Category: Modding

Blogs related to home-baked content for computer games.

Modding

Blog 870: Experiments in Modding UT

Rao Dao Zao

Yep, I’m doing it — I’m modding Unreal Tournament. Since the beginning of my festive holiday, I’ve been having a quiet go at implementing that singleplayer roguelikelike monster-hunting adventure I described when lambasting UT2004‘s Invasion game mode.

Yep, Robbie’s idea of “taking a break” from working on his own game is to… mod somebody else’s game. Twenty years too late. Right after it’s been delisted from all online stores and become hard-to-access abandonware.

(Yep, I’m still single.)

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Modding

Blog 864: Invasion

Rao Dao Zao

Every year, when the festive season comes upon us once more, I play UT2004. Every year, it makes me think. This year, I was padding out my campaign playthrough with a bit of Instant Action. I always like to slip in a bit of Onslaught and the bonus Assault missions, but this time I decided to have shot at the Invasion game mode, which I had only played once or twice before.

I quickly remembered why I had only played it once or twice before. However, it set off a train of thought that I want to explore: I think that with a few adjustments, Invasion mode could blossom into something special.

(I should change my middle name from “Danger” to “Distracted”.)

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Warcraft III

Blog 819: Black Wind

Rao Dao Zao

I was feeling sorry for myself and replaying the Rexxar campaign earlier in the year, and decided it was time to try to make another Warcraft III map. Exon is supremely complex and World Editor has always been utterly beguiling in its simplicity and ease of use — you can make stuff so quickly and yet push it so far… if you’re that way inclined.

But this time I was not that way inclined. I just wanted to make something short and simple, inspired by the more innocent maps of those heady days when Warcraft III was new and I wasn’t so jaded.

So for all those who say “Robbie can’t limit scope” and “Robbie never ships”, I present to you… Black Wind: a Nightmare, for Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne. Made from scratch in a few very spread-out weeks, between working on Exon (and, y’know, having a job).

Black Wind
A secluded valley, overrun with demons and their worshippers. An ancient barrow. A sleeper… Rudely awakened.

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Warcraft III

Blog 795: This Wreckage Gold

Rao Dao Zao

Luckily This Wreckage is much better built than When the Freedom Slips Away, so it’s much less buggy on the scripting level. Unluckily, it contains a whole heap of custom models and data that Reforged doesn’t seem to like. Sigh. No rest for the wicked, huh?

This is a bit overdue because I was sort-of waiting for Reforged to stabilise a bit and… uh… well, since the dev team has apparently been dismantled, I guess this is as stable as it’s going to get! So behold: This Wreckage Gold with a load of fixes and small tweaks! … and a whole heap of unfixable “known issues”. Double sigh.

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Warcraft III

Blog 783: When the Freedom Slips Away: Gold

Rao Dao Zao

When the Freedom Slips Away is almost half as old as me — I finished it in 2006, making it 14. I was 16. I was still in school!

Time makes fools of us all, and much as I don’t like what Blizzard have done with Warcraft III: Reforged, I have to concede that it is now the “official” way to play maps and, since I’m still alive enough to deal with the situation, I feel compelled to do what I can to keep my seminal works in good order.

So I give to you: When the Freedom Slips Away Gold, a huge raft of bug fixes, a few compatibility tweaks, and some Known Issues that I can’t touch.

Head over to the download page to get it!

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Warcraft III

Blog 782: The SPRPG Diaries: The Founding of Durotar

Rao Dao Zao

Every time I play “the Rexxar campaign”, or as it’s properly called, “OrcX”– uh, I mean, The Founding of Durotar, I want to write about it. It is the about most exquisite implementation of the Warcraft III RPG format you’ll ever see — perhaps not as inventive or bombastic or narratively compelling as anything the community ever produced, but compensating for any deficiencies with production values that are completely off the charts. This is by far the best thing Blizzard ever made, a sumptuous tour-de-force that exercises the full breadth of the engine in a way the base melee game never dares.

Today: The Founding of Durotar, by Blizzard Entertainment

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Gaming, Warcraft III

Blog 775: The SPRPG Diaries: MountainStruggle AoS

Rao Dao Zao

Okay, now I am taking liberties. NEHZ’s MountainStruggle AoS is, as the name suggests, an “Aeon of Strife” type map, where two teams of up to five heroes assist waves of spawned units as they battle down lanes to destroy the opposing base. Ever since I first played it with NEHZ and the rest of the Clan WCM crowd, this take on the AoS genre captured my heart more than any other with its tight, multi-layered landscape and Soulstone system.

Most importantly, however, it has bots — so while everyone else moved on with their lives, I could keep playing alone. And the AoS genre is about controlling a single hero against the world, as they gain experience and use abilities, so technically it’s still an RPG…

Today: the inimitable MountainStruggle AoS by NEHZ

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Gaming, Warcraft III

Blog 774: The SPRPG Diaries: Warcraft Rogue

Rao Dao Zao

This one is going to be controversial, because this map is not a dedicated singleplayer map: it’s co-op, for up to 7 players (odd number, but who am I to complain?). However, it can be played quite happily alone, and I do, with potentially shocking regularity. Why? Because it’s procedurally generated, that’s why! Every play-through is different!

… Ahem.

So while this does not strictly qualify for the SPRPG Diaries by being a dedicated singleplayer map, it is a map that’s stayed with me and that occupies much more of my brain than it should. I think, therefore, it deserves some attention and discussion.

Today: the endlessly varied Warcraft Rogue by Polaris0082.

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