Requirements:
The War Memorial runs on WarCraft III and requires the Frozen Throne expansion pack.
Description:
Constructed because many soldiers (and civilians) are killed in every RTS game, but there is no recognition of this fact. Players can be brutal and send thousands of soldiers off to the killing fields without any penalty, so long as they win the game.
While superficially, this is perhaps a recognition for these soldiers, it also becomes a digital metaphor for real-world war cemeteries and can thus act as a virtual 'Flanders Fields'. Simply put, if simulation and simulacra of violence can be compared with real violence, then should not virtual war memorials as well?
I had also considered placing one grave for every soldier killed in the Iraq War (and Afghanistan as well). This memorial seemed a bit too easy to build, as it is too simple a solution to build something like this and be done with it while the war continues. It is, in effect, 'easy penance', similar to buying a 'Support the Troops' ribbon for your car [SUV]. There is, as a result, no intimate or direct connection with the war - it simply abstracts the war into a quick memorial that can be built and forgotten.
However, it is certainly possible it might gain more weight as a performance piece, for the daily update of the memorial and the construction of new maps if necessary (and hopefully not). Such a piece might function better is an Iraq War memorial...
Technical limitations:
There is a limit of 8,192 'Doodads' that can be placed on the map at one time. 'Doodads' are environmental and interactive elements on the map such as rocks, trees, town buildings (including the cathedral), birds, cornfields; 'props' such as hay wagons, barrels, treasure, boxes, skulls, various corpses and mutilated bodies (usually applied to Orcs and Undead missions); and of course gravestones and flowers. As a result, a complete 256x256 map cannot be completely filled with Doodads and not even a smaller map can be completely saturated.
There are also no red flowers. There are what look like dandelions, marigolds, a couple bluish purple flowers, and daisies. These are all estimations. In order to build 'poppies' I currently simply changed the tinting to a bright red. Unfortunately, this means the ENTIRE flower is red, even the stems. This produces interesting results, but not true poppies. Such a thing would likely have to be created in a more advanced editor that I as of yet do not know how to use.
More advanced maps will require the Frozen Throne expansion pack, a disc that fewer people who bought the original are likely to use.
I will have to check, but I also don't think Warcraft III maps can be run through the demo, meaning in order to check the maps, you need to actually own the software.
Further, Warcraft III is not one of the more highly regarded RTS titles in existence. It is commonly spurned by 'hardcore' RTS players, who prefer the likes of Age of Empires IV and even Blizzard's previous title, Starcraft, to Warcraft III in particular - and perhaps the Warcraft series in general.
Flanders Fields v1
Cathedral surrounded by graves. There is a red flower in front of each headstone.
Stone graves of this sort are used for their similarity to existing war cemeteries. The object name is 'Peasant Grave'. Other, more elaborate stones exist (including cross, large headstones, tombs, and statues).
Flanders Fields v.5
Early build that used a profusion of flowers in front of the headstones. This means the size of the cemetery must be very small.
Flanders Fields V2
Similar to 1, except there are no poppies, allowing for a greater number of headstones to be placed.
