Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne

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This article is about the expansion pack. For the core RTS game, see Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos. For the physical throne, see Frozen Throne. For other uses, see Warcraft III (disambiguation).
Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne
WC3tFT-logo.png
Developer(s) Blizzard Entertainment
  Team 1
Publisher(s) NA: Blizzard Entertainment
EU: Sierra Entertainment
JP: Capcom
KO: Sonokong
Director(s) Frank Pearce
Producer(s) Chris Sigaty
Designer(s) Rob Pardo
Writer(s) Chris Metzen
Composer(s) Tracy W. Bush
Victor Crews
Derek Duke
Jason Hayes
Glenn Stafford
Platforms Microsoft Windows, Mac OS, and Mac OS X
Release
  • NA: July 1, 2003
  • EU: July 4, 2003
  • KO: July 1, 2003
  • JP: February 27, 2004
Latest release 1.31.1 (2019-06-19), last version before WC3Reforged-icon.png
Genre(s) Real-time strategy
Mode(s) Single player, multiplayer

Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne (sometimes abbreviated to TFT) is an expansion pack of Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos developed for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS and Mac OS X by Blizzard Entertainment. Released in stores worldwide in multiple languages beginning on 1 July 2003,[1] it details Arthas' transformation into the Lich King, Illidan's awakening of the naga, the conversion of the blood elves, the breakdown of Horde-Alliance relations in Kalimdor, and more. The Frozen Throne takes place approximately one year after Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, whilst World of Warcraft takes place three years after the events detailed in The Frozen Throne.

The Frozen Throne continues some of the loose ends of the original game, as well as spins off some new plots of its own and paves way for the new conflict of World of Warcraft, as well as set plots further explored in World of Warcraft's expansions: World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade and World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King.

Additions

Cover art

General

  • The game includes four new campaigns, that are set after the events of Reign of Chaos.
  • Many new melee maps are added.
  • Five new tilesets are added, each with its own set of creeps and critters. New doodads are added to old tilesets.
  • The Warcraft III World Editor is greatly expanded, allowing the user to do more custom work with regards to editing skills, doodads, and upgrades. Support for importing custom files into maps is added, as well as the creation of custom campaigns with campaign-specific data. An AI editor was also created for the expansion.
  • While no new races were added for melee matches, two new races are playable at some point during the campaign: the Naga and Draenei.
    • The Naga primarily appear as antagonists, but are playable in one Sentinel mission and several Alliance missions, as well as custom maps. The Naga are amphibious, being able to travel across water without a Ship, and can construct buildings on land or shallow water (unlike other races, which cannot build on shallow water). While the Naga race is not as complete as the four standard playable races, they have a lot of the detail that the standard races have: They have a worker unit (the Mur'gul Slave), various unique buildings and a unique building animation, many unique units and research for those units, and Naga-specific interface voice lines (such as for buildings being complete or a gold mine running low).
    • The Draenei are playable in one Alliance mission, as well as custom maps. They are substantially less developed than the Naga; for example, most of their units use the same base model.

Gameplay

  • The population limit has been increased from 90 to 100, the High Upkeep threshold increased from 71 to 81, and the Low Upkeep threshold increased from 41 to 51.
  • Gold and lumber costs have been recalculated, generally requiring more lumber for high-tech buildings and units.
  • Many new items have been added to the game.
  • New item mechanics were added, such as the neutral Marketplace (which sells a rotating inventory of items), player-built item shops, and the Backpack upgrade (which allows non-hero units to carry items, but not use them).
  • Neutral Heroes have been added to the game. Neutral Heroes can be recruited from the Tavern, a neutral building. The tavern can also instantly revive any fallen hero, with an increased resource cost, and reduced health and mana of the revived hero. A nearby unit is needed to access the tavern.
  • Naval units return as a game mechanic (they had been present in Warcraft II, but were absent in Reign of Chaos). Units can now be amphibious, allowing them to travel on land or water. However, none of the playable races have amphibious or aquatic units, so the mechanic is largely only seen in the single-player campaign. In melee maps, the mechanic is only used by new creeps, one critter (the penguin), and Transport Ships (which are hireable from the Goblin Shipyard neutral building).
    • The Goblin Shipyard primarily appears on maps structured around islands. Such maps became unpopular and were removed from the ladder selection.
    • The only amphibious creeps that are hireable from a Mercenary Camp are the Mur'gul Snarecaster and Giant Sea Turtle, which are both exclusive to the Sunken Ruins tileset's Mercenary Camp.
    • The Naga Hero unit—the Naga Sea Witch—is recruitable from Taverns, but unlike in the campaign, the Tavern's Naga Sea Witch is not amphibious and so can only travel on land.

Units and buildings

For each race, The Frozen Throne adds several new units, new upgrades, new buildings, and one new hero each.

Story

Sentinels Campaign: Terror of the Tides

Sentinels Campaign screen.
Main article: Terror of the Tides

The Warden Maiev Shadowsong pursues the former prisoner Illidan Stormrage across Azeroth. Illidan has gained the allegiance of the naga, former night elves who adapted to underwater life, but they do not stop Maiev, who pursues Illidan from Kalimdor to the Tomb of Sargeras, then all the way to Lordaeron. During her chase, she asks the assistance of Malfurion Stormrage and Tyrande Whisperwind, but Maiev holds a grudge against Tyrande for her actions in releasing Illidan in the first place, culminating in her lying about Tyrande's death to Malfurion. Malfurion and Maiev successfully prevent Illidan from using the Eye of Sargeras, with the help of a blood elf, Kael'thas Sunstrider, but in the process, Maiev's treachery comes out, and the brothers Stormrage join forces to save their mutual beloved. Malfurion then pardons Illidan, though he does not revoke his exile, and Illidan departs...with Maiev still dogging at his heels.

Alliance Campaign: Curse of the Blood Elves

Alliance Campaign screen.
Main article: Curse of the Blood Elves

The Alliance Campaign (the humans are not the main characters) follows the adventures of Prince Kael'thas, leader of the blood elves, a group of high elves that survived the invasion of Quel'Thalas by the Scourge. Originally helping the Alliance, the Blood Elves are imprisoned by a Human knight, Lord Garithos, and are eventually rescued by Lady Vashj and her Naga. Vashj then takes Kael'thas to the Outland, the remnants of the orc realm Draenor, to meet (and free) their master, Illidan. After fending off Maiev (again) and gaining the allegiance of the native Draenei, Illidan is able to conquer the Outland, where he hopes he will be safe from his failure to use the Eye of Sargeras to destroy the Frozen Throne. But his master, the demon lord Kil'jaeden, catches them nonetheless, and the episode ends with Illidan renewing his vow to destroy the Lich King.

The human forces in this campaign are very different than the ones used in the multiplayer game. Instead of the full Alliance, only the blood elven units are available, with the addition of a few new units and a blood elf hero added to the expansion pack. The draenei and the naga, with their lone heroes, are also eventually playable.

Scourge Campaign: Legacy of the Damned

Scourge Campaign screen.
Main article: Legacy of the Damned

In the blighted lands of Lordaeron, now known as the Plaguelands, a civil war is taking place within the Scourge. The undead forces splinter into three major factions: Arthas and Kel'Thuzad, who are loyal to the Lich King; the Forsaken, led by the Banshee Queen Sylvanas Windrunner; and a third group still loyal to the Burning Legion, led by the Dreadlords (Nathrezim) who are unaware of the Legion's defeat on Mount Hyjal. The campaign switches between Arthas' journey to Northrend to assist the Lich King, and Sylvanas' war against the Dreadlords for control of the Plaguelands. In the end, Sylvanas emerges as the nominal ruler of the Plaguelands, while Arthas travels to Northrend to defend the Lich King, meeting the subterranean Nerubian race, and eventually defeating Illidan in a one-on-one duel. (Contrary to popular belief, Illidan survived.) Arthas then ascends to the Frozen Throne and becomes one with the Lich King. What becomes of this unholy union is addressed in World of Warcraft.

Bonus Campaign: The Founding of Durotar

Bonus Campaign screen.
Main article: The Founding of Durotar

The Bonus Campaign is a departure from the rest of the game and featured the three longest campaigns in the game. It has features more like an RPG similar to Diablo, featuring a Beastmaster named Rexxar as he helps the orcs defend and develop their new home of Durotar from various enemies. The Bonus Campaign is probably meant as a bridge between the traditional Warcraft real-time strategy genre to the latest release of Blizzard, the MMORPG of World of Warcraft. It was also created because the game's designers were having trouble getting the orcs involved in the main plot of The Frozen Throne, and the RPG-style allowed Blizzard to show off many of the new features added in the World Editor, as an example of how custom maps can differ greatly from standard melee maps.

The player controls a group of two to four heroes, primarily Rexxar and a troll Shadow Hunter named Rokhan. The player can also gain permanent control of a pandaren Brewmaster named Chen Stormstout and tauren Chieftain Cairne Bloodhoof, and temporary control of Far Seer Drek'Thar, Blademaster Samuro, Jaina Proudmoore, and Cairne's son, Baine Bloodhoof. Maps are interconnected, with each one being set up as various areas of Kalimdor, such as the orc fortress city of Orgrimmar, and a human city on the Theramore Isles.

Initially only one of the three acts was included in the game, allowing Blizzard to spend more time on the remaining two after release. Each act was expected to be released in a subsequent patch, but due to delays in patch development, they were both finished and included in the first major patch in the expansion.

Manual

Opening screen.

Development

Opening screen during Beta

Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne was originally announced on 22 January 2003.[2] On 14 February 2003, Blizzard announced the first beta test for the game, which offered 10,000 players to sample the game.[3] On 10 March 2003, 10,000 more players were selected to participate in the beta test.[4] On 29 May 2003, Blizzard announced that the expansion set had "gone gold", and was released in 1 July 2003.

The Frozen Throne started at the version 1.07 of the game (by the time the game actually shipped patch 1.10 was downloadable), but there have been many patches after the expansion was released. Important changes, beside gameplay and World Editor changes, include the addition of some new maps in patches 1.17, 1.18, 1.19, 1.21 and 1.22; and the new neutral heroes Tinker, Alchemist and Firelord in patches 1.15 and 1.17. In patch 1.13 the Acts II and III of the Bonus campaign were added. The patch 1.21b allowed the game to be played without the official CD.

Due to the patch 1.23, many third-party programs were rendered unusable and it also disabled collided maps, which would make modified custom maps appear to be the same as the original. Another effect of the patch, which is not included in the release notes, is that custom maps with large filenames will not appear in the game. The limit is believed to be 20 characters, but this has not yet been tested.

The 1.23 patch included no actual changes to gameplay but rather dealt with security concerns relating to multiplayer hacks. The 1.24 patch and the subsequent and the 1.24a, 1.24b and 1.24c patches followed suit, also dealing with malicious code that could be contained in custom maps. Consequentially, many older maps using custom text rather than standard triggers may no longer work until updated. Hash Tables were added to the World Editor to compensate for some of the lost functionality.

Awards

The Frozen Throne has an average rating of 90.75% on Game Rankings.[5]

System Requirements

Main article: System requirements § Warcraft III: Classic

Trivia

Gallery

  • Battle.net loading

    Battle.net loading

  • The Frozen Throne beta logo

    The Frozen Throne beta logo

Videos

Load video
Video Link

References

 
  1. ^ http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/warcraft3thefrozenthrone/index.html
  2. ^ Warcraft III expansion revealed - PC News at GameSpot
  3. ^ Warcraft III expansion beta soon - PC News at GameSpot
  4. ^ The Frozen Throne beta expands - PC News at GameSpot
  5. ^ Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne on Game Rankings
  6. ^ Can't Purchase Warcraft III: Classic. Blizzard Entertainment.
  7. ^ No Warcraft III: Classic Access from Warcraft III: Reforged Prepurchase. Blizzard Entertainment.

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