Advance Wars for Warcraft

Advance Wars 2.0b BETA for Warcraft

Author: masda70
Genre: Multiplayer Turn-based strategy
Max # of players: 4

DOWNLOAD HERE

Meeting for games information:
Channel: Clan RooF
Gateway: Azeroth
Contact: masda70, Congojack, Nipp0523, Naughtyelf, Giantkrow
Others: DarkRising713@Azeroth, AWf77@Lordaeron, awfreak at msn.com
Look at this thread.

README FIRST
I am working on a version that will feature lots of bug fixes and new stuff... until everything is done there won't be any new releases. Thank you for your comprehension.

At the moment there the map is actually playable in 1v1 since I haven't implemented any real 3-4 player map yet!
The map itself is currently aimed at somewhat experienced players. At the moment it lacks of tooltips, random tips, a tutorial... It shouldn't take long for a person has already played the original game to master the 'different interface' though!
Otherwise, you can look at the 'map info' menu (F9 ingame, aka quest menu) for command information and for links to sites related to the game. I've started working on map info since yesterday... so eventually there will be better information later.

Coming changes (3.0) :
- Missile silos, pipe seams
- Von Bolt (done) and Rachel (missiles will all probably work fund based for now)
- Lots of info boards
- A custom map implementation for users, using Roma_emu AW DS map editor
- Tooltips, better UI, gameplay in general...
The original game site hosts a public pdf manual. From page 6 and then past page 17 there is *some* useful information. I've been basing part of the tooltips on the information given by that manual.

The game
I've been working over the past few months in a remake of a nintendo portable console game (GBA/DS) for warcraft and it's been working quite good so far. For those that don't know what this game is this really sums up what it is:

"Advance Wars is a turn-based strategy game created by Intelligent Systems and distributed by Nintendo. You command an army of land, sea and air units which do battle against your opponent. "

An overview of the game at the following links:

http://www.gamespot.com/ds/strategy/...ds/review.html
http://www.gamefaqs.com/portable/ds/data/924889.html


The project
I started theorycrafting around this idea after having played some other turn-based game for warcraft (Soulchess), but then after some research I learnt some other people had already started similar projects for different platforms/languages.

One of those projects features a web implementation of the game. Although it lacks a lot of playability the project has really caught attention of lots of people.
http://awbw.amarriner.com/

My initial aim was never to make a new version that would compete with other existing remakes but it was more like a challenge to see how much I could exploit the wc3 engine so it was mainly for fun. I've done most of the work alone and I have requested help for most testing which includes clan mates. I must also thank what I have so far to all of the Advance Wars sites for lots of the information about the game, wc3jass.com for its great tutorials and Vexorian for his optimizer.

I've gone through many problems while making the map, but it's funny there has always been a solution of some sort... even just a tiny modification that just makes lot of stuff possible, sometimes a bug exploit...

Game state, features
I've already remade most mechanics of the game and the map is pretty much playable at the moment but I'm still working on adding some last few features. The way I implemented it also features map selection.

Concerning coding, everything has been implemented in order to make it easy to completely change (except the general mechanics) most game rules concerning most features in the game ... you could actually make a new game out of the "basic template" I have. And for those who care it's written completely in JASS.

What will happen next

Improve the game, add the last missing features and probably implement new ways of managing user defined maps!

Screenshots

I have attached one picture but here is the link of a zip file with some preview pictures :
http://www.clanroof.com/user_folders...70/AWShots.zip

Change Log

7/02/06 v2.0b : - Added a minimap preview picture
- Changed back to default some game interface things like race and computer level names. This was after the discovery of a player's anormal behaviour, which caused exclusively to that player random disconnections.
- Fixed a bug where leaving players before setup and after player number selection weren't correctly defeated.
- Added a few more credits


7/01/06 v2.0 : Initial public beta release

Well, all I can say so far is that this looks very interesting :D It looks like you've making it very true to the real game. It will be fun getting to test the actual game through wc3. Usually these things are just normal wc3 with some new models and a bit different gameplay...

Thanks!
Although about your last comment, I would like to reply that having some fancy custom textures and icons for the interface was something I've been to work on. Either way there is probably a lot to be done interface-wise.
What do you think about icon sizes, camera distance?

This looks pretty cool so far :) I absolutely love the AW series, and being able to play it online against other players sounds pretty awesome. How much of the mechanics have you finished?

wow it's amazing, i luv what uv done with the lighting, and what i like is how creative your being with wc3. Really cool, hope to see finished product

Well I'm kinda just missing a few features: pipe seams, missile silos and one CO (from the DS serie). All of the units have the DS stats.

I'm pretty much looking for beta testing at the moment but since the map lacks of game info, CO descriptions, etc, testers either need experience with the game or have to get a look at :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advance_Wars:_Dual_Strike
http://www.advancewarsnet.com/awds/info.shtml

Though tooltips are dynamic, which means no longer you will have to go over an icon of a unit to read its description and you just have to type
"-help <unit name>" which displays unit info including your CO day to day and power bonuses!

That screen shot looks interesting (nice usage of what I presume is are semi-transparent models?). I can see this being a very good map. I presume you'll time limit turns?

Anyway good luck with it. I don't normally think game ports are a good idea, but I think this one could be.

Squares are alphaed images (Image API); mountains and tags are models with blend as material render, so they draw under images.
Arrows on the other hand draw inside fog of war using Art- Extended line of sight unit option.

Please read our Rules, images of that size must be thumbnailed via [thumbnail] or [attach] tags (Attach tags only work when you attach the image to your thread.) I will do so for you this time.

Looking good.

it looks verry cool, but i do have questions:
-Is this a wc3 adaptation of the game? meaning that it will play in the warcraft universe and have warcraft units and CO's?

-I think you should make use of the fact that warcraft III is a 3d game. It would be more interesting, i think, to use a diffrent camera angle then straight from above. It looks awkward with wc3 models. You could however, always just import a whole lot of new models to make it look better.

Other then those things, it looks terrific.

The map is still the same as the Advance Wars game. Masda is just making it playable on Warcraft 3. =)


The camera angle in th screenshots were just set that way for the people to see the whole map, I believe. I'm pretty sure that you can still change the camera angle manually.

Keep up the good work, masda.

Ah, I am sorry not to have fully taken acknowledgement of the rules. Otherwise thank you.

@ertwenpeller: the fact that the game is in 3D has always been such annoyance for me because tags and images height get messed up when moving the camera around. I could always experiment with a different low inclination though.
The idea of a Warcraft universe game still stands... the whole map is designed to work as a customizable system that one can easily change, given the general features included in the original game (as in the fact the map has a rectangular shape, players choose when to end their turns!)
EDIT: Though if we just consider models I have to say it looks pretty weird sometimes... the submarine is a snap dragon, the infantry actually look more advanced than mech (marine and rifleman models), rockets are a demolisher, artillery is a mortar team...

As for timed moves... I'm open to suggestions, since I am not really sure how that is supposed to work (depending on unit number? customizable at start?).

I'd say customisable at start, with the ability to end early. Perhaps make it so that, rather than end the turn automatically, the other players can forcibly end their turn after the time is up?

The non automatic timer ending is an interesting idea; I will have to take that in consideration. At the moment only testing will say... AW's been always particularly marked by the possibility to save gamestates and to delay games. I'm thinking adding a timer answers more of a competitive logic rather than any practical reason: after all a game like this is probably something you want to play through organized/private gaming since it already demands few players to meet together.

I've just added the ability to change camera distance to the floor. Also for those wondering about the 3D feel, and a look at a different angle of attack here are some screenshots:

Finally I have released a beta public version of the game. It still lacks of 3-4 player maps but it's pretty much working for 1v1. Enjoy!

Look at the map info inside the game for more information.