Life of a Peasant
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It should not be taken as representing official lore!
Life of a Peasant, abbreviated as 'LOAP', was an early roleplaying custom map in Warcraft III. While it was never a roaring success as Defense of the Ancients was and still is, LOAP has become one of the most edited custom maps on Warcraft III.
History
LOAP was first made by StankeyNuggets under the map name of Real Life not too long after Warcraft III's release. At what point the map name was changed to Life of a Peasant is unclear. LOAP has never had a uniform 'brand' of versions, and instead the recent new maps available now are copies of copies, and so the evolution of the map has been very erratic due to its extreme decentralization of order.
Gameplay
Most LOAPs have peasants, a Police Chief, a Drug Lord, and the Mafia. Some versions more prominent in Reign of Chaos have a Go-Kart Manager instead of a Drug Lord. Some versions also created entire new factions.
The job of the Police Chief is to maintain order in the land while fighting the Drug Lord and Mafia boss. The Police can enforce the law by arresting people and putting them in jail. This has often led to abuse, as there normally is no way for the person to get out of jail, the prison van can easily 'arrest' people without being prevented by the player, and the people playing the Police would often leave people in jail indefinitely.
The job of the Drug Lord is to sell drugs (items that can increase the stats of heroes). The Drug Lord holds a monopoly of supply of the drugs, as in most versions only he can harvest drugs, and as a result has full control over the price.
The Mafia's job is to fight the Police.
Peasants in LOAP do not initially have a specific aim. Each peasant can have one job for receiving gold. Generally at the start of the game there is a rush by the peasants to get the mayor job (and in some versions the president too) as it is the only job that does not require you to do anything at all. Some of the numerous other jobs are a doctor, garbage collector and mailman.
Houses are dotted around the map and can be bought at a set price. While their doors can be used as a temporary obstruction for enemies, they are largely for roleplay purposes. Some houses in some versions however come with a item storage box, a 'security building' (where you can train militia), and even cars.
Despite LOAP having numerous versions, it's core gameplay does not change by much from version to version. Death for example is never permanent for any hero in LOAP. After an amount of time, the hero will resurrect at the doctor's surgery usually at the cost of losting a set percentage of money. This is why imprisonment is generally considered a worse punishment than death, unlike in real life. The general layout of the map is also kept the same, although some maps extend it.
Versions
Because LOAP is a fairly basic map lacking protection while certainly not lacking potency to easily give the host strong powers, it has come to be quite possibly one of the most edited Warcraft III custom maps of all time. Mapggnome.org holds more than 10,000 different LOAP versions.
Some of the more prominent versions are:
- Highschool Loap
- LOAP 2 Gold
- Loap God and Death
- Loap God of Hellfire
- Loap Japan
- Loap Make Your Own Gang
- Loap Martial Arts
- Loap Resident Evil