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Szarrukin posted:Do we know anything more about "quell the slave rebellion" mission that was supposed to be in Dragonflight? I've been playing the expansion and as far as I've seen? Someone made it up for drama, looks like.
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Dec 16, 2022 23:45
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Blizzard what the gently caress is this map for Alliance 14.
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Dec 17, 2022 00:13
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Siegkrow posted:I've been playing the expansion and as far as I've seen? Someone made it up for drama, looks like. What I think the "slave rebellion" stuff is referring to is the Sundered Flame, a minor enemy faction in DF. Without getting too into Dragonflight story stuff, after finding out the truth of why they were sealed away, one of the 5 dracthyr leaders felt abandoned by Neltharion and rebelled against the dragon(note that none of the living Aspects had any idea the dracthyr existed until now). They end up recruiting a bunch of Drakonid and Dragonspawn as well. Their rebellion amounts to them digging through old ruins for dragon artifacts that usually end up either killing them all, possessing them, or driving them crazy. The dragons themselves don't even seem to concerned with them since it's usually the Horde/Alliance expedition that deals with them. There's also not much indication that the other dragonkin are forced into anything. There's one quest where a drakonid solider realizes she's not cut out to be a soldier and tells her sister that she plans on quitting the military to pursue her dreams of becoming an artist and everyone is okay with that.
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Dec 17, 2022 00:27
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Cythereal posted:Blizzard what the gently caress is this map for Alliance 14. I've been eagerly waiting for you to get here. I'm pretty sure I built like 7 towers before I built my first farm when I finally managed to get past the early part of this map.
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Dec 17, 2022 00:40
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Cythereal posted:Blizzard what the gently caress is this map for Alliance 14. That mission is part of the reason I’ve never beat the Alliance campaign without cheating. Horde campaign, yes, but it’s a feat I doubt I can repeat. Expansion missions are worse. I look forward to seeing your reaction to many things. 
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Dec 17, 2022 00:46
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achtungnight posted:That mission is part of the reason I’ve never beat the Alliance campaign without cheating. Let the record show that I tried. 
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Dec 17, 2022 02:00
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Clearly the difficulty disparity alone is proof enough of the Alliance's victory. No true such victory could possibly be so simple as the Horde has it in their finale. The Horde, when backed into a corner, fight like wild beasts and throw everything they have at you. The Alliance fold like towels on laundry day.
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Dec 17, 2022 02:27
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Darth TNT posted:Apparently Chris Metzen has returned to Blizzard as a creative advisor. Lmao Blizzard only knows one story
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Dec 17, 2022 05:09
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Elyv posted:I've been eagerly waiting for you to get here.  Honest to God it's come to be my favorite map in the game precisely because of how bullshit it is. It's got a real D-Day vibe to it. I don't have to cheat to get through it, but it's definitely a slog. At least they give you a more reasonable number of peasants to begin with than usual.
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Dec 17, 2022 06:07
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Malah posted:They're gonna corrupt her Maybe Blizzard will corrupt Chris Metzen. 
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Dec 17, 2022 06:47
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Will?
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Dec 17, 2022 12:48
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Meaty Ore posted:Honest to God it's come to be my favorite map in the game precisely because of how bullshit it is. It's got a real D-Day vibe to it. I don't have to cheat to get through it, but it's definitely a slog. At least they give you a more reasonable number of peasants to begin with than usual. I will say this for the mission: it felt far more like the grand finale to a campaign than the fall of Lordaeron did. Opposed amphibious landing against an entrenched Horde force with too few troops for the job, nonstop dragons, and fully upgraded death knights regularly running in to one-shot units and towers before running away. It was incredibly loving obnoxious even with cheats, but at least it felt appropriate.
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Dec 17, 2022 14:36
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Alliance 14: Boldly They Rode  Commander, I must protest. This is nowhere near enough force for this operation. The rest of the Alliance is engaged elsewhere, Colonel Perenolde. You told the High Command that striking the Portal directly could end the war. Here's your chance. The rest of the High Command still thinks that this is a fool's errand to attack so soon. While I agree with your strategic instincts, it wasn't easy to convince the others to release this detachment to you as it is. Commander Turalyon, my proposal called for at least twice this many soldiers as a minimum. If you feel that you cannot carry out this mission that you proposed, say so. I'll get it done, Commander, with or without the High Command's support. You have your orders, Colonel. High Command out. We are so hosed.In canon, Turalyon at this point was kicked upstairs. It was Uther who canonically commanded this battle.  Brace yourselves, everyone. This won't be easy.I dare you to reconcile the geography of this map with anything in later depictions of the Dark Portal's environs.   Morale among the labor force is not good, but they are ready. To quote the foreman, 'When you get bent over by the big blue weenie, you make the most of it.' This is gonna suck. Here we go... Welcome to hell. You just do not have enough ships to force a landing effectively between the cannon towers and catapults.  The cannon towers are staggered just far enough apart to support each other wonderfully, and the moment you hit dirt there are bloodlusted ogres in your face.  By the way, don't go east at the start. Here there be death knights.  Well, we've made it ashore. More Burning Blade, but I think we've got a handle on them. The squadron's gone. Would it have killed the Admiral to provide us with a bomb ketch or two? And the transports? We have a new problem.Meet the Dragonmaw Clan, the white Horde faction, in their one and only WC2 appearance. Their strategy on this map is exactly what you think it is.  Is that problem twenty feet long and breathing fire? You know me so well.So yeah. I never managed to secure a foothold on this map without cheating. Dragons aren't much of a problem for a developed army and base. Flying up your rear end constantly before you even have a town hall up is rather different.  Find a happy place, find a happy place...   loving amateur hour.Behold the last piece of why this mission is such a pain: Black Tooth Grin death knights will regularly hit-and-run on you with death coil to pick off your units and death and decay to blow up your buildings (this will just plain kill guard towers in particular). They will appear at the edge of your vision, cast, and flee.  Dragon attacks are relentless and come in at multiple angles. Usually they'll either come from the northwest, the northeast, or hook around and come in from the water from the east. One guard tower can still deal with a lone dragon, but those take time and resources to build, there will often be multiple dragons, and don't forget that death knights can one-shot guard towers with death and decay. The pressure on you in this mission is immense, and even with cheats remember that death knights ignore the invulnerability cheat and can one-shot anything less than a knight.  How are we doing, Niamh? Not good. The dragon attacks are taking a toll, of course, but this mine is already nearing depletion. The Horde must have already mined extensively here. There's another mine further north, in the ruins of the Burning Blade base. Understood. Xiulan? Getting airborne now. We have another gold mine to the north beyond the ridge, but we'll either need demolition teams to blast a path or land peasants to build a new hall here. There's a substantial Black Tooth Grin presence on the far side of the isthmus, as expected. I'm seeing your imagery now. Hmmm. I wonder if we could land a demolition team here and blow open a back door into the base... Only if you want to significantly delay establishing a castle. Xiulan hasn't found any sources of oil, and we don't have enough in reserve to build both a castle and a transport ship given that we lost all of our transports to dragon attack. Well, it was a nice idea.If you can somehow keep a transport alive, this might actually be a good idea.  I have eyes on oil. To the north, under Horde control. Twiggy, sunshine, I don't think we're going drilling until we deal with the Black Tooth Grin. Agreed, drat it.In hindsight you might perhaps be able to blast through the mountains to that western gold mine I found, and then build a shipyard there.  That's the Dragonmaw's base all right. Intelligence thinks that the Dragonmaw chieftain, Zuluhed the Whacked, is in command here. 'The Whacked.' I spent a long time thinking that title was bestowed by the Alliance. No, he really did call himself that. Target sighted! I found the Dark Portal! Ugh. Concentric rings of islands and water. What, did the Horde swim across when they first arrived? They did not. This makes no sense. I wonder... the Admiral reported that the Horde raised islands from the seafloor to the west, before engaging in a civil war. With the corrupted shamanic magic the Horde has been employing, might they have done something similar here for defense? If so, it's working. This is going to be a problem. I finally bag one of the goddamn death knights, but not before he destroys two guard towers. Let me stress again, the pressure the Horde puts on you in this mission is crazy. I also built a demolition team because I was expecting to have a use for it that wound up not really materializing.  By this point I was tired and frustrated, so I stopped making pretenses to playing things correctly. I will give the mission this: it feels a whole lot more like a campaign finale than Horde 14. That one was a very generic hold off attacks, build a fleet, fight for control of the sea, invade the island and wipe out a generic town. This one has a much more unique layout, has dragons and fully upgraded death knights in your face from the word go, and a unique art asset in the Dark Portal as the final target. Probably pretty fun if you're really good at RTS and enjoy a challenge.  If that idiot Anasterion had let me bring the full might of Quel'thalas in from the start, this entire war could have been over so much sooner. Dragonhawks would have torn the Horde's slaves from the sky over the humans' fleet and our sorcerers make the humans look like children. I'm not looking forward to Beyond the Dark Portal, honestly. But I've not yet abandoned an LP project, and I don't intend to start.  At this point I feel that I have nothing else to say about my evaluation of Warcraft 2, at least not Tides of Darkness.  I have been asked before why I usually make my LP protagonists gay women.  If I cannot find enough stories with the kind of protagonists I want to see, then I will make them.  By the way, you might think that with the Dragonmaw spamming dragons so relentlessly, they might run out of gold. Yeah, no.  I'm saving a Craft of War essay about Warcraft and women (and, probably, homosexuality) for Warcraft 3, once we've met the night elves and Sylvanas Windrunner.  But I think it's worth noting now, there has not been a single woman anywhere in Warcraft 2: Tides of Darkness.  Garona Halforcen is mentioned once in the manual as part of its recap of the previous game. That's it. That is the sum total presence of women in this product, managing a step back even from Warcraft: Orcs and Humans.  I've also been asked before whether I'm hoping I'll see any of my LP characters appear in WoW as a cameo for the fans. WoW's done that sort of thing before.  I'd be flattered, but let's be real: I've been far too mean to Warcraft to think that might ever happen. Deservedly so, in my eyes.  And honestly, I think that's a bit of a shame.  Despite the chauvinism, I've generally enjoyed the story and presentation of Warcraft 1 and Tides of Darkness. They're colorful, have a good aesthetic direction, and tell a simple story with passion and sincerity.  Yes, that story is the kind that starts to fall apart if you think too much about it, but contrary to my previous essay I am in fact willing to suspend my disbelief when I feel that the developers are consciously going 'Don't think too hard about it or take it too seriously, just enjoy the fun.'  Among my all-time favorite games are Mass Effect, Saint's Row 4, and Red Faction: Guerrilla and I'm certainly not writing essays about the ethics of portraying violence in those games.  To me, it's about setting and keeping expectations. And having the integrity to accept that if you invite people to take your story seriously and think about what's going on, they may reach conclusions you did not intend to write.  I believe that writing is an art form, and that developing and keeping that integrity is for many people one of the hardest parts about being an artist. Getting indignant when people ask whether you have biases, like Orson Scott Card getting so upset when asked if he was deliberately writing so much homoeroticism and sexualized descriptions of men into his books, is very human and not very helpful.  Am I being unfair to Blizzard by judging their work so critically? Perhaps, but I also feel that Blizzard themselves invited such in-depth judgment when they started taking Warcraft so seriously. Also, this was a fun thing about this mission. Right-clicking the Dark Portal doesn't make your units attack it, and it took me some trial and error to figure out what I needed to do.  I thought that perhaps I needed to bring land units to the Portal to capture it.  In fact, I was concerned that I might need to do this the moment I saw the map's layout.  But that's not it, either. For whatever reason, you have to manually use the attack command to force your units to attack the Dark Portal to complete the mission.  Vanity, vanity, vanity. All is vanity.  This has been officially declared to be Turalyon, the guy you've been canonically playing as all game except for this mission when you were playing as a guy we'll get to know later named Uther Lightbringer.  The Dark Portal, the gateway through which the Horde reached Azeroth.  Meet Khadgar, magister of the Kirin Tor. We'll talk about him more in Beyond the Dark Portal.  Khadgar was Medivh's apprentice, which makes him a fitting choice for this task.  Light lances down from the heavens.  And the Dark Portal crumbles.  If you didn't know the expansion is titled 'Beyond the Dark Portal' you might even think the Alliance had won a conclusive victory here.  The energies of the Portal are dissipating. He did it. The Horde is cut off from their homeworld. That still leaves thousands of them on this side, though. With no way home. Should I begin organizing a pursuit? Not today, Xiulan. Tomorrow will bring what tomorrow wills. But for now, we have victory.
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Dec 17, 2022 19:43
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Tales from the Second War: In the Wake of the Storm Boralus was the busiest city Azélie had ever seen. Kul Tiras hadn't been touched by the war, so Lord Admiral Proudmoore had volunteered his capital to serve as a summit while the beleaguered people of Stormwind and Stromgarde prepared to return to whatever was left of their homes. Ships of every size and banner filled Tiragarde Sound, and Azélie had a marvelous view of the great bay from her balcony, a secluded upper deck peering from Proudmoore Keep where the generals and admirals and diplomats discussed affairs. Most surprising to Azélie were the black-flagged ships of Gilneas. There would be time for recriminations over King Genn Greymane's policy of isolationism - or opportunism depending on who you asked - but for now no one saw fit to turn aside the ships full of lumber, metal, and finished goods sailing out of Gilneas to help in the rebuilding. Also to make the Gilnean nobles and merchants quite a lot of coin, of course. There was even a pandaren ship down in the harbor, where Azélie supposed her dearest friend was eagerly catching up with her own people. The endless procession of sails, and crisp salt air, was a distraction that Azélie sorely needed. Alterac had no representation at the summit. For now the kingdom remained under a joint occupation of Alliance powers, until such time as a suitable local leader could be found. Azélie was not that leader. She had burned those bridges thoroughly, and the summit had shown little desire to speak with her after she had made her feelings clear. For all the battles that she had won, her name and what she represented made her an awkward reality for the Grand Alliance. Let Turalyon and Uther Lightbringer take the credit, Azélie had silently decided. Nothing had felt quite real since Alterac. Not Blackrock Spire, not the Dark Portal, not that impulsive kiss with Xiulan during the celebration after the Dark Portal closed. A part of her wanted to run away from it all. She could easily have fit in with the Stormwind refugees. Shuck her robes and jewelry, buy a plain dress, make an effort to ditch the accent. No one would look twice at a noblewoman from some minor family destroyed during the war looking to return home, and magecraft was always welcome. That would be an honorable course of action. Noble, in a way. Were that running away something Azélie's nature could countenance. That stubborn, willful nature of hers again. She had excelled as a mage of the Kirin Tor because of that part of herself, rising to the rank of magistrix. Then she had joined the Grand Alliance, rising now to the rank of colonel. Then she had destroyed her home and cast herself adrift. In this penchant for self-destruction, she supposed she truly was a Perenolde. Life would be so much easier if she could stop. If she could run away. If she could back down. No one would ever call her a hero, nor should they. Her deeds had been great. Glorious, even. Her deeds had been that hateful, poisonous, damnable word, necessary. Let Turalyon and Windrunner and Uther and the others lap up the praise and the adoration. Those were the names on the minstrels' lips. Oh, Azélie Perenolde had been there. She did good work. She served the Alliance faithfully and well. Now let's talk about someone exciting. It was almost ten minutes after a man in a polished suit of mithril armor joined her on the balcony that Azélie registered his presence. "Copper for your thoughts?" Supreme Commander Turalyon asked, looking at his subordinate with speculative eyes. Azélie exhaled long and slowly, releasing a shade of tension before answering. "You know what's on my mind." Azélie settled for. "Everyone's talking about what to do now that the war is over. I am no longer needed." Turalyon smiled, that broad and easy smile that had broken so many hearts across Lordaeron. "You don't believe that any more than I do, Azélie. There is always a need of strong, brave, and trustworthy men and women, and I know that's you even if you don't believe it. Even once we mop up the last stragglers of the Horde, there is always tomorrow to build." "That's the difference between us." Azélie replied with a shrug. "You have a home to fight for. So do Windrunner, Uther, Fordring, Trollbane, Proudmoore, and all the others. A home in ruins, for Trollbane and Windrunner, but relief for Alterac is a long way down the Alliance's list of priorities." Turalyon sighed, and leaned heavily on the balcony railing. He looked out at the busy city for a long moment before turning back to look at Azélie. "Why not take the Council's offer, then?" The paladin asked. "You're not the only Alteraci who sided with the Alliance, and you are a member of the royal family. The council is prepared to acknowledge you as the legitimate heir to the throne of Alterac." "Does the Council *want* a civil war in Alterac?" Azélie Perenolde rolled her eyes. "Because that's how you get a civil war in Alterac. Aiden has a son and heir. Aliden, my cousin. I'm the second child of Aiden's little sister. That's a long, long way down the line of succession, General. The Council acknowledging me as Aiden's heir would make me a usurper, a compliant puppet installed and backed by the Grand Alliance of Lordaeron, in the eyes of the people. They'd be right about that, too. Even people who would want to follow me would because of what, and who, I represent. If Aliden acknowledged it, then maybe, just maybe, there wouldn't be violence in the streets again. I wouldn't bet on Aliden bending his knee to his father's killer, though. I'm sorry, General, but if the Council sent you to ask me what the hell they're supposed to be doing about Alterac then tell them that I have no idea and they should have thought about that before they asked me to wage war on my home." "The Council didn't send me." Turalyon replied softly, gently. "I wanted to talk to you alone because I can see how you're tearing yourself apart over this. All that half the Council can talk about is vengeance. The other half have grandiose ideas they don't know how to deliver. I've recently been contacted, however, by a Kirin Tor magister by the name of Khadgar. Contrary to the Council's proclamations and the High Command's orders, he believes that the threat the Horde poses isn't over. Alleria and I agree." "Tell me something I don't know." Azélie snorted. "They opened the portal once. There's no reason they can't do so again." Turalyon's gaze turned speculative, appraising. "Khadgar's been in touch with a few other people, Azélie Perenolde, people who aren't celebrating victory just yet. If we send for you, Colonel Azélie Perenolde, will you answer?" Azélie did not reply right away. She looked out across the city of Boralus, a jewel of peace and prosperity that showed no sign of how close it had all come to collapse. Then at General Turalyon, resplendent in his gold-sheened armor and ceremonial white cloak. Then she thought of a friend of hers, a red-furred pandaren who always smelled faintly of salt and powder, and she took a deep breath. A purple glove and a mithril gauntlet shook hands. "I don't do this for the Alliance." Azélie Zéphyrine Mireille Perenolde's voice was as firm as her grip. "I do this for Azeroth."
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Dec 17, 2022 19:44
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Azélie herself has truly become The Necessary Evil in her own eyes. As much as she desperately wants to fade into the past, and into obscurity after the things she's been forced to do... her stubborn determination to do what is necessary won't let her. She knows the war is not over. And she still has a job to do. Or at least, at the moment, prepare for.
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Dec 17, 2022 20:25
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My take on the MMO story discussion is that, I don't care for MMO stories, which is why, when I still played them, I preferred MMOs where the meat of the game was in player interactions and the ability to make a mark on the game world. Unsurprisingly, I thought WoW was a bit silly and did not play it beyond few weeks to test it out The reasons I don't care for them were all the things already mentioned. The endless escalation gets silly, going from one world ending thread to another is boring, there is disconnect between whether we are big and important deal, or whether we are another foot soldier, everyone goes through the same questline making them out to be the big important bozos, and so on. But the storylines you get from competing with other players? Those are organic and fresh.
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Dec 17, 2022 21:42
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It's kind of interesting just how decisive the Warcraft II endings are. Warcraft I had a sequel hook at the end of both campaigns (more humans over the sea, plus talk about portal experiments), but here the orc campaign ends with the humans being exterminated, and the human campaign ends with the dark portal being destroyed forever (immediately retconned by the expansion's introduction). As for the map itself, yeah, it's an excercise in frustration. I found it helped a lot to ignore orange for a while after landing - the ogres have bloodlust but not blacksmith upgrades, so it possible to get those before clearing out the rest. This also avoids the big problem with orange dragons, which will attack all at once when the faction no longer has any buildings. They will eventually wander by your base and attack anyway, bot hopefully more staggered. Black does nothing except the hit-and-run attacks with death knights. Importantly, they will not replace killed DKs, so it's absolutely worth it to chase the down. The cast at whatever they see first, so if you park some footmen in that general direction they will spend all their mana to death coil them, after which some knights kan easily kill them while they try to flee. Nothing really helps against white's dragon spam, though. The orc campaign feels overall easier, with the finale being very straightforward compared to...this. The human campaign also gets all the really tedious maps (7 and 10 in particular, though this one's not far behind).
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Dec 17, 2022 22:13
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I'm glad to know it's not just me who had a hell of a time with Warcraft 2 when I played it.
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Dec 17, 2022 22:45
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Nostalgamus posted:It's kind of interesting just how decisive the Warcraft II endings are. Warcraft I had a sequel hook at the end of both campaigns (more humans over the sea, plus talk about portal experiments), but here the orc campaign ends with the humans being exterminated, and the human campaign ends with the dark portal being destroyed forever (immediately retconned by the expansion's introduction). It’s dumb, but it works well enough. If there’s one thing this LP has made clear is that Warcraft’s strength was definitely in it’s presentation. Scenery chewing mission briefings, cartoony buildings with silly details, funny sound effects. All things the others didn’t have.
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Dec 17, 2022 23:26
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Funny, before this wrap-up I never realized Azelie was a mage. No, I didn’t think she was another class. I guess I hadn’t thought about it. Maybe I was thinking of her as a noble commander, that’s it. [shrug] It makes sense. Hope to see her making use of more magic in the future. Glad to know she and our favorite Pandaren shaman got close. Nice relationship cliffhanger, since you’re about to take a break. Interesting that you like SR4. An LP of that game or series from your perspective might be interesting. But I don’t blame you if you don’t want to do it. A lot in that series is gack story and mediocre if not frustrating gameplay. Enjoy your vacation. Looking forward to BtDP.
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Dec 17, 2022 23:45
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Here we go the beginning of Kadghar rivalry with his archenemy the Dark Portal.
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Dec 18, 2022 00:15
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So, I don't think there's really a need for a retrospective on Tides of Darkness at this point. I've talked enough about Tides of Darkness specifically already, and a proper retrospective for Warcraft 2 can wait until after Beyond the Dark Portal. Speaking of which, I do not expect to begin Beyond the Dark Portal until January, most likely. I do have plans to do a small LP in the interim, but it will be for a game as different from Warcraft as it's possible to be. I'll leave this thread open, but I just ask that y'all not get into the weeds about Beyond the Dark Portal and WC3. achtungnight posted:Funny, before this wrap-up I never realized Azelie was a mage. Was her portrait and being part of the Kirin Tor not obvious enough?  achtungnight posted:Interesting that you like SR4. An LP of that game or series from your perspective might be interesting. But I don’t blame you if you don’t want to do it. A lot in that series is gack story and mediocre if not frustrating gameplay. To me, SR4 is my gold standard for pure mindless fun. But it's a game that I feel is better done in video format than screenshot, and I have given up on doing video recording for LPs. I've tried to do it in the past and it's just not my style. Darth TNT posted:If there’s one thing this LP has made clear is that Warcraft’s strength was definitely in it’s presentation. Scenery chewing mission briefings, cartoony buildings with silly details, funny sound effects. All things the others didn’t have. As I've said, I think it's clear and understandable why these games became classics. They just wouldn't have been my cup of tea. Still aren't. BlazetheInferno posted:Azélie herself has truly become The Necessary Evil in her own eyes. As much as she desperately wants to fade into the past, and into obscurity after the things she's been forced to do... her stubborn determination to do what is necessary won't let her. She knows the war is not over. And she still has a job to do. Or at least, at the moment, prepare for. My intention with Azélie is that she's been driven a little bit mad by the Second War. She has done awful things, and she was good and right to do them. In this, at least, she's no Arthas and she does have a support network to help her and keep her from going off the rails. She never would have kissed a pandaren adventurer if she still had a home and family.
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Dec 18, 2022 00:21
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Kissing a pandaren just sounds uncomfortable, honestly. Do they even have lips? Thanks for all the work you've gone to struggling through these missions, and still doing what you can to show the tactical situation even when you've had to cheat your way through them. The effort shows, and it is appreciated!
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Dec 18, 2022 00:27
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I guess I missed that picture and I don’t remember you saying she was in the Kirin Tor before. I overlook details sometimes. Good point about SR being better suited to video than screenshot. I didn’t think of that.
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Dec 18, 2022 01:25
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Nostalgamus posted:The orc campaign feels overall easier, with the finale being very straightforward compared to...this. The human campaign also gets all the really tedious maps (7 and 10 in particular, though this one's not far behind). It also gets all the interwoven ones. In an interesting parallel to how the lp has been run, the orcs don't really have any plot missions or objectives and mostly just play like a multiplayer map against an opponent that already built up. The alliance has escort quests, a proto in engine cutscene with Lothar's death, and the alterac traitors getting a story told not just in the briefings but in the map and mission structure itself.
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Dec 18, 2022 02:22
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OK, I know this has been said before, but can I just repeat that retconning the name from the Kingdom of Azeroth to Kingdom of Stormwind always bothered me? Like, I get the CAPITAL of the Kingdom of Azeroth being name "Stormwind City" but a kingdom named Stormwind fucks with my mind, especially when in comparison to every other loving human kingdoms name. Alterac, Dalaran, Gilneas, Lordearon, Kul Tiras, Stromgarde. Azeroth fits with those. Stormwind doesn't.
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Dec 18, 2022 03:18
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LEGO Genetics posted:OK, I know this has been said before, but can I just repeat that retconning the name from the Kingdom of Azeroth to Kingdom of Stormwind always bothered me? Like, I get the CAPITAL of the Kingdom of Azeroth being name "Stormwind City" but a kingdom named Stormwind fucks with my mind, especially when in comparison to every other loving human kingdoms name. Alterac, Dalaran, Gilneas, Lordearon, Kul Tiras, Stromgarde. Azeroth fits with those. Stormwind doesn't. Blame the fact that Azeroth got changed to the name of the Planet itself, really.
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Dec 18, 2022 03:51
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Tenebrais posted:Kissing a pandaren just sounds uncomfortable, honestly. Do they even have lips? Honestly, I try to not think about the implications of this particular interspecies relationship. I was on the fence about doing it at all, but the thread wanted a pandaren so the thread got a pandaren. quote:Thanks for all the work you've gone to struggling through these missions, and still doing what you can to show the tactical situation even when you've had to cheat your way through them. The effort shows, and it is appreciated!  I do try these missions legit, I'm just not good at this kind of game. achtungnight posted:Good point about SR being better suited to video than screenshot. I didn’t think of that. I've tried several times to record video, edit, and comment on videos for LP purposes. I feel, though, that screenshot LPs suit my style much more. I prefer writing to talking, and not being on any kind of clock when musing about things. It does mean that there are a couple of games I would like to LP but don't believe I can, but them's the breaks. FoolyCharged posted:It also gets all the interwoven ones. In an interesting parallel to how the lp has been run, the orcs don't really have any plot missions or objectives and mostly just play like a multiplayer map against an opponent that already built up. The alliance has escort quests, a proto in engine cutscene with Lothar's death, and the alterac traitors getting a story told not just in the briefings but in the map and mission structure itself. You can definitely see the progression from WC1 to WC2 to Starcraft 1 to WC3.
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Dec 18, 2022 04:02
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LEGO Genetics posted:OK, I know this has been said before, but can I just repeat that retconning the name from the Kingdom of Azeroth to Kingdom of Stormwind always bothered me? Like, I get the CAPITAL of the Kingdom of Azeroth being name "Stormwind City" but a kingdom named Stormwind fucks with my mind, especially when in comparison to every other loving human kingdoms name. Alterac, Dalaran, Gilneas, Lordearon, Kul Tiras, Stromgarde. Azeroth fits with those. Stormwind doesn't. I mean, I prefer the change because otherwise it would have been the kingdom of Azeroth in the subcontinent Azeroth in the planet Azeroth.
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Dec 18, 2022 04:35
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Tenebrais posted:Kissing a pandaren just sounds uncomfortable, honestly. Do they even have lips? Yes. Typically they're shown as a bit of black flesh framing the mouth.
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Dec 18, 2022 04:57
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Cythereal posted:Speaking of which, I do not expect to begin Beyond the Dark Portal until January, most likely. I do have plans to do a small LP in the interim, but it will be for a game as different from Warcraft as it's possible to be. Can you put a link to the side project in this LP when it starts? It's hard to keep track of stuff otherwise.
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Dec 18, 2022 07:54
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Nostalgamus posted:
More importantly regarding the black team: they have no peons and no gold. When they lose any units, they're gone and aren't getting replaced. That said, they love using hit-and run tactics with their death knights as shown. The best way to handle this mission, I've found, is to not bother with towers at all. Turtle up with a full group of archers and a full group of paladins to keep them healed. If they get a chance, the paladins can exorcise the death knights as well. From there it's just a matter of building enough gryphon riders to take out the black base and the dragon roosts. The hardest part is getting the initial landing and build-up to go well. Unless you're really good at micro with the clumsy naval units, it's a bit of a crapshoot.
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Dec 18, 2022 08:36
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Meaty Ore posted:More importantly regarding the black team: they have no peons and no gold. When they lose any units, they're gone and aren't getting replaced. That said, they love using hit-and run tactics with their death knights as shown. The best way to handle this mission, I've found, is to not bother with towers at all. Turtle up with a full group of archers and a full group of paladins to keep them healed. If they get a chance, the paladins can exorcise the death knights as well. From there it's just a matter of building enough gryphon riders to take out the black base and the dragon roosts. The hardest part is getting the initial landing and build-up to go well. Unless you're really good at micro with the clumsy naval units, it's a bit of a crapshoot. I never considered that strategy. I like it, it also makes narrative sense. Perhaps a defeated Horde is not adequately supplying all their troops? Also possible that the Black Tooth Grin Clan suck at logistics in general. We already know they lack a good dental plan. achtungnight fucked around with this message at 15:39 on Dec 18, 2022 |
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Dec 18, 2022 14:19
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You are supposed to rush down and wipe the black faction as fast as possible before they cause you too much damage, then it is simply a mop up from there, while it is difficult, it isn't an impossible mission once you know that black cannot rebuild anything you kill
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Dec 18, 2022 15:14
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Torrannor posted:Can you put a link to the side project in this LP when it starts? It's hard to keep track of stuff otherwise.  Everything's better down where it's wetter! But don't take it from me, Let's Play Abzû! A chill, relaxing little game of undersea exploration.
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Dec 18, 2022 17:16
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 Here we go. Even compared to everything I've covered before, Beyond the Dark Portal is a godawful mess of retcons soft and hard, sweeping and small. Many updates are going to include a note to the effect of 'this didn't happen' or 'something like this happened, but not what was shown.' This expansion is where Blizzard started moving towards a more character and hero driven story in Warcraft, and many of the characters we'll meet in this expansion have been major players since. Let's put aside the vaguely Jewish blue-skinned alien space goat in the room for now and move discreetly along. The intro cinematic is mostly a replay of the Alliance's victory cinematic from the original game, sealing the Alliance campaign's ending as canon. Khadgar is now explicitly named and identified here.  But one detail is added. While the physical structure of the Dark Portal was destroyed, the arcane rift linking Azeroth and Draenor remains. Let the madness begin. Cythereal fucked around with this message at 19:39 on Jan 2, 2023 |
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Jan 2, 2023 19:32
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Ohhhhh boy, here we go. I'm expecting *most* of these levels to be done with cheating, to be honest; Cythereal has gone on record repeatedly to state they are not great at RTS gameplay, and have already had to cheat to get through several of the late Tides of Darkness levels, whereas Beyond the Dark Portal is an absolute step up in difficulty. Just be aware that the fact that Magic still works through the invincibility cheat will complicate matters in some levels. The reason this works is because the Invincibility Cheat simply causes the attack damage of all units not owned by the player to be reduced to 0, while increasing the damage of player-owned units up to something like 100-250 or something ridiculous. Which is a little frustrating to me, because I have, in the past, had fun watching AI players duke it out (such as in Starcraft, where the invincibility cheat works the same way, minus the increased player damage), but having that cheat on to protect myself prevents the AI players from affecting each other. BlazetheInferno fucked around with this message at 20:12 on Jan 2, 2023 |
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Jan 2, 2023 20:09
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Your lp got me to replay btdp and I can say that there are possibly 1 or even 2 levels you might beat without cheating
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Jan 2, 2023 20:14
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Oh, I am under no illusions about this. But then, a reasonable person wouldn't have undertaken this project in the first place.
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Jan 2, 2023 20:17
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Even as someone who considers themselves to be pretty decent at RTS games and has "fairly" beaten most of the ones they played except for the worst janktastic messes, I found that Beyond the Dark Portal presented me with a couple of severe asskickings.
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Jan 2, 2023 20:38
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