Warcraft - Orcs and Humans
Tristan Bostone
I'd tell you guys about it. It's definately a good, well done
game. It's not one of those games that'l make PC owners drool...
(I still think Westwood's Command & Conquer is better), but at
least we'll be able to hold our head high... :-)
Warcraft is a "real-time" strategy game in the spirit of Populous,
but very similar to Dune II and Command and Conquer by Westwood
if you've seen those.
I think the user interface is definately pretty good, though I
wouldn't mind a keyboard shortcut to move units. The graphics
are also good. One of the signs I think of a high quality
game, believe it or not, is the opening screen and introduction,
and both are nice multimedia presentations.
Like most good games like Civilization, theres a combination
of unit production and military tactics. You build you're
own "town", which includes farms for supporting units
in the field, barracks, which let you build soldiers,
stables, which let you build knights, churches, which let
you build clerics, etc. Of course, your opponent can come and
destroy your building.
One thing I really like is how strategy comes into play. I'm
working on a level right now where a small pass through the
forest is they key to movement throughout the arena. I've
been able to hold the pass, but not yet hold the pass and mount
an effective assault. But I'm confident that if I can get the
right mix and placement of units, I can do both. That's the
kind of challenge I play strategy games for!
Also, its a new game, and its accelerated for the PowerPC.
My thanks to the developers!
Tristan
Bob Bazley
Bostone) wrote:
> Hey, I just bought Warcraft: Orcs and Humans the other day and thought
> I'd tell you guys about it. It's definately a good, well done
> game. It's not one of those games that'l make PC owners drool...
> (I still think Westwood's Command & Conquer is better), but at
> least we'll be able to hold our head high... :-)
I agree I downloaded a copy of the demo and I cant wait to get my hands on
the full blown version I just hope it's been released here in the UK.
kind regards
Bob :)
MartonC
From your statements, you seem to be one of the developers involved with
the porting of Warcraft for the Mac. Pardon my ignorance, but I've never
heard of your company Future Tense. Reading from your message, is it safe
for me to deduce that Future Tense was the Mac programming team/company
responsible for porting over Blizzard's PC original?
I'd like to hear more about these little-heard-of Mac teams and companies
who have been responsible for doing all these PC-to-Mac ports lately. That
seems to be the trend lately. A large, monolithic PC game provider wants
to port its better titles to the Mac, but it doesn't have the internal
resources to do so. So it ends up hiring/contracting a Mac-specialty team
to do the conversions. It's quite a neat trend I think.
Marton C.
--
Marton Carungay
mar...@aol.com
David Lawrence
> Hey, I just bought Warcraft: Orcs and Humans the other day and thought
> I'd tell you guys about it. It's definitely a good, well done
--- text deleted ---
>
> My thanks to the developers!
>
> Tristan
Well, "Your welcome!" from one of the Mac developers.
I don't think PC users will be drooling over Mac Warcraft, because
Warcraft was originally released for the PC about a year ago. The new Mac
version has some improvements over the PC version, however. The PC's
original 320x240 graphics have been touched up by Blizzard's artists for
the Mac version's 640x480 resolution. The unit pictures on the left of
the game screen are especially nice.
Also, there are some user interface improvements. We put in a significant
effort to "Macintize" Warcraft - something many PC game ports don't do a
very well - so the game doesn't feel awkward to Mac users (like ourselves
at Future Tense). I think Warcraft is the first Mac game to automatically
switch your monitor to 640x480 resolution. Thanks to Apple's recent
sample code, this should become a standard feature in Mac games. No more
Monitors control panel before playing a game! <Applause>
But my favorite user interface improvement is click-and-drag to select
multiple units. On the PC version, you have to hold down the control key
while you click-and-drag. On the Mac, you just click-and-drag like you do
in the Finder.
By the way, command-clicking on the map and mini-map has different
behaviors than plain clicking. (If someone isn't familiar with Mac
jargon, command-clicking is holding down the apple-key while clicking the
mouse button). Command-clicking on the Mac version has the same behavior
as right-mouse-button clicking on the PC version.
For example, try command-clicking in the mini-map after telling a unit to
move, attack or harvest. The map will scroll to that position - without
selecting a target like clicking would do. The unit will still be in
"target mode", so you can then precisely select the target on the big map.
If you have a multi-button mouse, you can program the right mouse button
to be a command-click. I did that with my Logitech mouse, but I actually
like command-clicking better than right-mouse-button clicking.
Warcarft actually has keyboard shortcuts for all the action buttons.
After you select a unit, look at the text on the bottom of the screen when
the mouse passes over the Move button. You'll notice that the "M" in
"Move" is yellow. "M" is the hot key for the Move button. All action
buttons have a similar hot key. Is this the kind of keyboard shortcut
you're lloking for? (I always use the hot keys. Its much faster than
clicking the buttons.)
And as far as strategy goes, the one-player game is fun and challenging
the first time through all the levels, but you haven't really played
Warcraft until you've played two-player Warcraft!!! You'll have to
relearn your strategy when you start playing against a human opponent.
One player games take patience and
persistence. The two-player games take more fast planning, and quick
reaction time. It is an adrenalin rush! Everyone must try it!
Battle on,
David Lawrence
Future Tense
David Simon
In that case, you're obviously the person to ask this:
I'm having more problems with Warcraft...
I'm having a lot of trouble with sound in warcraft. At first the sound was
working fine, but now I'm lucky to get any sounds working at all!.
Sometimes I might get a few, but not many. I haven't changed anything, and
I've stripped the extensions to the bare minimum outlined in the manual.
I've noticed that it isn't caching the sounds like it used to, because I
can't hear it write them to thr Hard-Drive any more. I've also been having
frequent problems with the Hard Drive's Volume Bit-map, and I need to keep
fixing it with Norton's.
Also every time I quite from Warcraft it gives me a system error type 41,
meaning that it can't find the Finder.
Why oh why oh why????
By the way, absolutely BRILLIANT game, if I don't get to see Warcraft II
for Mac I shall be VERY dissapointed.
regards,
David Simon
Ethan M. Beard
Just one question. How many players does a copy of Warcraft allow? In
other words, do I need two copies in order to play two player network
play? Or does one copy allow for network play?
Thanks in advance.
EB
Paul Fera
If I'm not mistaken, Warcraft uses "spawning" technology that allows two
players to play against each other with one copy.
best,
paul
Pete Grady
email me. The AI of this game is its biggest flaw. I want to play
against a real mind.
BlizzrdEnt
-other words, do I need two copies in order to play two player network
-play? Or does one copy allow for network play?
-Thanks in advance.
You only need one copy to play two-player games.
Tymothi Loving
OLC
Blizzard Entertainment
Frank Schima
>Just one question. How many players does a copy of Warcraft allow? In
>other words, do I need two copies in order to play two player network
>play? Or does one copy allow for network play?
One copy allows for a 2-player network game. Enjoy.
--
Frank Schima
Database Analyst / Programmer & Network Administrator
Environmental Working Group
rel...@ewg.org
David Lawrence
> I am interested in purchasing Warcraft - the demo was great.
>
> Just one question. How many players does a copy of Warcraft allow? In
> other words, do I need two copies in order to play two player network
> play? Or does one copy allow for network play?
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
> EB
You only need one copy to play two-player.
You can play Mac-to-Mac over AppleTalk (ethernet and LocalTalk), modem or
serial connection (null-modem cable).
You can also play Mac-to-PC over IPX network, modem or serial connecion.
You MUST try two player Warcraft! It is a much different game than the
one-player scenarios. The strategy is much different, and the games are
much more unpredictable.
Even the demo version allows two-player games, if you install the needed
Communications Toolbox tools into the Extensions folder. We did not
include Apple's Communications Toolbox tools with the demo for size and
licensing reasons (they ARE included in the commercial version). You can
download them from Apple's ftp site if you don't already have them
installed.
<ftp://ftp.support.apple.com/pub/apple_sw_updates/US/mac/n_c/comm_toolbox_tools/>
The files you will want are :
"Apple Modem Tool (1.5.3).hqx" - if you want to play over modem
"AppleTalk ADSP Tool (1.0).hqx" - if you want to play over AppleTalk
"Serial Tool (1.0.2).hqx" - if you want to play with null-modem cable
Just put them in the extensions folder.
Enjoy,
David Lawrence
Future Tense
MartonC
>install the needed Communications Toolbox tools into
>the Extensions folder. We did not include Apple's
>Communications Toolbox tools with the demo for size
>and licensing reasons (they ARE included in the commercial
>version). You can download them from Apple's ftp site if
>you don't already have them installed.
David's right. Warcraft via network or modem is quite an experience. The
2-player modem play was slightly slower than normal play... but that's
what you'd expect from modem gaming anyways. I should also point out that
the Apple Communications Toolbox is an extension that is already included
in System 7.5 (or was it 7.5.1?). Seeing as how Warcraft easily used the
Apple Comm Toolbox, I was surprised at how easily a 2-player game
connected over modem! Wow! It didn't even need a complicated mess like
ARA!
--
Marton Carungay
mar...@aol.com