Balin's Tomb
Version 1.7

-1- Description
-2- Features
-3- Goals
-4- Installation
-5- Map Statistics
-6- Version History
-7- Map History
-8- Credits
-9- Contact information


== Description ==

Creators:	Thalassicus & Con-Quest
Players:	2-9 
Category:	Dungeon Crawl (Hack'n'Slash) 
Expansion:	Yes

Pick from one of nine Heroes and fight to survive and escape the mines of Khazad-dm with a group of companions! 


== Features ==

> Nine heroes with diverse playing styles
> Coordination and teamwork are greatly rewarded
> Lots of secret areas and hidden content to find
> Gameplay varies from survival, to hack'n'slash, to powerlevelling at the end
> 10 boss encounters interspersed with the packs of monsters, each with a different mechanic that makes them challenging


== Goals ==

> Survive to the end
> Work together with other players in a group to defeat monsters and bosses along the way
> Friendly competition (usually) with your group members for treasure and kills to improve your hero

It's primarily designed to be a group play (goals 2 and 3), although it's somewhat soloable depending on the hero you choose. The heroes are equally balanced after rigorous playtesting, each with a different playing style.


== Installation ==

Copy the map file to any WCIII: The Frozen Throne map directory. To uninstall it, remove the file.


== Map Stats ==

2907	Doodads
148	Regions
19	Cameras
178	Triggers
113	Variables
43	Sounds

388	Custom Objects (Total)
76	Custom Units
62	Custom Items
53	Custom Doodads
184	Custom Abilities
11	Custom Buffs


== Version History ==

Version 1.7b
+ Fixed some doodad heights
+ Reworked the Paralyzing Bolt ability of Crossbowmen
+ Reduced the cooldown on the Spear of Dexterity
+ Removed some debug notices (Internal)
+ Fixed a doodad destruction trigger
+ Removed a pathing map under a bookshelf
+ Slightly moved a few line of sight blockers
+ Fixed some heights for the Bridge scene
+ Fixed some region placement outside
+ Rearranged some hero selection positions

Version 1.7
+ Reworked much of the terrain and some other graphics
+ Slightly increased the health of some doodads
+ Clarified the tooltip for Healing Hands
+ Reworked the pause-group method (Internal)

Version 1.6b
+ Added pathing blockers under early bookshelves
+ Tweaked some pathing maps
+ Increased the health of items
+ Changed victory trigger to ingame players
+ Fixed Meriadoc's Nimble Combat tooltip
+ Added a tip for using Jump

Version 1.6
+ Ugluk will now always Mirror Image at his 75% mark
+ Removed the 1 from first rank of "Requires Hero Level" (Internal)
+ Clarified the tooltip for Healing Hands
+ Fixed some capitalization in triggers (Internal)
+ Scaled the starting gold amount with the number of players
+ Reduced the "Compensation Gold" when a player dies on Hard Difficulty
+ Increased the regeneration rate of Crystals
+ Increased the damage of Death Squadrons
+ Fixed the starting mana for several bosses
+ Removed the health regeneration from Wrath of Noldor
+ Fixed a possible disconnect with a creature type's attack dice
+ Redesigned the well-room
+ Slightly buffed the Spawn of Ungoliant's splash attack
+ Slightly buffed all Orc Champions
+ Fixed a UI lag issue while in the tomb (relating to environmental fog)
+ Changed the initial music theme channel to Music
+ Added custom models for the Tomb and wells
+ Fixed a few problems when heroes die
+ Buffed Cave Beast poison damage
+ Added more early treasure on ledges
+ Increased the chance of treasure dropping from mid-range crates
+ Added difficulty scaling to Uruk-Hai spawns
+ Updated some Quest Log text
+ Removed Evasion from the Cave Troll boss
+ Fixed the Spawn of Ungoliant's standard attack
+ The -players command now displays only to that player
+ Increased the cost of Ankhs and Orbs of Mandos
+ Reduced the cost of Orbs of Feanor
+ Reworked the physical immunity for spirits
+ Fixed some Astral Guardian abilities
+ Changed what triggers some spawns
+ Buffed the damage of later Cave Trolls

Version 1.5g
+ Fixed a few hotkeys
+ Slightly improved Defend's damage reduction

Version 1.5f
+ Slightly improved Strike damage
+ Slightly reduced the cooldown on Strike and Stab

Version 1.5c - 1.5e
+ Tweaked the damage of some creature types

Version 1.5b
+ Switched Devotion Aura and Aura of Fortitude
+ Reworked Healing Hands
+ Changed the casting backswing of Samwise to 0

Version 1.5
+ Changed some "Host" references to "Player 1"
+ Clarified the effects of Critical Strike on weapons
+ Reduced the cost and armor bonus of Dwarven Chainmail
+ Increased the cost and damage bonus of Mithril Swords
+ Reworked and clarified several starting items
+ Corrected a few spelling errors
+ Reworked Shield Mastery
+ Reworked the damage of many creatures
+ Change all bosses to Heroes
+ Changed Aragorn's class from "Swordsman" to "Dunedain"
+ Replaced Aragorn's Devotion Aura with Healing Hands
+ Replaced Sam's Sleep with Devotion Aura
+ Changed Sam's and Aragorn's starting tips
+ Fixed a bug with pausing units
+ Changed the color of Frodo to Blue
+ Fixed some errors with Attribute Bonus

Version 1.4c - 1.4d
+ Fixed a bug with hero selection

Version 1.4b
+ Fixed a bug with some of the early attack waves
+ Fixed a bug with Balrog attack dice
+ Improved high-end Axe Throw damage

Version 1.4
+ Fixed Cave Beast trap
+ Ugluk now sends a text transmission with his 25%-mark shouts
+ Gave slightly more time after item reincarnation
+ Improved Devotion Aura to +5/10/20/40/80 armor
+ Changed Balrog immolation damage to red
+ Reworked the initial assault waves
+ Fixed some bugs with hero selection
+ Tweaked some terrain around the second cave entrance
+ Improved the exit functionality for the second cave
+ Increased Wrath of Noldor's armor by 100 and damage by 1500
+ The Flame of Valinor animation now scales with spell level
+ Removed several erroneous point values from player units
+ Added a blight-grower to the Malice of Sauron's room
+ Fixed the Valarakaur-room mobs aggroing through the walls
+ Increased the effect of the first Well of Restoration

Version 1.3
+ Boosted Wrath of Noldor damage to 2000
+ Increased Valaraukar regen slightly (+50)
+ Changed Devotion Aura tooltip
+ Changed Dwarven Fury tooltip
+ Removed extra space from Vengeance of Moria text around # of spirits
+ Added "Left-Click to Use" to Gandalf's staff ability tooltip
+ Changed Inner Fire tooltip
+ Changed Gandalf the White's casting backswing to 0
+ Updated many spells with a proper casting animation
+ Changed Eagle of Valinor to require hero level 12
+ Reworked Attribute Bonus
+ Gave Wrath of Noldor 15% evasion and 150 armor, reduce hitpoints by 1/2
+ Added invis detection to cave 1
+ Changed Ring of Fortitude and Palantir initial stock time
+ Buffed Warg Riders
+ Fixed bodyguard-attack trigger
+ Added a colon to "Requires: Hero Level: X"
+ Reworked some starting gear text and abilities

Versions 1.1-1.2
+ Many numerous changes and fixes

Version 1.0
+ First final version

Version 1.0 Beta Builds 1-82
+ Recent testing and tweaking builds

Versions 5.9-7.1 and ][
+ Earlier builds


== Map History ==

Balin's Tomb maps used to be really popular back in RoC and right after the expansion, I started working on this map at that time in early spring. The layout of one of the dozens of versions floating around caught my attention, so I started working based off that. Most of the versions I made were listed from version 5.9 to 7.0, some as "Balin's Tomb ][" if you came across them, this was actually just to spark interest as big version numbers are inherently believed (even if there is no basis to do so) to be better.

Frozen throne came around and the map broke, there was a fatal disconnect bug I couldn't figure out even after three months of work...it caused 50% of all players to disconnect right at map start. Eventually I moved on to other things, but after having interest spark in Warcraft again I wanted to see if I could finally figure out what the old problem was. I formed a game online to test it and wonders! It worked perfectly! I still have no idea what caused the problem, maybe something that was fixed on the game's end in a patch. I worked on it three more months since then, playtesting and further balancing all the heroes. 


== Credits ==

Based on a mix of the LotR story and movies
First Balin's Tomb Game : Darkbringer
General Layout : JoKerZ and Con-Quest
Most additional work : Thalassicus
Several sound files are from Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings movies
Many hero glows are from Vexorian's pack
Male archer model created by WyrWuulfe
Some custom doodad models created by olofmoleman
Custom weapon and model attachments are from the freebies section of campaigncreations.org

== Contact Information  ==

E-Mail: Thalassicus01@yahoo.com
