I've been working on this project for a while, and it is almost ready to be released. At the moment, it's expected to be released on NA servers within a week of this posting.
Special Thanks to AkaiKaze and Nexxie for much needed design assistance, as well as all the folks here at SC2Mapster for the wealth of helpful information. You guys rock!
The Rundown:
The map's premise is fairly simple. You and four others are sent out to hold the line as best you can against waves of zerg who have decided that they don't like you attempting to use this old abandoned base. You lose when you all are incapacitated at the same time.
Features:
Score: Each time you kill a zergling, you gain 1 to your score, and the numbers only go up from there. The game records not only your high score, but the highest score any team you've played with has obtained as a combined total. My vision is not only competing against teammates for score, but also competing with other teams entirely for the overall highest team highscore. Toward this end, I encourage any high scoring replays to be sent in via email.
Stronger Zerg units: From day one lag has always been a concern, and as a result a very interesting feature has arisen: if the number of a certain unit reaches a certain threshold, a number of those units will be killed to make room for a larger, combined unit. Too many Zerglings? 12 of them die instantly and spawn 2 Devouring Ones, which have the stats of 6 zerglings each! Believe me, you don't want to find a Torrasque in a dark alley...
Bosses: Instead of just waves of lowly zerg until you drop dead, the Swarm will send in their stronger members. These include the Queen, Infestor, Brutalisk, Hybrid Reaver, and Hybrid Destroyer. However, in the future, you may have to contend with something a lot more... nasty.
Nydus Worms: The rate at which zerg reinforce their number is entirely up to how many Nydus Worms remain on the map. Early on, it's an easy task to keep the Nydus Worms down, but later on, expect an uphill battle for control.
Vehicles: You can purchase and ride vehicles into battle against the zerg. Whether it's a Hellion, Siege Tank or a Thor, you'll find something useful at the Factory.
Six uniquely styled hero classes: For release, we've settled on six heroes to choose from: Marine, Marauder, Firebat, Reaper, Medic, Ghost. Each of these heroes has been designed to have its own unique feel to it, and will provide a different play experience than the others.
Marine: Somewhat of a middle-ground between all aspects of abilities. He can deal damage, buff allies, stay alive, gain mobility, and debuff enemies. The Marine can fit into almost any role he needs to, and as a result is always a solid member of a team.
Stat Weight: Balanced
Marauder: SO I HERD YOU LIEK BOMBS? The Marauder is a hero that employs a lot of crowd control through knockbacks and slows. He relies on keeping zerg either away from him or dead, whichever comes first. Many of his abilities are AoE, and he has the highest self damage buff in the game.
Stat Weight: High Strength, Low Agility
Firebat: The Firebat is the hero that just won't die. There's not many that can say they can tank a Hybrid and survive, but the Firebat can do it. The Firebat's abilities are all based on, you guessed it, fire. The Firebat has abilities to deal a lot of AoE damage over time, as well as abilities that allow it to tank the zerg for far longer than any other hero can.
Stat Weight: High Vitality, Low Agility
Reaper: The Reaper is based on high mobility and a LOT of unique tricks to keep the zerg off his back. Whether it's jumping across cliffs or distracting hordes of zerg to take the heat off while he blows them up, the Reaper is always a nice addition to any team that needs someone who can do solo work and be trusted to stay alive.
Stat Weight: High Agility, Low Vitality
Medic: The Medic is not your typical healer. Medics of Starcraft are battle-hardened, so don't expect this class to just sit back and heal. The medic has many other tools at its disposal that allow it to support its allies while still remaining on the offensive. Don't let that stop you from healing though, as anyone would agree that it's quite nice to have less fear for your life.
Stat Weight: High Vitality, Low Strength
Ghost: The Ghost, much like the Reaper, is somewhat of a unique and special snowflake. All of his abilities allow him to perform best while at range and out of sight. His abilities are among some of the hardest hitting ones in the game, and they have obscene range too. You'll be able to assist your allies in taking down that boss from half the map away while you take down some of those pesky Nydus Worms. And if the boss decides to head your way instead? It can't find you if you're invisible...
Stat Weight: High Strength, Low Vitality
Look for it on NA servers soon!
Any suggestions, questions, comments, or concerns should definitely be posted, and I hope to see many people playing the map (And hope to see some nice replays!)
UPDATE 1 (Jan 10, 2011): Last minute tileset change (to Char), added Frenzy Mode as well as a special, final boss that gets spawned when your team's score breaks 50k, fixed a few lingering bugs, and added graphical effects to many abilities that needed them. At the moment, looking toward release within a couple days.
UPDATE 2 (Jan 11, 2011): Map will be published publicly within the next few minutes. Enjoy!
v1.1: Fixed a few things that got screwed up by the release of patch 1.2.
Looks pretty good, too bad it's on a different server than I am X.x
One bug I spotted!
When the reaper makes his cliffjump he regains full health for the flight time (probably a dummy unit?). You could disable this unit's health bars :)
Also - what's that song at 5:20? It's so familiar but I don't remember where I know it from ~.~
Ah yes, that's something that's been on my list for a while. It is a dummy unit, and I've been meaning to disable its health bar for a while, but haven't quite gotten around to it :P
The songs are all remixes of popular game music available for free download.
White Feather in the Storm - Super Mario Galaxy: Gusty Garden theme
Killer Pawn - Megaman 2 & 3: Title theme from 3, with the Wily Castle theme from 2.
Rising Sun - Kingdom Hearts 1 Opening
Sweet Memories of Earth - Duck Tales Moon Level
Hollow - This one has slipped my mind...
UPDATE 1 (Jan 10, 2011): Last minute tileset change (to Char), added Frenzy Mode as well as a special, final boss that gets spawned when your team's score breaks 50k, fixed a few lingering bugs, and added graphical effects to many abilities that needed them. At the moment, looking toward release within a couple days.
I've been working on this project for a while, and it is almost ready to be released. At the moment, it's expected to be released on NA servers within a week of this posting.
Special Thanks to AkaiKaze and Nexxie for much needed design assistance, as well as all the folks here at SC2Mapster for the wealth of helpful information. You guys rock!
The Rundown: The map's premise is fairly simple. You and four others are sent out to hold the line as best you can against waves of zerg who have decided that they don't like you attempting to use this old abandoned base. You lose when you all are incapacitated at the same time.
Features:
Score: Each time you kill a zergling, you gain 1 to your score, and the numbers only go up from there. The game records not only your high score, but the highest score any team you've played with has obtained as a combined total. My vision is not only competing against teammates for score, but also competing with other teams entirely for the overall highest team highscore. Toward this end, I encourage any high scoring replays to be sent in via email.
Stronger Zerg units: From day one lag has always been a concern, and as a result a very interesting feature has arisen: if the number of a certain unit reaches a certain threshold, a number of those units will be killed to make room for a larger, combined unit. Too many Zerglings? 12 of them die instantly and spawn 2 Devouring Ones, which have the stats of 6 zerglings each! Believe me, you don't want to find a Torrasque in a dark alley...
Bosses: Instead of just waves of lowly zerg until you drop dead, the Swarm will send in their stronger members. These include the Queen, Infestor, Brutalisk, Hybrid Reaver, and Hybrid Destroyer. However, in the future, you may have to contend with something a lot more... nasty.
Nydus Worms: The rate at which zerg reinforce their number is entirely up to how many Nydus Worms remain on the map. Early on, it's an easy task to keep the Nydus Worms down, but later on, expect an uphill battle for control.
Vehicles: You can purchase and ride vehicles into battle against the zerg. Whether it's a Hellion, Siege Tank or a Thor, you'll find something useful at the Factory.
Six uniquely styled hero classes: For release, we've settled on six heroes to choose from: Marine, Marauder, Firebat, Reaper, Medic, Ghost. Each of these heroes has been designed to have its own unique feel to it, and will provide a different play experience than the others.
Marine: Somewhat of a middle-ground between all aspects of abilities. He can deal damage, buff allies, stay alive, gain mobility, and debuff enemies. The Marine can fit into almost any role he needs to, and as a result is always a solid member of a team. Stat Weight: Balanced
Marauder: SO I HERD YOU LIEK BOMBS? The Marauder is a hero that employs a lot of crowd control through knockbacks and slows. He relies on keeping zerg either away from him or dead, whichever comes first. Many of his abilities are AoE, and he has the highest self damage buff in the game. Stat Weight: High Strength, Low Agility
Firebat: The Firebat is the hero that just won't die. There's not many that can say they can tank a Hybrid and survive, but the Firebat can do it. The Firebat's abilities are all based on, you guessed it, fire. The Firebat has abilities to deal a lot of AoE damage over time, as well as abilities that allow it to tank the zerg for far longer than any other hero can. Stat Weight: High Vitality, Low Agility
Reaper: The Reaper is based on high mobility and a LOT of unique tricks to keep the zerg off his back. Whether it's jumping across cliffs or distracting hordes of zerg to take the heat off while he blows them up, the Reaper is always a nice addition to any team that needs someone who can do solo work and be trusted to stay alive. Stat Weight: High Agility, Low Vitality
Medic: The Medic is not your typical healer. Medics of Starcraft are battle-hardened, so don't expect this class to just sit back and heal. The medic has many other tools at its disposal that allow it to support its allies while still remaining on the offensive. Don't let that stop you from healing though, as anyone would agree that it's quite nice to have less fear for your life. Stat Weight: High Vitality, Low Strength
Ghost: The Ghost, much like the Reaper, is somewhat of a unique and special snowflake. All of his abilities allow him to perform best while at range and out of sight. His abilities are among some of the hardest hitting ones in the game, and they have obscene range too. You'll be able to assist your allies in taking down that boss from half the map away while you take down some of those pesky Nydus Worms. And if the boss decides to head your way instead? It can't find you if you're invisible... Stat Weight: High Strength, Low Vitality
Look for it on NA servers soon! Any suggestions, questions, comments, or concerns should definitely be posted, and I hope to see many people playing the map (And hope to see some nice replays!)
UPDATE 1 (Jan 10, 2011): Last minute tileset change (to Char), added Frenzy Mode as well as a special, final boss that gets spawned when your team's score breaks 50k, fixed a few lingering bugs, and added graphical effects to many abilities that needed them. At the moment, looking toward release within a couple days.
UPDATE 2 (Jan 11, 2011): Map will be published publicly within the next few minutes. Enjoy!
v1.1: Fixed a few things that got screwed up by the release of patch 1.2.
Looks pretty good, too bad it's on a different server than I am X.x
One bug I spotted!
When the reaper makes his cliffjump he regains full health for the flight time (probably a dummy unit?). You could disable this unit's health bars :)
Also - what's that song at 5:20? It's so familiar but I don't remember where I know it from ~.~
@s3rius: Go
Ah yes, that's something that's been on my list for a while. It is a dummy unit, and I've been meaning to disable its health bar for a while, but haven't quite gotten around to it :P
The songs are all remixes of popular game music available for free download. White Feather in the Storm - Super Mario Galaxy: Gusty Garden theme Killer Pawn - Megaman 2 & 3: Title theme from 3, with the Wily Castle theme from 2. Rising Sun - Kingdom Hearts 1 Opening Sweet Memories of Earth - Duck Tales Moon Level Hollow - This one has slipped my mind...
Quick update on the status of the map:
UPDATE 1 (Jan 10, 2011): Last minute tileset change (to Char), added Frenzy Mode as well as a special, final boss that gets spawned when your team's score breaks 50k, fixed a few lingering bugs, and added graphical effects to many abilities that needed them. At the moment, looking toward release within a couple days.
The map is now public! Enjoy!