used against them). There are also many weapons and upgrades that havn't been tested yet (ie: does it explode at the right time?).

This convoluted plot device gives me an excuse to use goblin inventions and units that arn't in warcraft III, and to add new upgrades to the ones that are, without changing the story. It is also the basis for the new story, which is hopefully devoid of too many cliches (decadence):


As I was explaining before, the goblins, especially the League of Engineers (who are charged with the protection of the others), keep many of the inventions to themselves. Our story starts with one of the members of the league trying to sell secret goblin technology to the cult of the damned in a sort of black arms-bazaar. Fortunately the other Engineers discover his plot and dispatch our hero to defeat him and his undead allies before the deal can be settled.

The rogue tinker manages to escape, but he is disgraced and kicked out of the league; and practically disowned by his own kind. In order to take his revenge on them he steals dwarf technology and elven artifacts, framing the League of Engineers. With these items he creates a doomsday machine which he plans to use to create an army of demon-machine hybrids...


At this point I would like expressions of interest (I can dream can't I?). I once planned out every detail of a 10 mission campaign and nobody was interested. Obviously I don't want to make the same mistake again

Wilbo

when I say expressions of interest, I mean, is anybody interested? If I posted the completed project would you bother downloading it?

Sure, sounds interesting enough.

I dunno, sounds like a big project to me...

*shakes the 8-ball*

Sources say 'yes'.

Lockie, It's not such a bit project in that there are many goblin models lying and plenty already in the game as well. I just have to put them all together and then have one or two things made. Do you mean big as in, long download time big?

I don't quite understand you, The Grand Mage, can you explain yourself a bit (8-balls etc). By the way, aren't you also making your own goblin campaign?

I will write some more about the goblins later, but have run out of time once again.

Wilbo

By the way, the whole story is very much a work in progress but I'm aiming (as you may or may not have noticed) for somthing simple and vaguely James Bond'ish rather than the original "uniting the people under one banner" or the "rags to riches" sort of campaign.

I mean big as in big project, I can't help you with it but I would surely play it if it is completed :) Goblins are just so cool! :D

That is why I am confused, I mean, why hasn't anyone done this before if goblin are so popular.

I don't have World of Warcraft (I don't play games often enough to make the fee worthwhile) but I hear there are some new goblin inventions in it. Would somebody who has the game please enlighten me.

Basically in WoW if you pick the Engineering skill and get it up to a certain level you get to choose whether to continue with either gnomish or goblin-based recipies.

The Goblin recipies are:

Goblin Bomb Dispenser
Goblin Construction Helmet
Goblin Dragon Gun
Goblin Jumper Cables
Goblin Jumper Cables XL
Goblin Land Mine
Goblin Mining Helmet
Goblin Mortar
Goblin Rocket Boots
Goblin Rocket Fuel Recipe
Goblin Rocket Helmet
Goblin Sapper Charge

You can find the whole list of Engineering abilities here: http://www.thottbot.com/?t=Engineering;sort=name

Wow, that's a lot, thanks! Can you tell me what this "dragon gun" does?


more on goblins:

As I was saying before, as I see it, there are two main leagues "in charge" of the goblins, so more on these first. These two leagues are very powerful but in very different ways:

ENGINEERS:
The league of Engineers has a great military power, developing all the goblins' secret weaponary, It also has a reasonable financial power, as it independantly sells most of its technology straight from laboratory to customer, instead of being sucked into the league of merchants like so many other guilds. The engineers' main problem is that they are obsessed with what they do, and as soon as they have money they spend it developing new gagets.
The league of engineers is a very peculier organisation, as the enginneers themselves are somewhat a minority: most of their inventions are operated by hired hands (some of whom don't know what they are actually operations) In fact, because of the danger of many of their inventions, few engineers venture to the front lines, except for the Tinkers, who are mad (even by goblin standards) enough to test their experimental invention themselves (they don't trust anybody else with their "babies"). Tinkers are semi-independant, coming and goibg from the league and often selling their inventions, or their services, to the highest bidder. They are the peak of engineering skill, and it is every apprentice's dream to create their own inventions once they have learnt all the old recipies.

MERCHANTS:
The league of merchants are like so many crooked buisnessess today. They have bought out or employed most of the guilds and the rest have to sell through the merchants who take part of the price. Thus the merchants are extremly rich and so have an almost complete power over the whole of goblin society, (every goblin has his price, as the saying goes). They would take over completly if not for the league of engineers who, as afore-mensioned, sell independately. The merchants themselves are seen as high class however (though anyone with pots of money is), wearing rich cloathes and jewls and sporting massive guts. They are born around in caddies, inspecting their "workers", and inspiring awe wherever they go.
The merchants are excellent wheeler-dealers and very good at bartering, buying low and selling high. They are also great negociators, and can stop a conflict with bribery and promises.

The most important thing I need for this mod is a goblin anti-air unit. I really like Domokun's sentry gun and thinking along those lines I would like to do a goblin with a gattling gun. I have a few ideas as to the details and I can't quite make up my mind, what do you guys think?

idea 1: A single goblin with a gattling gun, based on a marine. I think this one is a tiny bit boring, but I can't dismiss it.

idea 2: A team of goblins with a really big chain gun who could set up to defend an area. This sounds a bit more gobliny, but would have to be based on a mortar team, and though the little dwarf could easily become a goblin, the big one is far to muscully his goblin equivalent would look weird.

idea 3: Same as idea 2, but the big goblin is replaced with a clockwork robot (that this little goblin must occaisonally wind up). This could work really well or could fail completly.

So, what do you think. Sure, there's no fancy java polling booth, but I can count, so tell me what you think.

Wilbo