Weekend Update news - WarCraft III: World of WarCraft Mod for Warcraft III: Frozen Throne

We're back and ready to announce some interesting stuff, so please read on!  But before I continue, I would just like to apologize for not reporting anything last weekend as I said I would... I got really busy and simply could not get on my gaming PC to do anything at all.  Hoping that you understand, lets continue on, shall we?

First off, the terrain!  As you can see, I released a screenshot of Red Cloud Mesa (Mulgore), but I've got more to show off soon.  I'm tinkering with Stormwind a bit for the fun of it and trying to make the hills, trees, and tile placement as accurate as possible in Mulgore.  Durotar isn't exactly a high-priority at the moment, unless you guys prefer me working on Durotar more than Mulgore.  Anyway, point is, I'm working and getting stuff done this weekend.  Not sure if I'll have much more to show off by the end of this weekend, but who knows!

Second, thanks to Xilefan for sending me the files and telling me how to use it, apparently a Grand Theft Auto - San Andreas mod that improves graphics for DirectX 8/9 call function in games (not just GTA: SA) works for WarCraft III: The Frozen Throne, also.  I was told that credits belong to Boris Vorontsov, the guy who develops the ENB Series.  It is compatible with all versions of WarCraft, as it just uses DirectX 8/9 calls to function, so it works on any DirectX 8 rendering program (WarCraft III for example).  That being said, when the four files required to make the graphics mod work are put into your "Program Files/WarCraft III" folder, you now can toggle HDR and Bloom effects on and off, simply by holding Shift and pressing F12.  It doesn't make a huge difference in many situations, but it can make a noticeable difference with brighter colors.  Sometimes it has a very nice effect, while other times it makes the game glow too much or too bright.  Overall though, it's a pretty neat addition and works for any map or campaign in WarCraft - not just Wc3:WoW.  I'll ask Xilefan if we'd be allowed to release the mod publicly for you all to try out... until then, you're going to have to wait.  I'll upload screenshots of Wc3:WoW using HDR and Bloom effects shortly.

Thirdly, Yixx is working diligently on a few systems for Wc3:WoW.  The systems he is working on are:

• Floating names above Player-Bots, mobs, and NPCs.
• Respawn system: when mobs respawn, they fade into the game from 100% transparency to 0% transparency, like in WoW, rather than just popping into the game instantly.
• Save/Load system: since Wc3:WoW is a campaign, saving and loading your characters will be done via Game Caches.  Save/Load codes will not come into play unless are absolutely necessary.  Also, the save system saves your X, Y positioning on the map, so when you save and load, you'll be right where you were last time.
• Zoning system: successfully loading your character from one part of a zone to the next.

So far so good!  Aggressive and non-aggressive mobs (red named and yellow named) are being worked on most right now and are almost done.

Fourth, we've come up with a new idea of how we'll be doing the bots.  Previously, since the mob was first started, bots were randomly created and did very few things.  In short, they were very limited and simple.  However, we are seriously considering creating 2000 or more pre-made Player-Bots (1000 for Horde, 1000 for Alliance) that will have complex details for each and every bot.  The following information is what we plan to list, more may be added later though:

• Player-Bot's name
• Faction (Horde or Alliance)
• Race
• Gender
• Items Equipped
• Items in Inventory & Bank
• Money (Gold, Silver, Copper)
• Stats
• Guild
• Friends (maybe not... we'll see)
• Talent Setup
• Quests Completed and Quests Accepted
• Location (Orgrimmar, Ashenvale, Arathi Highlands, Warsong Gulch, Ragefire Chasm, etc.)
• etc.

So as you can see, we're planning to go crazy with bots.  Although it'll take a while to complete, it will be completely awesome when it's done.  We're also going to try making the player able to communicate with bots with a variety of text commands.  Will update you guys on that when we get more done with this.

Finally, we've come up with a new way to allow the player to modify the quality of the mod for the sake of their computer's performance by creating our own custom in-game menu.  The WarCraft III in-game menu isn't very useful, to be honest.  Just allows you to fondle with the audio.  Wc3:WoW will allow you to modify the Field of View value, View Range (how close you need to be in order to see mobs and NPCs, like in WoW), Enable/Disable Floating Names, etc.
Will get more into this later when it is closer to completion.

To conclude this news update, I'd like to thank you all for your patience.  It is greatly appreciated.  We hope you enjoy what we've presented you with today and promise that you can expect more soon!