WAA feedback - 15.01.2016 Thread - Warcraft: Armies of Azeroth mod for StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void

Hi everyone !

First of all, I'd like to thanks the WAA team (and especially Jusper) for letting me test their baby, it was a real pleasure and I enjoyed every second of it

We managed to make 2x 1v1 session on two different maps : Deadwater Drop, and Turtle Rock. I didn't know about the first one but obviously TR rang me a bell ! First one I was OR vs HU, and the way around on TR.

To begin with, it's really like in the videos you can see here and there : beautiful. Every textures, animations, and all...look superb and I can't imagine the time passed on it to have something so close to the perfection. Close because nothing can be perfect obviously : on the games I've played, I could see that the texture on the Blood mage portrait when you select him is not applied (meaning: it's just light-pink). Also the Flame strike doesn't look as good as I could imagine and when the said Blood mage died, there was no animation and it looked like he just vanished, like if it was an illusion. No big thing, I know this will be fixed quite fast.

Because that's what they do: the mod team fixes fast. How do I know that? Well, the few issues I could have spotted on the various videos that I've seen here and there have 90% been fixed by the time I get the hand on it : the Militia doing the moonwalk, the Fortress texture, the Tavern, even the way the peasants walked look like it has been fixed already ! (I might be wrong here but I'm not sure).

Another issue I've spotted : the sound the Flame strike make when casted is heard from the opponent. When I played Orc on my first match, I could hear the sound of the Flame strike made by my ennemy, even if I should have been blind due to the fog of war.

I'd also like to see the red arrows when you order a unit to go somewhere, not sure if it was related to my computer but I don't think so.

In the end, bug-wise, that's basically all I can say, and it's pretty much nothing compared to the work done already, don't get me wrong

The other aspects besides "bugs" I'd like to talk about is more on the gameplay. In WarCraft III original, the first Hero you create will always be the first one to be selected on your group. Here, it appeared that it was the way around : the last hero created becomes the first one to be selected on your group, which is a bit confusing. Also, I had for habit to select my Heroes by hitting F1/F2/F3 (Hero 1/Hero2/Hero 3). Now it just doesn't work, and F2 select ALL the army units (like in SC2 in fact), plus the fact that you can have a group with your FULL army, instead of the ~12 limit in WarCraft III. For this last one, I think it's a will from the mod-team, but I think this F1/2/3 thing needs to be fixed.

One last thing, there's some "anachronisms", well at least I spotted one : the Demolisher is a Reign of Chaos unit, not The Frozen Throne where it has been replaced by the Catapult (like Wyverns have been replaced by Wing Riders in TFT). I didn't compare the damage stats and all, but the skin and the name is definitely different.

From the two games I've played, that's basically all I could find, but my conclusion is: That KICKS ass ! Sensations are cool, graphics are superb, I managed to play it smoothly quite fast, no real BIG bugs, I can't wait for a beta to be released...and to have the opportunity to play as Undead and Night-Elves.

Keep up the good work, men! You've made such a brilliant result already, it would be sad to see you let it as it is right now, so close to the...perfection

+ Graphics overall are beautiful despites some bugs
+ Gameplay close to the original
+ Original music
+ Even the Portraits have been remade !
+ Sensations !
- Still some minor bugs
- We need dem F1/F2/F3 keys working !
- Anachronisms (ok...I spotted ONE...but maybe there's more? :x)
- Groups have no limit (really subjective here)