Information AboutWarcraft 2 |
''Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness'' (usually simply called '''Warcraft II'''; sometimes abbreviated to '''''WCII''''', '''''WC2''''' or '''''War2''''') is a sequel to the popular the game's code to Microsoft Windows , fixing a few minor bugs, and enabling multiplayer support via Blizzard's online matchmaking service, Battle.net . Users may play each other online (via LAN or the Internet ) using existing maps or ones they create. Users may also play the game solo, taking them through a story in which orcs and humans are at War . The events that take place in this game are known in Warcraft lore as the Second Great War. The game is set six years after the fall of Azeroth. The Orcs have decided to conquer the lands to the north and add Lordaeron to their empire. UNITS AND STRUCTURES Once again, like the first Warcraft and most RTS games, Warcraft II also makes use of two opposing sides and with immediately clear counterparts among the races’ units. For example, the basic fighting unit of the Humans is the Footman whose immediate Orc counterpart is the Grunt. Like the first Warcraft, the mouse-clickable controls for the units is located to the left side of the screen. The number of units have also been increased and have more elaborate abilities. Units Playable characters in the Tides of Darkness campaigns include Uther the Lightbringer, Zul’jin and Cho’gall. There is nothing about them that sets them apart from the other units of their classes except that they have an identity of their own and sets up the introduction of the next unit type. Uther is a Paladin, Zul’jin is a Troll Axethrower and Cho’gall is an Ogre Mage. In one level, you have Cho’gall on your side and in another one, you have to kill Cho’gall. Lothar also appears in the campaign but he is not playable and merely serves to be killed off. However, he may be played in the custom maps. In the expansion game, Beyond the Dark Portal, the role of hero units is increased. Previously in Tides of Darkness, hero units are sparse and merely serve to introduce a new type of unit. In Dark Portal, hero units take greater part in several missions and their survival is critical in completing each mission. Hero units are basically stronger and more powerful versions of the regular units. The hero units of Beyond the Dark Portal are:
The units are essentially quite balanced, the only real differences can be found in the spells used by Paladins/Ogre-Mages and Mages/Death Knights. It is often argued that the Ogre-Mages have better spells than Paladins (the Bloodlust spell used on a large number of Ogre-Mages is very devastating, and makes people easily favor orcs, especially if they favor Rush tactics) while Mages are better than Death Knights (Slow and Polymorph spells are extremely devastating if used correctly), though some disagree on one count or both. The other non-cosmetic difference is that Elven Rangers can learn the Marksmanship ability (so that they deal more damage) whereas their counterparts, Troll Berserkers, can acquire Regeneration (which slowly heals their wounds). The last difference is that the melee damage upgrades in the Blacksmith of Humans cost more gold than that of Orcs, though lumber is required in the latter. Buildings UTILITIES, MODIFICATIONS AND CONVERSIONS
The next important breakthrough came when Alexander Cech and Daniel Lemberg broke the encryption used in the base game data files. Alexander Cech went on to create a program called Wardraft, which allowed users to browse and modify the contents of the game data files, allowing comprehensive modifications. The spawn of extensive alterations became known as "Total Conversions", and a great many projects were in motion for a good long while. Some of the more prominent were "DeathCraft: Twilight of Demons" by Dirk "The Guardian" by Richartz, "War of the Ring" by Gurthaur, "Editor's Total Conversion" by Fronzel Neekburn and the whole of the Warclan, and the noteworthy "Rituals of Rebirth" spearheaded by Kalindor, Kosmous, and Commoner. There was also a Free Software game inspired by ''Warcraft II'' called ''Freecraft'', which, while allowing users to import actual game data from ''Warcraft II'', also contained their own artwork and scenarios. Although it used no art or code from ''Warcraft II'', the project received a threatening cease-and-desist letter from Blizzard, apparently due to similarity to the Warcraft trademarks. Not willing to fight Blizzard, the maintainers cancelled the whole project, later rekindlig it under the name of '' Stratagus ''. Many of the utilities and conversions have faded into the depths of obscurity, but the appeal of feature-rich editors and total conversions has lived on. QUOTATIONS One of the features of ''Warcraft II'' are the unit quotes. If a single unit was clicked several times in a row, the unit's voice samples would change. The unit would start getting angry at the player, or start quoting lines in reference to movies, games, or other things. For example, a footman might say, "Don't you have a kingdom to run?". These phrases differed for the Footman and Grunt units in the game's Demo , and mostly included exhortations to purchase the full version. Clicking on a Sheep long enough will cause it to blow up, yet another Exploding Sheep reference. WARCRAFT II: BATTLE.NET EDITION ''Warcraft II: Battle.net Edition'' is an online-enabled version of ''Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness'', with the , and, unlike its Offline Counterparts , does require a CD Key to install. Currently, ''Warcraft II'' enjoys little attention from Blizzard's management, shown by the fact that there are serious unaddressed issues with the Battle.net interface and Windows XP compatibility. The average number of users playing ''Warcraft II'' online at any point is between 600 and 1200. The bulk of the remaining ''Warcraft II'' players are found on us.east server and reside in the War2 Ladder Challenges channel. ONLINE PLAY Although the Battle.net Edition wasn't released until 1999 , online play was widespread from the game's release using IPX Emulators such as Kali . ''Warcraft II'' (along with '' Command & Conquer '') was one of the first Real-time Strategy games to be played widely online, and spawned several leagues, including the International Warcraft League (IWL) and singles and teams ladders on Case's Ladder. The Mac release allowed multiplayer games over TCP/IP. The IRC channel MacWarCraft served as a gathering place for online play, before Battle.net was created. The depth of strategy of the game was found to be immense and evolved over time. Many of the newly invented tactics were considered unorthodox and "cheap", meaning the tactic reduced the enjoyability of the game. New players (newbies, newbs, or noobs) were able to defeat well established players by using cheap tatics. But for every cheap tactic, subsequent countermeasures were developed and matches eventually played out like complicated games of Rock, Paper, Scissors . What was once considered cheap, eventually became routine, and established players were forced to adapt. Examples of cheap tactics include grunt rushing (rushing), barracks first (rax first), offensive barracksing (raxing), offensive towering (ot), peon rushing, and rushing to bloodlust. Unlike the later game, '' StarCraft '', there were few ''Warcraft II'' competitions played for money or prizes. However, the level of competition was fierce, with many players devoting most of their spare time to learning the dynamics of the game. While a small base of competitive ''Warcraft II'' players still exists, most moved on to newer games, such as ''StarCraft'' and '' Warcraft III ''. As the game grew older, the population of active players diminished, as did the viability of the leagues. Eventually all of the leagues closed or became inactive but the players remained extremely competitive by flaming each other in chat and maintaining their own unofficial tally of wins and loses. SYSTEM REQUIREMNTS Battlenet for PC users
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