The Dawn of Chaos
The contents herein are entirely player made and in no way represent official Warcraft lore or history. The characters and events listed are of an independent nature and are applied for roleplaying purposes only.
| The Dawn of Chaos | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | Realm Design |
| Publisher(s) | Realm Design |
| Release | See History |
| Genre(s) | Warcraft III mod |
The Dawn of Chaos is a total conversion for Blizzard Entertainment's Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, recreating the classic, but outdated, Warcraft: Orcs & Humans with updated graphics, a modified storyline, and a new hero system. The project is commonly referred to as DoC.
Introduction
Warcraft: Orcs and Humans was released to the public in 1995 and took the gaming world by storm. Its sequels, Warcraft II (and its expansion) and Warcraft III (and its expansion) were fantastically successful, leading to the present-day release of World of Warcraft. New fans to Azeroth are often unwilling to play the original Warcraft: Orcs & Humans because of several reasons: mainly, that the game's graphics are outdated, and that it runs poorly or not at all on new machines. Dawn of Chaos is meant to correct that injustice. As a total conversion project, it aims to recreate the first Warcraft game using the far more modern and flexible Warcraft III engine.
Dawn of Chaos isn't just a simple collection of maps for Warcraft III. With its own .exe, its own multiplayer, its own unique art and sound, and a long and engaging storyline, it is truly an entirely new experience no matter how familiar you are with the Warcraft series.
Presentation
The aim of Dawn of Chaos is to create a total conversion that will ultimately appear to be an entirely new game. Only the most restricted elements of Warcraft III remain, and DoC is essentially a unique product that utilizes the Warcraft III engine.
Graphics
Dawn of Chaos has its own entirely unique graphical style. No visual element of Warcraft III is included without extreme revision, because the graphical style of this mod and its parent game do not correspond at all. DoC has an extremely dark, vibrant visual scheme, with more realistic textures and coloration. Every tileset, structure, unit, interface, loading screen, 'glue screen', doodad, font, menu, and visual effect has been created or altered specifically for use in this project. The effect is genuinely one of an entirely new game.
- DoC features a wealth of new models and textures. Every unit from the original Warcraft: Orcs & Humans has been recreated, as well as every structure. These are not recolours - DoC does not reuse art from Warcraft III. A team of artists and modellers has created and continues to create dozens of new characters and locations to enhance the gaming experience.
This link leads to a forum discussion thread with a gallery of all major human and orc units.
Sound
Like the visual elements, the sound in Dawn of Chaos is wholly original to this project. Unlike other modifications of Warcraft III, any situation that would have audio in a commercially-prepared game will have audio in DoC. This includes voice acting, music, and sound effects.
- All units are voice-acted with impeccable quality from carefully-prepared scripts.
- Lengthy intermediate in-game cinematics and shorter in-level cinematics are voice-acted and drive the plot.
- DoC features an all-new musical score as well as reinterpretations of the original Orcs and Humans soundtrack.
Interface
The user interface (UI) for each race has been replaced entirely. The fonts used by each interface have also been changed depending on which race you are playing, and minor changes (such as the use of square selections like Warcraft: Orcs & Humans instead of circular selections like Reign of Chaos) have also been implemented. Loading screens have been specially created for each level with help from our concept artists, involving sketches of major characters and level descriptions.
Gameplay
The gameplay of DoC is a mix of different styles; the classic original Warcraft: Orcs and Humans and the newer, more modern Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne. It is worth learning the basics before leaping right into the game; expert players of Warcraft III will find much that is unfamiliar to them, while players of Orcs and Humans might feel right at home.
Like any RTS, the focus of DoC is your main base.
Base Building
Unlike the normal Warcraft III base-building style, DoC requires that all buildings be created adjacent to roads. You will not be able to construct any building until you place it directly adjacent to at least one square of road. This allows for complex city-building, as in Warcraft: Orcs and Humans. This feature was not included by the more simplified Warcraft II and Warcraft III, and it adds considerable depth to the construction of your base.
Road System
As with the original game, The Dawn of Chaos features a road system in which towns must be built upon roads. The roads are built by the Town Hall for the Humans and the Great Hall for the Orcs. Roads themselves can only be constructed next to other roads in grid-patterns.
Wall System
Walls are slightly different from roads, but work mainly on the same principles. While still constructed from the Town/Great Hall, Walls must be built within a certain radius of one of your structures, although they do not require nearby roads.
Plot
Although Dawn of Chaos is a representation of the events of Warcraft: Orcs & Humans, the storyline deviates slightly from both the original bare-bones structure and the modern revisions.
- Except where later developments are more interesting thematically, the original sequence of events is considered the framework that DoC's plot is built on.
- The events of Warcraft III and World of Warcraft are sometimes apocryphal to the original plotlines; where the new revisions seem inappropriate or less interesting, DoC ignores them.
- DoC's storyline is meant to be a refreshing but sentimental retelling of the classic First War events, and as such sometimes sacrifices correspondence with other games for the sake of plot; however, it is intended to fit as closely as possible with the rest of the series while still keeping the player's interest.
- Like Warcraft: Orcs & Humans, DoC consists of two opposed campaigns in which you lead your chosen race to victory. Unlike Warcraft: Orcs & Humans, however, completing both campaigns will reveal the traditional, canonical ending, incorporating elements of both campaigns.
History
While still incomplete, The Dawn of Chaos is a long standing mod within the Warcraft III community, with roots dating back to 2002. The development team has released multiple demos of the engine over the past few years.
- The Original Human Demo, Released January 1st 2004
Upon release of the very first demo showcasing the engine of the mod, many errors were discovered very quickly and the demo was recalled.
- The Re-release of the Human Demo, Released February 29th 2004
With most of the problems that plagued its initial release, the Human Demo was released again to give project fans a taste of what was to come.
- "Misty Forest" Multiplayer Demo, Released December 25th 2005
A multiplayer demo that featured one map that could host six players was released to the public for the purpose of beta testing as well as to reward loyal fans for their patience.
- "Misty Forest" Multiplayer Installment, Released March 4, 2008
After much delays, the Misty Forest was updated and re-released with its own gamebuild in .exe form.
- "Misty Forest" Multiplayer Installment Update, Released March 16, 2008
After certain bugs were reported, the Realm Design team sought out to fix it and finally released a new version.
External links
Realm Design's Main Site Also the main site for The Dawn of Chaos[dead link]- Realm Design The New Domain of the Realm Design Team[dead link]
- The Dawn of Chaos Forum [dead link]