You guys care to spitball with me? Let's talk about possible WC3 naval tech trees, with the idea being that any of us can customize these things in our WC3 editors if we ever want to. Alliance, Horde, Scourge, and Sentinels.

I have some generic ideas, but I'm terrible at balancing... and I'm unfamiliar with a lot of WC3 "gamefeel" in general. So maybe you guys can shape this into something great.


ALLIANCE


Battleship: No change.


Frigate: No change.


Transport: No change. Could rename it as a Tirassian Wind-runner, if you want a Last Guardian reference.

Other: Allow the spells Invisibility and Inner Fire (which inspires the crew) to affect Mechanical units so they can be cast on ships. Yes, it would also affect Demolishers and Flying Machines... so maybe not.

The Alliance is purposely generic, as their standard tech tree is more similar to their WCII tech than the Horde was. I think the best bet is to shape out niches in the other factions, then adjust the cost/strength values of these Alliance units as needed.


HORDE


Ogre Juggernaught: Make this akin to the Korean Turtle Ship from Age of Kings. Heavy armor, very slow, very short range, and is able to sink any other ship at that short range. I feel this fits the image of orcish boarding parties, as well as illustrates a vessel that might've originally been built to battle sea monsters on Draenor. It matches the Horde theme of simple, strong units. Maybe let it have War Drums, so it can hang on a coastline and inspire warriors like in that flashback cutscene.


Dragon Turtle: Edited for orcish need? Something that can shoot at air units (either through breathing fire, or goblin missles), but not terribly well. It could be built at the Beastiary instead of a Shipyard since it crosses land and water. May be unnecessary.


Wave Rider: A transport unit. The name is a generic orcish term for ships, in some WC2 briefings. Maybe make it slightly slower than the Alliance transport, but able to hold more units.


SCOURGE



Ghost Ship: A Shade on the water. Invisible and able to see invisible units.


Plague Ship: An anti-building and anti-living siege unit, for bombarding coastlines or maybe even further. A Meat Wagon type, able to also hit slower ships that aren't paying attention.


Naglefar: Transport ship named from Norse mythology. Its distinction would be a Disease Cloud aura. That can hurt mechanical units, right?

Other: See, I toss around the idea of giving the Scourge no ship-to-air and an unreliable ship-to-ship capacity, with the understanding that they would have to rely on their own air units to dominate the seas. I feel that one of the four races should be this way, preferably a race with a strong air force.


SENTINELS


Elven Destroyer: Fast and shoots arrows. Strong anti-air. The idea is that, like the ballista, this technology would be found among high elves AND night elves.


Floating Well: A "medic" unit that gives Moonwell mana/health regeneration, and can also use Renew on other ships.


Ferry: A Darnassian transport. Possibly the fastest naval unit?

Other: What if, instead of a transport ship (or along with one), the Elven Destroyers could carry small amounts of troops, say one or two? Like the Hippogryph can technically carry an archer somewhere and drop her off?

Funny enough, those Night Elven ships were actually used by Kael's army during the Undead campaign.

EDIT: The Barrage ability of the upgraded Siege Engines can be edited to allow you to attack more than one unit at a time. You can put it on one of the ships.

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Just for dynamics sake, I think having a bunch of Druid of the Fin would be cool. Even Orca form (WoW glyph) could work.

Also think Undead could use something massive. Maybe a frost-related Vrykul-manned Icebreaker, or a low-floating Black Ark, like the Dark Elves in Warhammer.

If we are to expand W3's naval tech tree, I'd go with something like this:

General

There's four types of ships: Transport, Frigate, Destroyer, and Special. Each one except the special can transport troops now, and all of them have combat capabilities, including a special skill.

All ships leave wreckage after their destruction. Ship passengers survive inside this wreckage, but receive damage over time. The wreckage can be attacked by enemies too, but they can't know if there are any survivors inside. Move a ship with space near it to rescue your troops.

Human

Humans are all about defense is the best offense. All human ships can repair themselves on sea, no need for worker support.

• Transport: Can attach to wreckage to repair destroyed ships.
• Frigate: Can use a flamethrower against enemy ships, dealing damage over time.
• Destroyer: Can activate shields, reducing incoming damage.
• Submarine: Can submerge, ignoring collision and becoming invisible, but becomes slower and unable to attack.

Orc

Orcs are about raw damage. All their ships explode on death, dealing damage to nearby enemies (they still leave wreckage with survivors afterwards).

• Transport: Can immobilize enemy transports, frigates, and destroyers, boarding them. Once they go under 20% life, they change ownership if the orc transport is still alive and attached.
• Frigate: Can attach to enemy wreckage, destroying it faster and pillaging bonus resources.
• Destroyer: Can activate all cannons, attacking multiple nearby enemies at once.
• Explosive: Lays naval mines, which affect enemies both in the surface and underwater. Can crash and self-destruct for great damage.

Undead

Undead are all about crippling and surrounding the enemy. All damage done to enemy ships affects their own passengers too.

• Transport: Can use ghost form to receive less damage and move faster.
• Frigate: Can freeze water behind it to slow enemy ships
• Destroyer: Attacks leave plague clouds at the target areas.
• Kraken/Leviathan: Can submerge, ignoring collision. Can capture enemy ships upon emerging (using their tentacles), and then drag them around.

Night Elf

Night elves are about sneakiness. All their ships can cloak at night (invisible when idle).

• Transport: Can resupply nearby allied ships (transfer mana and heal passengers).
• Frigate: Can sabotage and disable the special skills of enemy ships.
• Destroyer: Can increase speed and ram other ships, dealing high damage. If the target ship is destroyed, the ramming continues, affecting enemy ships behind.
• Whale/Kraken: Can submerge, ignoring collision. Deals great damage upon emerging, using their tails.

Hope you liked them.

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Maybe an ability or upgrade that allows the ship to fly, kinda like what Jaina did in the cinematic.

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I'm not sure whales or krakens fit undead or night elves. Perhaps an undead kraken for the Scourge, but I'd say a kvaldir raiding party would be cooler. As for night elves, either some druids of the fin, or some kind of animated sea kelp elemental.

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Daelin was right.