Warcraft III has given millions of gamers not only one of the most epic story campaigns in video game history, but also a huge space for their own experiments. It was from a custom map into a full-fledged title that Dota 2 once grew. But Dota was far from the only popular user mode. Even though other custom maps have not turned into full-fledged games, they have found their fans. For the brightest and most interesting user modes from Warcraft III – in the material Cybersport.ru.
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“Petrosianshchina”, or simply “Petra”
The humorous program “Crooked Mirror” has been on television for almost 20 years. During this time, the show and his main face, Evgeny Petrosyan, turned into a meme by themselves, which was reflected even in Warcraft III thanks to the custom “Petrosyanschina”, or “Petra”. In it, the players were divided into two teams: the first was to hide and build redoubts around themselves from towers and other protective structures, and the second was to try to find and destroy opponents.
Similar modes existed before the “Petrov”: for example, many can remember a custom, in which it was necessary to escape from vampires in a similar way. However, “Petrosyanschina” brought a bright domestic flavor and bad jokes, which, as you know, are sometimes very appropriate. As a result, the players had to escape not from a terrible monster or demon, but from Evgeny Vaganovich Petrosyan himself, who wanted to turn everyone he met into a fan of “Crooked Mirror”. And he pursued not ordinary nameless peasants, but “KVN fans” who flatly refused to participate in the recording of his show. There were a lot of small jokes in the custom: from portraits of characters and sounds from “Crooked Mirror” to the names of defensive buildings (“citadel of humor”, “strong figulina”, etc.).
“Petra”
“Petrov” have dozens (if not hundreds) of modifications, many are probably more familiar with the version of Reborn. However, the general concept remained the same: Petrosyan rocked in the forest and collected artifacts in order to go hunting later, and KVN fans used this time to collect resources and create protective redoubts. At the same time, “Petra” turned out to be a custom, dependent on competent teamwork, because usually users were divided into pairs (less often – into triplets) to make it easier to keep the defense.
On the Internet, you can still find many guides and tutorials on how to play both roles. And the “Petras” themselves also migrated to Dota 2, although in Warcraft III you can still find servers with this custom map.
Castle fight
Castle fight is a true classic of custom maps in Warcraft III. Its popularity can be explained by the simplicity of the gameplay: the main task of the game is to destroy the opponent’s base. And you don’t have to go into battle yourself, for you everything will be done by the units you have created, which cannot be controlled. The fortresses are located opposite each other, they are separated by the road on which the battles take place. The mode is designed for ten people, but you can play it both 5v5 and 1v1 – the main thing is that the number of participants is even.
Castle fight
Unlike many custom maps, Castle fight could be figured out on the fly and did not require special micro-control from the gamer, so it was perfect for just relaxing and while away the evening. However, the map was not primitive. Even a child could figure it out, but winning is another matter. Here it was already necessary to activate their own tactical skills, gained with experience, or be guided by guides, of which there were quite a few. Competently combining troops, managing the economy, and casting spells on time were the keys to victory. At the same time, there were more than a dozen races in Castle fight, so in any match it was necessary to be able to adapt to the opponent and counter him. In addition, all units were unique in terms of characteristics, bonuses and skills, and all this had to be taken into account when recruiting your own army.
Legion td
The most famous custom map in the Tower Defense genre. Its popularity came largely thanks to the introduction of the so-called PvP mode. Prior to Legion TD, most tower defense maps involved cooperative (or solo) defense of something from waves of enemies using static towers. In the same custom, each player not only defended, but also attacked the opponent. Users needed to rebuild their own redoubts and at the same time spend resources on units that would join the raid on the opponent. The addition of this very second variable to the equation significantly diversified the gameplay and tactical variability.
Legion td
In addition, in Legion TD, towers (in the form of heroes) were not placed on a hill and far from the march of rivals, as in many other customizations of this genre, but directly on the path of enemies. At the same time, the attackers themselves did not just run to the cherished goal, but fought with the defenders. Consequently, the player needed to come up with the most effective formations of defensive redoubts in order to maintain a balance between damage and resilience.
Green circle td
Green Circle TD is less revolutionary and less popular than Legion TD. However, this is an example of the classic old-school custom in the Tower Defense genre. It is designed for eight people, who together have to protect the great tree from hordes of monsters. There is noticeably less tactical diversity here, but there were enough strategies and development options. It was always necessary to skillfully distribute damage along the path of opponents, improve structures in time, competently group towers in order, on the one hand, to cover as many buildings as possible with the help of auras, and on the other, to avoid blind spots.
Green circle td
Finding a good match in Green Circle TD was quite difficult, despite the fact that there were never any problems with the offer. It’s just that the mode really depended very much on the level of skill and experience of all participants, because if one of the players began to let enemies pass, the whole team suffered from this. And if the misses of the “carriage” on normal waves were not so critical, then the missed boss became a headache for all participants. However, if you found good teammates and worked out a strategy not only for yourself, but for the whole team, sharing some responsibilities, then playing Green Circle TD turned into a real pleasure.
Footmen Frenzy
Dota 2 is called chess from the world of video games, because it is very difficult to understand it without spending at least a thousand or two hours on it. But at one time, Defense of the Ancients had a competitor capable of giving a head start in terms of hardcore and the number of variables that need to be controlled within one party. Speech, of course, about Footmen Frenzy. The general concept (you choose a hero and run to destroy the opponent’s throne together with the creeps) resembles DotA, with the exception of one significant nuance: the units are also placed under the player’s control. Therefore, the gamer needs not only to monitor the development of his own character, but also to competently manage the army. The battles in Footmen Frenzy have always been bright, large-scale and dynamic, but the mode required serious microcontrol – this is probably why DotA gained much more fans.
Footmen Frenzy
In addition, there were not two opposing sides in Footmen Frenzy, but four, each of which occupied its own corner of the map. This added even more chaos to the battles. Footmen Frenzy forced to enter into alliances with other players, “signing” acts of non-aggression, joint attacks and more. Naturally, all these alliances have always ended in insidious betrayal. However, such mind games and attempts to play a cunning politician definitely added flavor to the regime.
“Life in the Arena”
The brightest representative of the Arena genre among the custom maps of Warcraft III. The player’s task is quite simple: choose one hero from several dozen and with his help live as many rounds as possible in the arena. Each next wave of monsters will be more and more powerful than the previous one, and the growth of the power of enemies is often not always proportional to the development of the character. Therefore, without knowing the strategies and tricks of the regime, it is unlikely that it will be possible to live for a long time. Life in the Arena has a countless number of modifications, versions and other things, so it is difficult to even describe this custom in more detail, because everyone remembered it in completely different ways – depending on the version that he once played. In some modifications, a special bias was made towards team interactions between several users, in others, on the contrary, in addition to the waves of mobs, we had to fight with real people. Life in the Arena spawned not only hundreds of copies of its own, but thousands of other custom cards that tried to replicate its success.
“Life in the Arena”
X Hero Siege
X Hero Siege is a popular custom map in the Hero Defense genre. In it, it was necessary, with the help of the hero, together with allies, to protect something from waves of enemies, which, naturally, became stronger with each level. However, unlike many other representatives of the genre, in which the slaughter of mobs very soon turned into a monotonous routine, X Hero Siege really pleased in terms of a variety of gameplay and strategies. In addition to protecting against the usual waves of enemies, the player also had additional challenges.
X Hero Siege was extremely demanding on strategies, builds for the character and generally forced to understand well how to act for a specific hero during the game. In addition, it was necessary to maintain a balance of healthy selfishness and mutual assistance: sometimes it was worth stealing farm from allies in order to acquire a bear or a new artifact, and in other cases, on the contrary, sacrificing oneself for the sake of a teammate. X Hero Siege has many modifications, and most importantly – difficulty levels. For fans of the custom, hardcore modes with affixes were released, which literally turned it into a kind of Dark Souls, where every mistake or downed ultimate due to being stunned was equal to defeat. But thanks to the variety of strategies, heroes and difficulty levels, X Hero Siege retained its replay value.
X Hero Siege
The custom maps listed in this article are just a small fraction of all the cool, inventive and popular user-generated content based on Warcraft III. After all, the fantasy of gamers was almost limitless: from an insane number of modes in anime style to intellectual games like “Weak Link”. And among the more familiar modes, there were enough interesting and popular cards that did not fit in this collection, for example, “Mumu” or “Evolution”. So tell us in the comments which custom ones you liked the most!
