Upcoming Champions [League of Legends: Arena]

With variety of fixes and visual enchantment, alpha version from my recent project - League of Legends: Arena is over, and moving on into beta state. However since the project is still a long go and I haven't fully animate some of the champions yet, I decided to made a sneak peek post on the blog which I didn't do anymore since my Fairy Tail: Battle of Magic project last time. So here is it, starting from the champions list - from the current available into some of those whose currently on my list to be included in future releases:

Currently Available: Katarina, Garen and Miss Fortune

Currently Available: Sona, Master Yi and Ezreal

Currently Available: Vladimir, Janna and Nasus

Upcoming Releases: Zyra, Nautilus and Graves

Upcoming Releases: Ashe, Leona and Ahri

Boss Mode
Boss mode will be implemented in future release as well, currently I have one between two champions on mind that has to be decided as a Boss: Hecarim, the Shadow of War or Nautilus, the Titan of the Depths.

Boss Mode illust with Nautilus as the boss

Achieving Low Size On A High Visualized Map

People often asked, how do I achieve such low size projects while most of the materials I'm using are normally a highpoly products. So I decided to made a short tutorial out of it, hopefully can be helpful for certain people who needed it, especially those who care much about size.

These points I'm mentioning are what I often do and based off from personal map making experience in order to achieving low sized, yet visually high quality looking maps:

1. Models
No doubt that model can enchant your map looks into something different and eye pleasing. But too much polycount ain't necessary for wc3. Therefore Polycount Reduction is needed to do, this is a polycount reduction example on a mesh that I did:

Blackhand from Warlords of Draenor - Before: 4,57 mb | After: 298 kb
(Model mesh size only, not including texture size)

Notice the difference? Polycount Reduction meant removing unecessary parts of the mesh in order to obtain lower size. This can be done in Mdlvis or Milkshape.

Short Note: In milkshape you can do reduction for various kind of model files other than .mdx. In my personal opinion, Milkshape is also a base modelling tool to build your modelling fundamental before move on into professional modelling tools like 3ds max or Maya.

The next part we'll talk about Animations, normally WoW models had plenty of animations which is not needed as every single of keyframes here are counted as kb.

1. Try to remove every single of animations that you not needed on the model and see the size difference. Especially on a model that you use as an NPC or Vendor role, leaving only stand animation on them is pretty much a good idea.

2. If you create the animations on your own, create only animations that you needed, beside lower the size, it's also way more time efficiency.

Last but not least, remove unnecessary keyframes on each animations, normally WoW animated models had hundered of keyframes on a single animation, remove them until 8-10 keyframes. Make sure you remove a correct keyframe or else the animations would be messed up.

From that Polycount Reduction and Keyframes Reduction method above I'm able to made the model on the pic down from 4,57 mb into 298 kb.

Blackhand in-game, comparison between
30% and 100% texture quality

2. Texture

For custom texture usage only, skip this part if you using in-game textures. Reduce your texture quality under 40% using BLP Lab.

If  you using custom seperated model potrait, you can just reduce yours into 20% instead, as with wc3 normal camera distance, texture quality is not really that noticable, unless it's for huge sized doodads decorations.

As for texture resolution, 256 pixels-below is the best choice, never went higher than that for your size efficiency. Changing a texture resolution can be done in Photoshop or BLP Lab.

And for ground tile textures, I usually have them in 60% of their quality so their looks ain't broken as a ground.

3. Icon
Normally it's 5 kb below for BTN, and 4 kb below for DISBTN. If your icon size is more than that, you did the conversion wrong. I'm using Photoshop most of the times before converting all of my icons, and then using Button Manager for converting them into .blp file.

Sound Cut, because every single second
taking quite alot of kbs

4. Sound
Sounds sometimes made the map rather more alive, right usage of BGM often can made the map vibe more intensive especially on battle arena themed one. I often cut any unecessary part of the sound/music which I'm using with Adobe Audition, after that compress them into 64 kbps, lower than that only causing a broken sound. I personally use Xilisoft Video Converter or Switch Sound File Converter for compressing the sound kbps.

For BGM, you can cut certain repeatable part from the music to cut down the size instead of using them in full length.

Those are vital parts I often do in order to obtaining a lower size, other than that you guys probably already know what to do. Doing the model part (polycount reduction and keyframes reduction) would be the more time-taking out of 4 points above. Creating from scratch or editing the materials used would need even more time.

But the visual and size result? I can guarantee it's worth it rather than have oversized kbs on something that can be achieved waaay more smaller! Except if you don't care at all about the size, of course.

League of Legends: Arena

Beside World of Warcraft total conversion projects series which I finally had the chance to achieve, since around 2 years ago I've been always planned to create a project based off from League of Legends for fun, and especially because I wanted to see a League of Legends visually converted into the game which anyone haven't done it (I meant the whole visual). Since I recently having fun creating hero arena-of sort, kind of map, I've decided to making this League of Legends project into an arena instead with League of Legends: Arena as it's name.

Perhaps an RPG version would be made in the future, as I had quite plenty of terrain concept to try on. It is the visual possibilities what wc3 can achieve which made me still enjoy making maps until today, aware of the fact that wc3 is already pretty old and it's started to pretty much dying day by day.

Miss Fortune in-game

The project terrain featuring experimental method for the tile, with higher resolution and dimension which I haven't tried with my projects before, and really had fun during the process of making it - as terraining is one of my favorite part on making a project. So if you enjoyed seen my terraining on my projects, make sure you tried this one as well!

Current Available Champions
here are currently few champions of choice that available on this current state: Garen, Master Yi, Miss Fortune, Sona and Katarina - which of course there will be more of it on future release! Champion audio voice clips also included when they cast their Q and R ability. These champions are on my mind right now to be included in next versions: Vladimir, Nasus and Jana. Beside those, there are also some pending champion list which I currently haven't animate, including: Ahri, Azir, Leona, Riven and more other. I made a sneak peek about some of them here.

As an arena type, the map featured fast paced, quick-to-learn gameplay like one of my previous project, enchanted with rich visualized, HD battlefield conversion which is my strong points as a visual person myself. Mediocre AI is included, enough to entertain on the whole game. Here's some ingame preview of the project:

Katarina preview in-game #001

Katarina preview in-game #002

Katarina preview in-game #003

Katarina preview in-game #004

Download Version 1.2
Version 1.2 has been released on February 6th, 2015. Featuring new champions: Alistar, the Minotaur and Mordekaiser, the Master of Metal joins the arena! As well as mass revison on the previous champions available, and some more new stuff. Full changelogs available in-game menu.
Version History: 0.6.a, 0.6.b, 0.7, 0.8, 0.9, 1.0, 1.1, 1.2

Download Now

Latest Release Date: August 5th, 2015

Current Map Size: 4.3 MB

World of Warcraft: The Battleground

Fourth title I've finally able to release this year from World of Warcraft total conversion project series of mine. A fun-to-play Hero Arena playstyle in a huge, rich visualized battleground inspired from the actual battleground from World of Warcraft itself, spiced up with RPG-like elements for people to play. Join up the iconic battle conflict between Team Alliance and Team Horde! AI included for the fun, enough to keep you entertained the whole game.

Available Classes
Play as your favorite role: be a davestating warrior battling on the front line, or powerful spellcasters who use magic to inflict damage on their enemies from afar! There are currently 14 available classes-inspired from original World of Warcraft available to play, including Hybrid Monk, which is a class I thought I'd never include.

Tauren Warrior

Arms Warrior
"A Battle-hardened masters of heavy weapons, using mobility and overpowering attacks to strike their opponents down."

Abilities:
Siegebreaker, Thunder Clap, Mortal Strike, Hamstring, Piercing Howl and Battle Shout

Equipment of Choices:
Main Hand: Sword, Axe, Mace, Dagger
Off Hand: Axe, Sword, Dagger, Shield
Armor: Plate, Leather

Undead Rogue

Assasination Rogue
"A deadly master of poisons who dispatches victims with vicious dagger strikes."

Abilities:
Mutilate, Wound Poison, Vendetta, Envenom, Stealth and Garrote

Equipment of Choices:
Main Hand: Sword, Dagger
Off Hand: Sword, Dagger, Shield
Armor: Leather

Undead Death Knight

Frost Death Knight
"An icy harbinger of doom, enchanting frost power and delivering vicious weapon strikes."

Abilities:
Frost Stike, Death Coil, Remorseless Winter, Howling Blast, Anti-Magic Shell and Shadow Infusion

Equipment of Choices:
Main Hand: Sword, Axe, Dagger
Off Hand: Axe, Sword, Dagger, Shield
Armor: Plate, Leather

Draenei Frost Mage

Frost Mage
"Frost specialization spell caster, able to freezes enemies in their tracks and shatters them with frost magic."

Abilities:
Cone of Cold, Frost Armor, Blizzard, Frost Nova, Deep Freeze and Absorb Mana

Equipment of Choices:
Main Hand: Staff
Off Hand: Shield
Armor: Cloth, Leather

Draenei Paladin

Holy Paladin
"Guardian of the righteous. Invokes the power of the light to protect and to heal."

Abilities:
Crusader Strike, Holy Shock, Holy Light, Flash of Light, Divine Shield and Devotion

Equipment of Choices:
Main Hand: Sword, Mace
Off Hand: Shield
Armor: Plate, Leather

Human Priest

Holy Priest
"Master of healing and preservation. Uses magic to shield allies from taking damage as well as heal their wounds."

Abilities:
Penance, Power Word: Barrier, Holy Light, Inner Will, Mind Blast and Absorb Mana

Equipment of Choices:
Main Hand: Staff, Mace
Off Hand: Shield
Armor: Cloth, Leather

Night Elf Warlock

Affliction Warlock
"A master of Shadow magic who specializes in drains and cursing spells."

Abilities:
Shadow Bolt, Drain Life, Howl of Terror, Soulburn, Malefic Grasp and Absorb Mana

Equipment of Choices:
Main Hand: Staff
Off Hand: Shield
Armor: Cloth, Leather

Orc Death Knight

Blood Death Knight
"A dark guardian who manipulates and corrupts life energy to sustain himself in the face of an enemy onslaught."

Abilities:
Death Strike, Scarlet Fever, Strangulate, Unholy Fever, Anti-Magic Shell and Vampiric Blood

Equipment of Choices:
Main Hand: Sword, Axe, Dagger
Off Hand: Axe, Sword, Dagger, Shield
Armor: Plate, Leather

Blood Elf Mage

Fire Mage
"Fire specialization spell caster, able to ignite enemies with burst of fire and combustive flames."

Abilities:
Pyroblast, Flame Strike, Molten Armor, Combustion, Polymorph and Absorb Mana

Equipment of Choices:
Main Hand: Staff
Off Hand: Shield
Armor: Cloth

Blood Elf Paladin

Retribution Paladin
"A righteous holy knight who judges and punishes opponents with weapon and holy magic."

Abilities:
Templar Verdict, Divine Storm, Holy Light, Binding Light, Divine Shield and The Art of War

Equipment of Choices:
Main Hand: Sword, Mace
Off Hand: Shield
Armor: Plate, Leather

Worgen Rogue

 Combat Rogue
"A swashbuckler who uses agility and guile to stand toe-to-toe with enemies."

Abilities:
Revealing Strike, Expose Armor, Vitality, Gouge, Stealth and Garrote

Equipment of Choices:
Main Hand: Sword, Dagger
Off Hand: Sword, Dagger, Shield
Armor: Leather

Orc Shaman

Elemental Shaman
"A spellcaster who harnesses the destructive forces of nature and the elements."

Abilities:
Lightning Bolt, Static Shock, Earth Shock, Lava Burst, Healing Surge and Absorb Mana

Equipment of Choices:
Main Hand: Staff
Off Hand: Shield
Armor: Cloth, Leather

Dwarf Warrior

 Fury Warrior
"A furious berserker, unleashing a flurry of attacks to carve his opponents to pieces."

Abilities:
Bloodthrist, Crazed Berserker, Whirlwind, Colossus Smash, Avatar and Berserker Rage

Equipment of Choices:
Main Hand: Sword, Axe, Mace, Dagger
Off Hand: Axe, Sword, Dagger, Shield
Armor: Plate, Leather

Pandaren Monk

Hybrid Monk
"A martial artist without peer who pummels foes with hands and fists."

Abilities:
Jab, Dragon Fist, Stance of Fierce Tiger, Breath of Fire, Zen Meditation and Fists of Fury

Equipment of Choices:
Main Hand: Sword, Mace, Staff, Dagger
Off Hand: Sword, Dagger, Shield
Armor: Leather, Cloth

Some attachments in-game

Features
♦ Total Conversion Materials from WoW
All materials has re-created, poly reduced, geomerged and edited by myself for the multiplayer project usage purpose.

♦ Huge Battleground, Detailed Terrain
The project provide a large, eye-catching detailed battleground for you to see while enjoying the battle against your enemies.

♦ Choosable Attributes Points
You'll receive 15 attribute points when starting the game, and 3 attribute points each time you leveled up.

♦ Attributes Scaleable Abilities
Q-W-E-R and D-F active abilities with comfortable hotkeys to use featuring fancy, describing tooltips. All abilities are scaleable by attributes!

♦ Custom Main Hand and Off Hand Attachment
You can change your weapon and shield attachment visual now as you change your main hand and off hand type item. Featuring some fancy World of Warcraft weapon and shield attachments with lowpoly revised, including legendaries: Sulfuras, Hand of Ragnaros, Warglaive of Azzinoth and Dragonwrath, Tarecgosa's Rest!

♦ Limited and Upgradeable Items
Additional RPG element, Player can only carry 1 type of equipment, all items are upgradeable up to 2 levels by Ore which you can bought on blacksmith!

♦ And More!

Screenshots Preview
Since the theme is about Mist of Pandaria, the terrain featuring a large arena battleground with design based off from Lost Isles mixed with ancient chinese Pandarian style, while the creeps are made via geomerging with Zandalari theme. These terrain design might be change and improved from time to time as the project progressing by.

Battleground Preview #1

Battleground Preview #2

Battleground Preview #3

Battleground Preview #4

Download
World of Warcraft: The Battleground latest Version 1.1 has been released on August 23th, 2015. Visit the main page on Hive Workshop for more detail.

Latest Version Release Date: December 9th, 2014

Current Map Size: 4,29 MB

Download Now