Heart of Storms: Official Trailer released!

02-11-2007, 01:03 PM

Heart of Storms Mod

Site: http://hos.samods.org/
Forum: http://forum.samods.org/index.php?board=14.0

Status: In development (Closed beta released, public trailer available)

Summary:
One of the oldest mods in community (in production since 2002), intended to feature a full-scale single-player campaign in combination with a complete conversion of all five races as well. We aim to combine top-level technical work (unit model, skins, sounds) and a balanced unit set with an intriguing, character-driven story and challenging single-player missions.

Features:
Campaign/story
- The multi-layered plot closely follows the events of Warcraft I and II, but at the same time interweaves them into an entirely different story;
- The epic conflict is shown through the eyes of characters who just try to find their way rather than becoming great heroes;
- Along with known 'old friends', two new races are introduced, ones never seen before in the world of Warcraft: the enigmatic Shadow Elves of the Aether Cult, worshippers of an Old Goddess; and poweful Stygians, an ancient race of sentient machines, the arch-enemies of both the Burning Legion and Naaru;
- The story takes a step from standard fantasy cliches, to unexpected plot twists, slightly more mature content (it doesn't refer to anything breaching PG-13 rating limit, however) and overall darker atmosphere;
- Plot is approved by Warcraft lore specialists and has no contradictions to Blizzard canon.

Gameplay
- Various missions have various gameplay style, ranging from typical B&D to heavily triggered special events;
- Four playable new races are available both in campaign and multiplayer (Orcish Horde, Ironforge Alliance, Quel'Thalas and Aether Cult);
- Two more races are playable in the campaign (Stygians and Burning Legion), as well as various sub-races such as Dogs of Wars, Red Dragonflight, and more;
- Many new units resemble ones from good old Wacraft I/II: Death Knight, Warlock, Cleric, Dragon Rider and many more, but there's a great number of brand new ones as well;
- Completely reworked balance, introducing a variety of new tactics.

Technical work:
- Each race has a unique visual style;
- Every single new unit has a new model, including many custom ones made from scratch;
- Most units have new voices too;
- Hundreds of new doodads;
- Overall level of graphics is higher than in original Warcraft III, with increased polycount and better quality textures (but still fitting into the limits of Warcraft III engine)
- HoS features exclusive model work from grand masters such as Jigrael and Stuffkikker.

Team:

Full list of HoS team members

Progress:
As of 11th February, 2007:
Story/characters: 100%
Maps (terrain): 85%
Maps (triggers): 10%
Races concept: 99%
Models: 90%
Unit data: 85%
Music: 90%
Sounds/voicing: 70%

Open beta release scheduled on spring '2007.

(can the following part be put on the News page?)

Heart of Storms public trailer released!
Download it here:
Low quality (15 mb): http://hos.samods.org/files/hos-trailer.rar
Mirror: http://xgm.ru/files.php?do=download&id=2158&h=a328
High quality (31 mb): http://hos.samods.org/files/hos-trailer-hires.rar
Mirror: http://xgm.ru/files.php?do=download&id=2159&h=a328

This file is an avi trailer presenting the forthcoming Heart of Storms Mod for Warcraft III. Contains about 2 minutes of breathtaking cinematic action from HoS cutscenes.

INSTALLATION AND USE INSTRUCTIONS:
Check you have the DivX codec installed
Unzip the file
Play

MUSIC AUTHORSHIP:
The Gift of Forever - Silicon Knights
Lands of Lore Theme - Frank Klepacki

NOTES:
Old Doom Guard model seen in the trailer is a placeholder. It will be replaced by a custom one in the final version.
Introduction monologue ("The Universe is a yawning chasm, filled with emptiness and the puerile meanderings of sentience") is taken from The Gift of Forever music track and currently is a placeholder. It will be replaced by a custom voiceover in the next release.

Screen Shots

02-11-2007, 01:31 PM	#2
Callahan	On screenshot it look sex!

02-11-2007, 02:27 PM	#3
Captain Griffen	Far more info needed. Refer to our rules. 24 hour warning. I also put the screen shots in hidden tags.

02-11-2007, 02:33 PM	#4
Maim1004	I have no idea how to watch this. Someone help...please...

02-11-2007, 02:48 PM	#5
Callahan	Windows media player don't work. I watched it with VLC media player

02-11-2007, 02:52 PM	#6
moyack	What the hell..... It's impressive that trailer. I want to see screenshots of this project XD

02-11-2007, 03:58 PM

Bezdomniy

Per Griffin's request, added a detailed description of the mod. Check the first post.

Well, most WC3C members don't remember when HoS started anyway :) It was one of the first large scale mods announced, and one of the few still alive and kicking :P

Here are some screenies:
http://hos.samods.org/archpriestess.jpg
http://hos.samods.org/taintedtwo.jpg
http://hos.samods.org/lasher2.jpg
http://hos.samods.org/sskin1.jpg
http://hos.samods.org/arn_fin.jpg
http://195.12.62.12/~xilus/images/progenitor_f.jpg

02-11-2007, 04:19 PM	#8
Callahan	The progenitor model is awesome.I've never heard about Stuffkikker but he might be a talented modeler.

02-11-2007, 05:31 PM	#9
Freakazoid	[quote=Bezdomniy]Per Griffin's request, added a detailed description of the mod. Check the first post. Well, most WC3C members don't remember when HoS started anyway :) It was one of the first large scale mods announced, and one of the few still alive and kicking :P I do :P

02-11-2007, 05:39 PM	#10
Chriz.	Well if it becomes a big and famous mod, at least my name's in it somewhere. I'm downloading the video now.

02-11-2007, 05:46 PM	#11
Fulla	Looks very impressive:D Will this be playable on bnet at all or? 4mb limit etc.

02-11-2007, 06:08 PM

#12

erwtenpeller

Fix the high rez version, it crashed all my media players.

Quote:

- Overall level of graphics is higher than in original Warcraft III, with increased polycount and better quality textures (but still fitting into the limits of Warcraft III engine)

I also think this is a verry un-just claim. Increasing some poly count and making new textures does not nescesarily make them better. I would prefer it if it was removed or edited.

I finally watched the low rez version, its ok. The models and stuff look great, but i really think there is too much emphasis on the styggies and the shadow wenches and stuff, i find most of the high elf stuff and orcish stuff you guys did much more appealing.

The music and the fonts are terrible, though, and i dont like the way the whole thing is cut. You could have made a much more enticing cinematic piece out of the whole with a little more voice acting and a little more dynamic editing.

02-11-2007, 06:40 PM

#13

Bezdomniy

Quote:

Originally Posted by erwtenpeller

Fix the high rez version, it crashed all my media players.

Do you have DivX installed? It worked both in Window Media Player and ACDSee for me...

Quote:

I also think this is a verry un-just claim. Increasing some poly count and making new textures does not nescesarily make them better. I would prefer it if it was removed or edited.

Well, vast majority of people who've seen HoS models agree they do look better than original WC3 ones, and one of my points was to fix and/or avoid Blizzard's models' issues such as messed-up wrapping, triangular breasts and simplistic skins.

If there's something in particular you don't like, tell about it.

02-11-2007, 06:52 PM

#14

stuffkikker

Quote:

Originally Posted by erwtenpeller

i really think there is too much emphasis on the styggies and the shadow wenches and stuff, i find most of the high elf stuff and orcish stuff you guys did much more appealing.

hmm, yeah were are the orcz in that trailer? :o

02-11-2007, 07:52 PM	#15
Freakazoid	Those blizzard trees ruin it.