This is a classic hero-arena style map; with a lot of advanced options. That is to say players are spread into 2 teams of heroes. To win the game, players must kill each other. It is not strictly a PvP style game though. Players must kill monsters who spawn in the arena to gain minerals and gain experience. If you try to focus entirely on PvP, you will get outleveled, which means you will have less stats, lower leveled abilities, and worse items. It is important to kill creeps. Killing players is how you win, and also offers bonus minerals.
What sets this game apart from normal hero-arena style maps (which do not exist on SC2) is the level of customization. In this, you select a hero skin, then you select 4 abilities and "innate" attributes. After that, you distribute stats however you want. The video below explains it all quite clearly.
Advanced Stat Systems:
When you hover over a stat, it tells you what the stat does:
Strength: Each point increases attack damage by 1.
Spell Power: Each point increases spell damage by 2.
Agility: Each point increases attack speed by 1%.
Vitality: Each point increases life by 50.
Intelligence: Each point increases energy by 15.
Constitution: Each point increases life regeneration by .3 and energy regeneration by .2.
Armor: Each point reduces all physical damage by 1 and spell damage by 2.
Speed: Each point increases movement speed by .03.
Creep/Terrain Layout:
There are 6 major creep spawns on the map; 1 above each base, 1 below each base, and 2 in the center of the map. there are also 10 minor spawns, where 1 creep spawns at a time and wanders.
Creeps will be levelable. that is, there will only be 10 or so "base" creeps who will spawn at higher levels as the average player level increases. Creeps will be designed to have specific strengths and weaknesses, so that a single build cannot kill all creeps easily.
Examples:
Creep1: High life, low armor. weak to faster attacking heroes, strong against spell casters.
Creep2: Low life, very high armor. Strong against fast attackers, weak to high damage attacks and spells.
Creep3: Fast attacks, long range. Strong against ranged glass cannons with low armor.
Creep4: Slow attacks, high damage. weak to regen builds, strong against armored builds.
Items:
Items in this game are based on upgrades. You start with the base level of all items, and you cannot sell items or own more than one of a certain type of item. You can upgrade items through a dialog system, as shown in the above video. After the basic level of an item, you can pick 1 of 3 paths for each item to upgrade to. Once you make a decision, there is no turning back. The lower the rank of item, the less each stat point costs. While upgrading you need to choose between what might be a quick payoff but a less powerful later game item. If you watch the video and pause it frequently, you can see all of the current items.
PVP:
This game is pvp based, in that to achieve victory, you need to reach a set kill count.
Every 4-1/2 minutes there is an arena where an equal number of players from both teams are randomly selected to fight to the death. The winning team is rewarded a mild sum of minerals, and the losing team gets a bit fewer minerals. Player kills outside of the arena grant a nice bonus, they reduce the opposing teams points kills by 1, but cannot drop below zero.
Game Progression:
Early game goes pretty quickly. Levels 1-10 are fast. The difference in players level throughout the game doesn't have too potent of an affect on a player's ability to perform. The stats are a system of counters, if you pick stats to counter your opponent, you can be 4-5 levels behind and still kill them. This becomes a constant weight value throughout the game, as you try to get the best possible farming output while still maintaining strength in PvP. Stats from items do not have a strong impact on your build early on. Late game, half of your stats may come from items, making your early game item choices important.
Leveling to 30 (the max level) is intended to take about 40 minutes; and a complete game is intended to last 60-70 minutes. It would be nearly impossible for a player to max out all of his/her items.
What I still need to add:
A lot of skills. As long as this game is being played, skills will be added. I plan to have 30 when the public beta is released.
5 minibosses, they will give a secondary resource for end-game item upgrades, and unlock the final boss area.
The final boss.
Gloves and Rings (items)
Trinkets (unique, expensive items that greatly alter a build)
Too many stats, and some stats just have pointless names.
Vitality is life? Why not just call it life? Putting a point into Life increases your Life by 20. Remember that the first 30 seconds of your map are the most important, and things like this only serve to confuse.
Likewise Intellect should just be energy, and constitution just "regeneration" (though I'd argue that you really ought to just put the regen component as part of Vitality/Intellect stat points).
Speed is generally a bad stat. Not because it's bad itself, quite the opposite, it's nearly always universally too good. However it's bad for your game because it's just too essential. Think LoL and the speed boots, or Star Battle and the speed upgrade. They're not really even choices, and their existence pretty much dumbs the game down by forcing you to farm it before you can afford the interesting stuff.
Strength, Agility and Spell Power. Not sure I like this much. Seems like it could be simplified.
Either "Power", which increases all damage done by 1% and "Haste" which increases cast/attack speed by x%, or baking in the agility bonus into Strength.
Basically I'd go for this instead;
Power: Increases damage by 1%
Haste: Increases attack/cast speed by 1%
Life: Increases life by 20 and life regen by 0.25
Energy: Increases energy by 15 and energy regen by 0.125
I skipped defence. Defence suffers from the same problem that speed does, only inverse. Players are very reluctant to boost defensive stats over offensive ones. With good reason too; they're dull. The second reason for skipping defence is simply because it overlaps roles with Life. Both serve the exact same purpose; to make you live longer. Having 2 stats do the exact same thing is pretty dull.
Another note is that 100 clicks to set your hero up and assign 100 stats is both confusing and tedious. Sure, you could add a "Assign 10 stat points to this skill" button, but that doesn't change the confusion aspect.
Simply reducing this down to 5 or 10 skill points, and beefing the bonus up to significant levels would help this a lot. Life would, instead, add 100 life and 2.5 life/s regen. This feels significant and a whole lot more interesting than 100 tiny bonuses, even if the end outcome is the same.
I approve of upgradeable items. I'm not sure about specific item slots though. Sure, it defies common sense when some guy has 6 boots of carnage, but by removing the slots, you're removing choice, and choice seems to be what you're going for. It's also just less confusing. It also weeds out redundant items. Having Boots of Attack and a Breastplate of Attack that both do the same thing but just take different slots isn't really exciting or fun. Sure, you can vary out all the slots, but that is a lot of extra work on your side for not very much, if any, addition to the game.
I have had a lot of comments on the stats system, and it possibly being over complicated, so, I have a write up on it, that I have been universally using:
Why maxing a single stat is bad:
Maxing Damage:
If you max out any single stat (damage, spell damage) then you are entirely too weak to attacks. Keep in mind, your level is going to be based in large part to how many creeps you can kill; while winning the game is based in how many players you can kill. If you go alllll spell damage, a player can simply pump a level of vitality (300 HP, vs 30 spell damage) and survive that initial spell damage blast, then 1 shot the guy who is going pure spell damage. They could also go high constitution, so that while the "nuke" is on cooldown, they regenerate a lot of life.
Going high armor/life/constitution so you never take damage:
Sounds good on paper; but just the opposite of the above, you will never deal damage. If you cannot kill creeps, then you cannot level. Without leveling you dont get more stats and items.
"Balanced" build types:
If you wanted to be a glass cannon that was actually viable to play, you would need spell damage, intelligence, constitution, a hint of armor, and some good movespeed. Spell damage obviously makes your spells hit harder. You need intelligence so that you can cast more than 1 spell before needing to run back to base and heal. constitution will regenerate your life and mana while in the field, to minimalize a need to return to base. You need enough armor that ranged creeps arent going to kill you before you kill the spawn. Movement speed is very important to dodging creeps and players who try to kill you; and also, for killing other players in the field.
"Alright, so, casters seem pretty bad, if I need to do all that work just to use a spell, I think going melee meatbag is a great idea"
This is how many people like to play game. In this, it is just as difficult to place your attributes properly.
You obviously need a lot of strength to deal damage. Agility is a 1% increase to your DPS with every point. After you have 100 strength, agility increases your DPS by more than strength does. you need vitality and armor to survive all of those hits; and you really need move speed if you want to get the upper hand on any ranged enemy players. And you need these stats in pretty decent ratios, that allow you to creep to the best of your ability without dying too fast.
How the stats counter each other:
Strength: Countered by Armor+Constitution
Spell Damage: Countered by Vitality
Agility: Countered by Armor
Vitality: Countered by Strength
Intelligence: Every point needed here, is a point not put elsewhere.
Constitution: Countered by Agility
Armor: Countered by Spell Damage, high Strength
Speed: Counters Constitution, works with constitution, counters ranged, counters speed, works with ranged; but every point invested here, is one not invested elsewhere.
Hope that clears it up for you. I am sure there will be imbalances in the early editions of the map. The above stats in WC3 "Custom Hero Arena" all have similar roles to what they do in this. The major difference is that in this, you will need to pay attention to how your opponents are using their stats, and alter your plan to best counter them.
The reason "life" is called "vitality" is because it seems kind of silly to say "1 point of life increases your life by 20 points". That concept would create an endless loop of life gaining; in terms of the English language. Same concept as energy. Armor is armor, and is a 1:1 ratio, so I call it armor.
The reason Constitution is not attached to vitality or Intelligence; is because then, regeneration would either be useless, or overpowered. If you gain a lot of life, PLUS life regen from a stat, you end up with a lot of life. Keeping them separate allows for more unique build types. Rather than investing a lot of points into vitality or energy, you can use constitution with armor, and plan to recast abilities as you gain energy for them.
I agree that speed is a very important stat in almost all games. In this, you would be foolish not to invest 10-15 points into speed, from your starting 100. The higher your speed is, the less of a % increase you gain per point invested. .04 speed added to 2.0 is a 2% increase. .04 added onto 4.0 is only a 1% increase. Getting you from point A to point B 1%faster, as opposed to 2% faster, is a 100% (or 50%, how you look at it) difference. It will scale to a point where most people will be around the same movespeed; but allows players the choice to base a build around not moving, versus dashing across the map in seconds.
I did put thought into your idea of using damage %'s; but then came to the conclusion that it would force players to max out that single attribute. IIf you have higher damage, each % increase, will increase it more. So, the more you invest, the better each investment point is. This takes the idea of using any form of "balanced build" completely out of the equation.
I do not find to to confusing to click a button 100 times; but I have also tested this stat system 20+ times. With a plan of what you want, it takes about 20 seconds. If you have to read what all the stats do, and then think it out a little bit, maybe a minute and a half; at the beginning of the game. There is a time limit, where players can select their model, attributes, and skills, before the game "starts". This is so that people who do want to take time and read things are not left in the dark while everyone else has a 3 level jump on farming. If the 100 starting stats do prove to be a problem in the future though; I plan to simply start units with say, 5 into every attribute, and lowering the starting stats to 50-60. That is, if clicking becomes to difficult. Also, I want to "attempt" a player save feature, that can save builds you create. If you want to use them again, you could just load a code, and have the hero again. Personally, I would never use it, but some people might.
When I first made the system, I had far fewer stat points, with a much higher gain from stats. What I found was that it greatly limited the customization of your hero. there was much less grey area between point A and point B, and it is usually in those grey areas that hardcore players can obtain "perfection".
The item slot issue is geared more for making the early game "noob friendly". If everyone starts with the same items, and does not have to directly pick what to stack, or what to start with, it gives those new guys a chance. It is sad to see a new player getting reamed out by his team for trying to find an item he likes in a shop.
I do not like to sacrifice advanced game design to make noob friendly games though; and that is why I have the "upgrade" system. And it will not be a "boots of attack" and "brestplate of attack" type of system. Each item slot will only have a few stats it can touch on. It is types out above, but it came out all blocky, so I take no offense if you missed it.
"boots of speed"
gives 5 speed, can be upgraded 2 times.
Each upgrade adds 2 speed.
Once it is rank 3, you can pick 1 of 3 different paths to upgrade it to.
Path1: grants much more move speed, but nothing else
Path2: grants some move speed, and some agility
Path3: grants armor, but move speed is removed
that is just boots, if those fields interest you. If you think "I dont really need those stats much" then you can decide to upgrade your breastplate.
"Breastplate"
Gives 1 armor and 2 vitality
Each upgrade adds 1 armor and 1 vitality
Once it is rank 3, you can pick 1 of 3 different paths to upgrade to.
Path1: Continues to give armor and vitality
Path2: Gives armor and constitution
Path3: Gives vitality and constitution
ECT, ECT. Before I create all of the items, I am going to have a spreadsheet that makes sure every stat is offered in balanced frequencies, so no build is better off than another based on item upgrades.
One thing I plan to add, once the game is mostly complete is a slot for a "trinket" "charm" "ect". And that item would have a way of more directly affecting your character. Say, 15% evasion. +1 range. 10% damage taken goes to energy. Whatever can be thought up that wont prove "overpowered" but will be a nice buffer between your stats and your hero.
I agree that I am doing a lot of legwork for only small gains on comparison. Perfection comes from a lot of small things lining up just right. Compare the picture quality on a television from the 70's to a 1080p. Lots of little dots make the picture a lot nicer.
I do appreciate that you took the time to read through my post and give feedback and apologize if I come off as one of those guys who "just doesnt wanna hear it." I do enjoy criticism. I just spent a solid week before I touched the editor thinking over how I wanted these things to work, and a lot of my original ideas were replaced... and replaced again.. and again... Causing me to have already though over a lot of the above suggestions.
EDIT: Why does this forum not read "ENTER" as a line break? Killing my format here.
I have been working to get the skill selection in place. Honestly, it seems as though tooltips are currently the most time consuming thing. Anyone ever try to make dynamic tooltips the levelable abilities? Silly is what they are.
My goal is to have the hero/ability/stats seclection intro all set up within a week. That is of course with only a few types of skills for each skill slot. Enough to have the system in place and testable.
I will upload a youtube video once I have it set up.
Stats sound cool to me. Easy enough to understand. Just don't let speed get out of hand of course... will be tricky but not impossible to balance.
Edit: I agree on defense vs vitality. When armor is just physical dmg reduc it's kind of interesting but if it's all damage they both boost "effective" health and it's just math to figure out one that is better than the other, and then theoretically there is no "choice" - one is always better.
Edit 2: Nevermind, armor decreases damage by a flat number, not a percent. This makes it more beneficial to smaller but more frequent attacks. Kind of depends on game mechanics and heroes from there...
I had a long debate in my head about having a % armor versus a solid armor. In CHA for WC3, the upper tier of players always knew which was better to get. every 30 armor was 100% more EHP. Spell damage, like most WC3 games was % based, but gained from items, and only a single skill. Trying to find a healthy balance between the 4 was difficult. It was also difficult for a player to maintain strengths and defenses in all 4 fields. My hope is that allowing armor to be a set value and counter both spell and attack damage, to take a little of the brain work out of it.
EHP can no longer be a "known, precalculated" value; but an armor/health ratio will always be valid. if you are going to be attacked more than 20 times, a single point of armor will go farther than vitality. 100 vitality is only 2000 HP, 100 strength is 100 damage, that is 20 attacks; with no armor. With 20 armor, that is 25 attacks. you would also have to take into account your opponents spell damage. if they are mostly spell damage and no attack, vitality is a much better choice.
I really hope the armor system can balance itself out. Same as all the stats really. It is very each to change any stat, so if something like "Speed" proves too strong, I can simply reduce the gains per point to the point that it is only worth it in small amounts; rather than being able to mass it.
"game Mechanics and heroes" are taken out of the equation for this game. Well, what best I can. Range and base attack time are the only things that change on heroes. .05 BAT increase for every 1 range; a max range of 6. It is my goal that everything in the game is decided by the player's choices, not the game. that is what gives a game replayability. Well, that and a fair level of balance that will make it so every player doesn't make the same choices. The biggest problem with allowing players to make whatever they want is that someone will always find a "best". If a game can be made more about "who plays the best" well then... that is a damn good game! *high hopes
thanks for commenting ^_^
Also, just to update, I overcame an "editor glitch" with tooltips, and am back at a fast pace. ETA on a video walkthrough is the same.
I got the system for hero creation and ability picking all set up. there is a video in my OP. There wil of course be many more abilities and heroes added, this is simply a video of the working system.
Uploaded a video of the item system I got going on. Just the weapons so far; there will be many more. Again, the video is mostly showing off the system.
Been grinding out all of the items in the object editor. Making 200+ items is... slow.. painful.. very painful. Well, I guess triggering all of them to work with my dialog system of upgrades is what is really killer. If I get some alone time this weekend, I should finish up all of the items. I need them finished before I can make abilities, creeps, or bosses. The game needs to be balanced around stat progression so it is never too difficult or too easy at a given time; and so that abilities mana cost and affects are still more important than stats at most stages of the game.
In terms of game progression, I have decided (and this may change before any form of an/a alpha/ beta is out) that stats will outlast level. By this I mean, the level cap will not be too difficult to hit. Say, 30 minutes of play time to reach the max level; but games last for 50 minutes.
Items cannot be sold/swapped out once you have decided on an item path. For those who haven't read above, every item, of 8 starting items, will have 3 upgrade paths. Once you start down an upgrade path, there is no way to change the path of that item. As the game goes on, you pay more minerals per stat point on items. To push hard early game, it is in your best interest to upgrade all of your items evenly; for maximum stats. End game though, you are stuck in those decisions, which may not be the best later game choices. If I get all intelligence and spell damage items, but neglect armor and life, then late game when I can no longer level, I will be stuck with an armorless build. An opponent who still has a lot of item choices, can gear to counter me; despite the fact that I may have been winning a lot early, there is a good chance I wont win late game.
Bump again. I shortened up my OP a lot; condensed most of it into a video. I got a lot of work done this past week, and the game has started alpha testing. I wanna snag bugs in the ass as I create them. I also want suggestions on what I can improve apon now, so I don't end up remaking entire systems later.
Been working on this; I will update the OP when I settle on a beta Release.
I have added many more skills, a new line of items, re-worked some dialogs, and invested a good bit of time into balance. Also, my newest update:
I finally have a save/load system made, so will give an explanation of it here:
Stats are not saved from games with only 1 team (to prevent creep/boss grinding for exp)
There is an unlimited amount of levels a player can gain
I am not going to give out the equations, because they are annoying...
You gain from:
Killing creeps
Killing bosses
Killing players
Winning the game
Staying until the end of the game
Gaining levels with a hero
You lose from:
Leaving the game early
Dieing
The higher level you are, the more EXP you give when killed, and the more EXP you lose when killed. Also, the EXP required to level scales up, slowly. Overall, it is hard to lose EXP over the duration of a game; generally you will have a net gain.
some updates, im not sure if and where I post what.
As planned, I have split the classes; so far there are only two though; until I create more abilities. Auto attackers and Spell casters. Hybrids can be formed from either side of the equation though. In rare cases, you can even make a great caster from the auto attacker skills, or vice-verse.
I have made items that you cannot purchase more.. noticeably unpurchasable. Should help newer players out. I have started on Trinkets; and by that I mean, I have the triggers and dialogs for them set up; but havent made the trinkets yet.
I have done quite a few trial and errors with the random feature; so randoms aren't so much "random" as they are "smart randoms". When you random you get 20 extra stats; but now, if you random as a spell caster, you are much more likely to get stats a spell caster would use; same goes for auto attackers. Nothing could be more game-ending for a random than to start with 15 strength and 30 spell power, on an auto attacker. Though I have still gotten some unlucky rolls; for the most part, getting randomized stats is no longer a hit or miss thing. It is a mostly hit, and a near miss type deal. It would take a lot, to get a terrible stat build. You can still get some not-so-good skill builds though; but that is the luck of the random.
I have slowed the rate of leveling down by a small amount, maybe 10% tops. Mineral income has also been lowered by a small amount. These are both intended to slow the gap between a winning team and losing team. The losing team in a duel is also now awarded 1 gas.
Minor Changelog
Vitality offers 45 life per point now, opposed to 50.
Constitution offers .15 energy regeneration per point now (up from .1, but lower than its original value of .2)
Agility offers .6% attack speed per point, down from .7%.
Auto attacking heroes start with 50 more life than casters
casters start with 50 more energy, and .1 energy regeneration more than auto-attackers
Gas cost on top tier necklaces has been reduced to 3, from 6.
EXP gained from monstrosities and ragnarok has been increased by about 30%.
Dead thread for a while; I always forget to update what I am doing; a lot of abilities have been added. the general "balance" of the game has been established. No abilities are "the best" nor are any combinations. teamwork and counters will go a lot farther than any skills picked will.
I have been adding more options/modes, and making things a bit more noob friendly.
There is no an observer mode; via request from a few people who would enjoy to watch games between other players.
Random, as said above, is a "stronger random" so on auto attack heroes you get little spell power, and more strength; and on casters you get less strength and agilitiy, and more spell power and constitution. Random spell casters are still a little "iffy" simply because there is a slim chance you may only get 1 spell; weakening your build a good bit. There is also a slim chance you will get a great built, plus 20 more starting stats than anyone else; so, it goes both ways.
Dialogs have been made smaller; so as not to consume so much of the screen. the stats dialog triggers were remade, and the stat point investment system is instant now; opposed to a second between stat point allocations. You can now invest your 80 starting stats in about 5 seconds if you know what stats you want.
Important News:
Well, important for anyone who might follow this project; or me.... stalkers... Coming from years of WC3, I started editing this map the way I knew how; with variables and loops. As a text document the script is a bit over 200 pages long. Any good triggerer out there would be upset with my triggering... because... sadly... I did not know what action definitions were. DarlD has been teaching me a bit; and I have read all other tutorials on here that I could find (thanks dogmai and zelda) and have made the decision to remake... all... of my triggers... Remaking 500 variables as records; and remaking everything else as action definitions... is gonna take a while; but my map should have lovely triggers after that (not like my map has lag problems or trigger problems how it is; but sometimes you just need to spend a month accomplishing nothing)
With that in mind; I decided to bring in a helping hand on my project; Atlas (in game), belacadmin13 (on here), is going to be adding more heroes, abilities, and hopefully getting some trinkets and another unique item type added to the game. every map needs some shiny-booms; and he will make them ohh-so-shiny.
Just a reminder that this map is released as an alpha map... still, I know. It should be beta; but considering I am scrapping all of the triggers; I can go without changing the name. The map name is CHA-Alpha; if the servers dont go down and reset the hours, it can be found floating between pages 5 and 8 on most days. Any feedback would be appreciated.
Dead thread for a while; I always forget to update what I am doing; a lot of abilities have been added. the general "balance" of the game has been established. No abilities are "the best" nor are any combinations. teamwork and counters will go a lot farther than any skills picked will.
If you've achieved this, I swear, I'll eat my hat.
Lol, if you have wc3 I can show you it on a much broader scale; 120 heroes, 160 abilities, 400 items; no "best" 20 builds; let alone "best build". This game isnt nearly that broad yet; making it much easier to smooth out.
Common sense must be used; of course. That is where the "player" comes in. If you invest all of your stats into armor and nothing but armor; you will not kill anything. If you are killing nothing while your opponent kills stuff, they are outleveling you, gaining more stats, and eventually will punch a hole through your armor while you stand there not dealing damage.
In the sense of "players of roughly average skill, using a variety of builds that have any amount of thought put behind them" it is balanced. With larger teams, the amount of "thought" goes downhill a lot too. 3 new players with no concept of the game, but who take good direction can overcome 3 moderate players.
Seriously though; would you eat half of your hat if I can prove to have already done this in wc3? there is a player on there named "randomloser" he has about 800 game wins, from randoming. There is no bonus at all from randoming in that game. He often beats the top 5 player, when they dont random. You are allowed to add ketchup to your hat before you eat it.
If you are completely serious about eating your own hat; and letting me watch, I will arrange a mini tourny between myself and the best 2 players of the sc2 version of my map; we will play 5 1v1 games with each other; each using different builds every game we play. however, if that is the case, I get full youtube rights to the video of you eating your hat; and there will be dubbstep; ohh yes, there will be dubbstep.
I have begun work on trinkets; which is a pretty potent gameplay changer. My plan so far is for them to act as passive skills that have 3 ranks, and become exponentially stronger as they rank up. Overall, I plan for their power to be about equal to your innate stats. They will have an impact on gameplay; without being direly important. For the most part; they intend to stimulate possible build weaknesses that may not be realized until later in the game; after all skills have been picked and a lightbulb goes off and you say "shit, if only I had a little bit of this...."
I dont plan to list all of my trinkets as I make them; as they will be constantly changing, but what I have so far: (Mind that once you pick a trinket, which can be reasonably early in the game, you cannot undo your choice for the rest of the game)
A trinket that adds a pure damage immolation. It is nice if you are falling behind in leveling and need a stimulant. If you are ahead in leveling, then you kill creeps faster due to stats already; and the slow damage over time in an area will not have such a potent effect.
A trinket that slows the movement speed of all enemy units in a reasonable radius. Great for when some guy decided 80 move speed and 150 constitution is a fun idea; or if your only chance of winning is that you kill opponents in the field; and you have no way of stopping them from returning to their base to heal.
A trinket that adds minerals in intervals. This is something I never liked the idea of; but being able to see an entire game as a list of data really helped in the balance of this. Often times later in the game, you will be pooling minerals to allys, because you cannot get enough vespean to use the minerals gains; assuming you are leveling fast and are not using the minerals to keep yourself in the game. Gives players that option to get items sooner; rather than having an alternate ability, or counter.
Hopefully within a week I will have the other 6 done; I am taking my time with it; trying to make sure they will all have something to contribute to the game.
Just like to point out with excitement, after re-triggering my map with action definitions, and some well made multidimensional loops I have some great numbers to show. I can improve maybe 25% more or my triggers in various ways; but I got all of the major things out of the way.
Trigger Size: From 1.78 MB to .83 MB
Trigger Count: 65 to 37
Events: 76 to 51
Function Calls: 10,200 to 3,600
I am unable to accurately measure the change in run time for my larger triggers which have been condensed to switch functions in action definitions. From what I can tell, the run time really hasn't changed much at all; but the triggers are muchhhh shorter. The only clear numbers I have are in game initialization times; which on a cold start were reduced from 2800ms to 900ms; and the 900ms now loads quite a bit more content. From a warm start, those numbers are 300ms down to 125 ms.
Also, using a few other methods of recording things and applying buffs, I have greatly reduced the chances of a late-game "lag" buildup; or any "lag-spikes".
Just my pride mark of the... past few weeks. Hopefully I find it within myself to start adding more abilities now ><
Custom Hero Arena
This is a classic hero-arena style map; with a lot of advanced options. That is to say players are spread into 2 teams of heroes. To win the game, players must kill each other. It is not strictly a PvP style game though. Players must kill monsters who spawn in the arena to gain minerals and gain experience. If you try to focus entirely on PvP, you will get outleveled, which means you will have less stats, lower leveled abilities, and worse items. It is important to kill creeps. Killing players is how you win, and also offers bonus minerals.
What sets this game apart from normal hero-arena style maps (which do not exist on SC2) is the level of customization. In this, you select a hero skin, then you select 4 abilities and "innate" attributes. After that, you distribute stats however you want. The video below explains it all quite clearly.
Advanced Stat Systems:
When you hover over a stat, it tells you what the stat does: Strength: Each point increases attack damage by 1. Spell Power: Each point increases spell damage by 2. Agility: Each point increases attack speed by 1%. Vitality: Each point increases life by 50. Intelligence: Each point increases energy by 15. Constitution: Each point increases life regeneration by .3 and energy regeneration by .2. Armor: Each point reduces all physical damage by 1 and spell damage by 2. Speed: Each point increases movement speed by .03.
Creep/Terrain Layout:
There are 6 major creep spawns on the map; 1 above each base, 1 below each base, and 2 in the center of the map. there are also 10 minor spawns, where 1 creep spawns at a time and wanders.
Creeps will be levelable. that is, there will only be 10 or so "base" creeps who will spawn at higher levels as the average player level increases. Creeps will be designed to have specific strengths and weaknesses, so that a single build cannot kill all creeps easily.
Examples:
Creep1: High life, low armor. weak to faster attacking heroes, strong against spell casters.
Creep2: Low life, very high armor. Strong against fast attackers, weak to high damage attacks and spells.
Creep3: Fast attacks, long range. Strong against ranged glass cannons with low armor.
Creep4: Slow attacks, high damage. weak to regen builds, strong against armored builds.
Items:
Items in this game are based on upgrades. You start with the base level of all items, and you cannot sell items or own more than one of a certain type of item. You can upgrade items through a dialog system, as shown in the above video. After the basic level of an item, you can pick 1 of 3 paths for each item to upgrade to. Once you make a decision, there is no turning back. The lower the rank of item, the less each stat point costs. While upgrading you need to choose between what might be a quick payoff but a less powerful later game item. If you watch the video and pause it frequently, you can see all of the current items.
PVP:
This game is pvp based, in that to achieve victory, you need to reach a set kill count. Every 4-1/2 minutes there is an arena where an equal number of players from both teams are randomly selected to fight to the death. The winning team is rewarded a mild sum of minerals, and the losing team gets a bit fewer minerals. Player kills outside of the arena grant a nice bonus, they reduce the opposing teams points kills by 1, but cannot drop below zero.
Game Progression:
Early game goes pretty quickly. Levels 1-10 are fast. The difference in players level throughout the game doesn't have too potent of an affect on a player's ability to perform. The stats are a system of counters, if you pick stats to counter your opponent, you can be 4-5 levels behind and still kill them. This becomes a constant weight value throughout the game, as you try to get the best possible farming output while still maintaining strength in PvP. Stats from items do not have a strong impact on your build early on. Late game, half of your stats may come from items, making your early game item choices important.
Leveling to 30 (the max level) is intended to take about 40 minutes; and a complete game is intended to last 60-70 minutes. It would be nearly impossible for a player to max out all of his/her items.
What I still need to add:
A lot of skills. As long as this game is being played, skills will be added. I plan to have 30 when the public beta is released.
5 minibosses, they will give a secondary resource for end-game item upgrades, and unlock the final boss area.
The final boss.
Gloves and Rings (items)
Trinkets (unique, expensive items that greatly alter a build)
Dialog box that shows the score
Achievement system, rankings
Creeps, 5-7 ,more of them.
Skype: [email protected] Current Project: Custom Hero Arena! US: battlenet:://starcraft/map/1/263274 EU: battlenet:://starcraft/map/2/186418
Firstly;
Too many stats, and some stats just have pointless names.
Vitality is life? Why not just call it life? Putting a point into Life increases your Life by 20. Remember that the first 30 seconds of your map are the most important, and things like this only serve to confuse.
Likewise Intellect should just be energy, and constitution just "regeneration" (though I'd argue that you really ought to just put the regen component as part of Vitality/Intellect stat points).
Speed is generally a bad stat. Not because it's bad itself, quite the opposite, it's nearly always universally too good. However it's bad for your game because it's just too essential. Think LoL and the speed boots, or Star Battle and the speed upgrade. They're not really even choices, and their existence pretty much dumbs the game down by forcing you to farm it before you can afford the interesting stuff.
Strength, Agility and Spell Power. Not sure I like this much. Seems like it could be simplified.
Either "Power", which increases all damage done by 1% and "Haste" which increases cast/attack speed by x%, or baking in the agility bonus into Strength.
Basically I'd go for this instead;
Power: Increases damage by 1% Haste: Increases attack/cast speed by 1% Life: Increases life by 20 and life regen by 0.25 Energy: Increases energy by 15 and energy regen by 0.125
I skipped defence. Defence suffers from the same problem that speed does, only inverse. Players are very reluctant to boost defensive stats over offensive ones. With good reason too; they're dull. The second reason for skipping defence is simply because it overlaps roles with Life. Both serve the exact same purpose; to make you live longer. Having 2 stats do the exact same thing is pretty dull.
Another note is that 100 clicks to set your hero up and assign 100 stats is both confusing and tedious. Sure, you could add a "Assign 10 stat points to this skill" button, but that doesn't change the confusion aspect.
Simply reducing this down to 5 or 10 skill points, and beefing the bonus up to significant levels would help this a lot. Life would, instead, add 100 life and 2.5 life/s regen. This feels significant and a whole lot more interesting than 100 tiny bonuses, even if the end outcome is the same.
I approve of upgradeable items. I'm not sure about specific item slots though. Sure, it defies common sense when some guy has 6 boots of carnage, but by removing the slots, you're removing choice, and choice seems to be what you're going for. It's also just less confusing. It also weeds out redundant items. Having Boots of Attack and a Breastplate of Attack that both do the same thing but just take different slots isn't really exciting or fun. Sure, you can vary out all the slots, but that is a lot of extra work on your side for not very much, if any, addition to the game.
I have had a lot of comments on the stats system, and it possibly being over complicated, so, I have a write up on it, that I have been universally using:
Why maxing a single stat is bad: Maxing Damage: If you max out any single stat (damage, spell damage) then you are entirely too weak to attacks. Keep in mind, your level is going to be based in large part to how many creeps you can kill; while winning the game is based in how many players you can kill. If you go alllll spell damage, a player can simply pump a level of vitality (300 HP, vs 30 spell damage) and survive that initial spell damage blast, then 1 shot the guy who is going pure spell damage. They could also go high constitution, so that while the "nuke" is on cooldown, they regenerate a lot of life.
Going high armor/life/constitution so you never take damage: Sounds good on paper; but just the opposite of the above, you will never deal damage. If you cannot kill creeps, then you cannot level. Without leveling you dont get more stats and items.
"Balanced" build types: If you wanted to be a glass cannon that was actually viable to play, you would need spell damage, intelligence, constitution, a hint of armor, and some good movespeed. Spell damage obviously makes your spells hit harder. You need intelligence so that you can cast more than 1 spell before needing to run back to base and heal. constitution will regenerate your life and mana while in the field, to minimalize a need to return to base. You need enough armor that ranged creeps arent going to kill you before you kill the spawn. Movement speed is very important to dodging creeps and players who try to kill you; and also, for killing other players in the field.
"Alright, so, casters seem pretty bad, if I need to do all that work just to use a spell, I think going melee meatbag is a great idea" This is how many people like to play game. In this, it is just as difficult to place your attributes properly. You obviously need a lot of strength to deal damage. Agility is a 1% increase to your DPS with every point. After you have 100 strength, agility increases your DPS by more than strength does. you need vitality and armor to survive all of those hits; and you really need move speed if you want to get the upper hand on any ranged enemy players. And you need these stats in pretty decent ratios, that allow you to creep to the best of your ability without dying too fast.
How the stats counter each other: Strength: Countered by Armor+Constitution Spell Damage: Countered by Vitality Agility: Countered by Armor Vitality: Countered by Strength Intelligence: Every point needed here, is a point not put elsewhere. Constitution: Countered by Agility Armor: Countered by Spell Damage, high Strength Speed: Counters Constitution, works with constitution, counters ranged, counters speed, works with ranged; but every point invested here, is one not invested elsewhere. Hope that clears it up for you. I am sure there will be imbalances in the early editions of the map. The above stats in WC3 "Custom Hero Arena" all have similar roles to what they do in this. The major difference is that in this, you will need to pay attention to how your opponents are using their stats, and alter your plan to best counter them.
The reason "life" is called "vitality" is because it seems kind of silly to say "1 point of life increases your life by 20 points". That concept would create an endless loop of life gaining; in terms of the English language. Same concept as energy. Armor is armor, and is a 1:1 ratio, so I call it armor.
The reason Constitution is not attached to vitality or Intelligence; is because then, regeneration would either be useless, or overpowered. If you gain a lot of life, PLUS life regen from a stat, you end up with a lot of life. Keeping them separate allows for more unique build types. Rather than investing a lot of points into vitality or energy, you can use constitution with armor, and plan to recast abilities as you gain energy for them.
I agree that speed is a very important stat in almost all games. In this, you would be foolish not to invest 10-15 points into speed, from your starting 100. The higher your speed is, the less of a % increase you gain per point invested. .04 speed added to 2.0 is a 2% increase. .04 added onto 4.0 is only a 1% increase. Getting you from point A to point B 1%faster, as opposed to 2% faster, is a 100% (or 50%, how you look at it) difference. It will scale to a point where most people will be around the same movespeed; but allows players the choice to base a build around not moving, versus dashing across the map in seconds.
I did put thought into your idea of using damage %'s; but then came to the conclusion that it would force players to max out that single attribute. IIf you have higher damage, each % increase, will increase it more. So, the more you invest, the better each investment point is. This takes the idea of using any form of "balanced build" completely out of the equation.
I do not find to to confusing to click a button 100 times; but I have also tested this stat system 20+ times. With a plan of what you want, it takes about 20 seconds. If you have to read what all the stats do, and then think it out a little bit, maybe a minute and a half; at the beginning of the game. There is a time limit, where players can select their model, attributes, and skills, before the game "starts". This is so that people who do want to take time and read things are not left in the dark while everyone else has a 3 level jump on farming. If the 100 starting stats do prove to be a problem in the future though; I plan to simply start units with say, 5 into every attribute, and lowering the starting stats to 50-60. That is, if clicking becomes to difficult. Also, I want to "attempt" a player save feature, that can save builds you create. If you want to use them again, you could just load a code, and have the hero again. Personally, I would never use it, but some people might.
When I first made the system, I had far fewer stat points, with a much higher gain from stats. What I found was that it greatly limited the customization of your hero. there was much less grey area between point A and point B, and it is usually in those grey areas that hardcore players can obtain "perfection".
The item slot issue is geared more for making the early game "noob friendly". If everyone starts with the same items, and does not have to directly pick what to stack, or what to start with, it gives those new guys a chance. It is sad to see a new player getting reamed out by his team for trying to find an item he likes in a shop.
I do not like to sacrifice advanced game design to make noob friendly games though; and that is why I have the "upgrade" system. And it will not be a "boots of attack" and "brestplate of attack" type of system. Each item slot will only have a few stats it can touch on. It is types out above, but it came out all blocky, so I take no offense if you missed it.
"boots of speed" gives 5 speed, can be upgraded 2 times. Each upgrade adds 2 speed. Once it is rank 3, you can pick 1 of 3 different paths to upgrade it to. Path1: grants much more move speed, but nothing else Path2: grants some move speed, and some agility Path3: grants armor, but move speed is removed that is just boots, if those fields interest you. If you think "I dont really need those stats much" then you can decide to upgrade your breastplate. "Breastplate" Gives 1 armor and 2 vitality Each upgrade adds 1 armor and 1 vitality Once it is rank 3, you can pick 1 of 3 different paths to upgrade to. Path1: Continues to give armor and vitality Path2: Gives armor and constitution Path3: Gives vitality and constitution
ECT, ECT. Before I create all of the items, I am going to have a spreadsheet that makes sure every stat is offered in balanced frequencies, so no build is better off than another based on item upgrades.
One thing I plan to add, once the game is mostly complete is a slot for a "trinket" "charm" "ect". And that item would have a way of more directly affecting your character. Say, 15% evasion. +1 range. 10% damage taken goes to energy. Whatever can be thought up that wont prove "overpowered" but will be a nice buffer between your stats and your hero.
I agree that I am doing a lot of legwork for only small gains on comparison. Perfection comes from a lot of small things lining up just right. Compare the picture quality on a television from the 70's to a 1080p. Lots of little dots make the picture a lot nicer.
I do appreciate that you took the time to read through my post and give feedback and apologize if I come off as one of those guys who "just doesnt wanna hear it." I do enjoy criticism. I just spent a solid week before I touched the editor thinking over how I wanted these things to work, and a lot of my original ideas were replaced... and replaced again.. and again... Causing me to have already though over a lot of the above suggestions.
EDIT: Why does this forum not read "ENTER" as a line break? Killing my format here.
Skype: [email protected] Current Project: Custom Hero Arena! US: battlenet:://starcraft/map/1/263274 EU: battlenet:://starcraft/map/2/186418
An update:
I have been working to get the skill selection in place. Honestly, it seems as though tooltips are currently the most time consuming thing. Anyone ever try to make dynamic tooltips the levelable abilities? Silly is what they are.
My goal is to have the hero/ability/stats seclection intro all set up within a week. That is of course with only a few types of skills for each skill slot. Enough to have the system in place and testable.
I will upload a youtube video once I have it set up.
Skype: [email protected] Current Project: Custom Hero Arena! US: battlenet:://starcraft/map/1/263274 EU: battlenet:://starcraft/map/2/186418
Stats sound cool to me. Easy enough to understand. Just don't let speed get out of hand of course... will be tricky but not impossible to balance.
Edit: I agree on defense vs vitality. When armor is just physical dmg reduc it's kind of interesting but if it's all damage they both boost "effective" health and it's just math to figure out one that is better than the other, and then theoretically there is no "choice" - one is always better.
Edit 2: Nevermind, armor decreases damage by a flat number, not a percent. This makes it more beneficial to smaller but more frequent attacks. Kind of depends on game mechanics and heroes from there...
@saucysoup: Go
I had a long debate in my head about having a % armor versus a solid armor. In CHA for WC3, the upper tier of players always knew which was better to get. every 30 armor was 100% more EHP. Spell damage, like most WC3 games was % based, but gained from items, and only a single skill. Trying to find a healthy balance between the 4 was difficult. It was also difficult for a player to maintain strengths and defenses in all 4 fields. My hope is that allowing armor to be a set value and counter both spell and attack damage, to take a little of the brain work out of it.
EHP can no longer be a "known, precalculated" value; but an armor/health ratio will always be valid. if you are going to be attacked more than 20 times, a single point of armor will go farther than vitality. 100 vitality is only 2000 HP, 100 strength is 100 damage, that is 20 attacks; with no armor. With 20 armor, that is 25 attacks. you would also have to take into account your opponents spell damage. if they are mostly spell damage and no attack, vitality is a much better choice.
I really hope the armor system can balance itself out. Same as all the stats really. It is very each to change any stat, so if something like "Speed" proves too strong, I can simply reduce the gains per point to the point that it is only worth it in small amounts; rather than being able to mass it.
"game Mechanics and heroes" are taken out of the equation for this game. Well, what best I can. Range and base attack time are the only things that change on heroes. .05 BAT increase for every 1 range; a max range of 6. It is my goal that everything in the game is decided by the player's choices, not the game. that is what gives a game replayability. Well, that and a fair level of balance that will make it so every player doesn't make the same choices. The biggest problem with allowing players to make whatever they want is that someone will always find a "best". If a game can be made more about "who plays the best" well then... that is a damn good game! *high hopes
thanks for commenting ^_^
Also, just to update, I overcame an "editor glitch" with tooltips, and am back at a fast pace. ETA on a video walkthrough is the same.
Skype: [email protected] Current Project: Custom Hero Arena! US: battlenet:://starcraft/map/1/263274 EU: battlenet:://starcraft/map/2/186418
I got the system for hero creation and ability picking all set up. there is a video in my OP. There wil of course be many more abilities and heroes added, this is simply a video of the working system.
Skype: [email protected] Current Project: Custom Hero Arena! US: battlenet:://starcraft/map/1/263274 EU: battlenet:://starcraft/map/2/186418
Uploaded a video of the item system I got going on. Just the weapons so far; there will be many more. Again, the video is mostly showing off the system.
Skype: [email protected] Current Project: Custom Hero Arena! US: battlenet:://starcraft/map/1/263274 EU: battlenet:://starcraft/map/2/186418
11 Day bump!
Been grinding out all of the items in the object editor. Making 200+ items is... slow.. painful.. very painful. Well, I guess triggering all of them to work with my dialog system of upgrades is what is really killer. If I get some alone time this weekend, I should finish up all of the items. I need them finished before I can make abilities, creeps, or bosses. The game needs to be balanced around stat progression so it is never too difficult or too easy at a given time; and so that abilities mana cost and affects are still more important than stats at most stages of the game.
In terms of game progression, I have decided (and this may change before any form of an/a alpha/ beta is out) that stats will outlast level. By this I mean, the level cap will not be too difficult to hit. Say, 30 minutes of play time to reach the max level; but games last for 50 minutes.
Items cannot be sold/swapped out once you have decided on an item path. For those who haven't read above, every item, of 8 starting items, will have 3 upgrade paths. Once you start down an upgrade path, there is no way to change the path of that item. As the game goes on, you pay more minerals per stat point on items. To push hard early game, it is in your best interest to upgrade all of your items evenly; for maximum stats. End game though, you are stuck in those decisions, which may not be the best later game choices. If I get all intelligence and spell damage items, but neglect armor and life, then late game when I can no longer level, I will be stuck with an armorless build. An opponent who still has a lot of item choices, can gear to counter me; despite the fact that I may have been winning a lot early, there is a good chance I wont win late game.
Skype: [email protected] Current Project: Custom Hero Arena! US: battlenet:://starcraft/map/1/263274 EU: battlenet:://starcraft/map/2/186418
Bump again. I shortened up my OP a lot; condensed most of it into a video. I got a lot of work done this past week, and the game has started alpha testing. I wanna snag bugs in the ass as I create them. I also want suggestions on what I can improve apon now, so I don't end up remaking entire systems later.
If anyone wants to give it a try, let me know.
Skype: [email protected] Current Project: Custom Hero Arena! US: battlenet:://starcraft/map/1/263274 EU: battlenet:://starcraft/map/2/186418
Been working on this; I will update the OP when I settle on a beta Release.
I have added many more skills, a new line of items, re-worked some dialogs, and invested a good bit of time into balance. Also, my newest update:
I finally have a save/load system made, so will give an explanation of it here:
Stats are not saved from games with only 1 team (to prevent creep/boss grinding for exp)
There is an unlimited amount of levels a player can gain
I am not going to give out the equations, because they are annoying...
You gain from:
Killing creeps
Killing bosses
Killing players
Winning the game
Staying until the end of the game
Gaining levels with a hero
You lose from:
Leaving the game early
Dieing
The higher level you are, the more EXP you give when killed, and the more EXP you lose when killed. Also, the EXP required to level scales up, slowly. Overall, it is hard to lose EXP over the duration of a game; generally you will have a net gain.
What is saved:
Experience
Kills
Deaths
Wins
Times left mid game
What the score board shows:
Level Name Kills Deaths Wins (%) Games Quits (%)
Experience Total Experience This Game
Skype: [email protected] Current Project: Custom Hero Arena! US: battlenet:://starcraft/map/1/263274 EU: battlenet:://starcraft/map/2/186418
some updates, im not sure if and where I post what.
As planned, I have split the classes; so far there are only two though; until I create more abilities. Auto attackers and Spell casters. Hybrids can be formed from either side of the equation though. In rare cases, you can even make a great caster from the auto attacker skills, or vice-verse.
I have made items that you cannot purchase more.. noticeably unpurchasable. Should help newer players out. I have started on Trinkets; and by that I mean, I have the triggers and dialogs for them set up; but havent made the trinkets yet.
I have done quite a few trial and errors with the random feature; so randoms aren't so much "random" as they are "smart randoms". When you random you get 20 extra stats; but now, if you random as a spell caster, you are much more likely to get stats a spell caster would use; same goes for auto attackers. Nothing could be more game-ending for a random than to start with 15 strength and 30 spell power, on an auto attacker. Though I have still gotten some unlucky rolls; for the most part, getting randomized stats is no longer a hit or miss thing. It is a mostly hit, and a near miss type deal. It would take a lot, to get a terrible stat build. You can still get some not-so-good skill builds though; but that is the luck of the random.
I have slowed the rate of leveling down by a small amount, maybe 10% tops. Mineral income has also been lowered by a small amount. These are both intended to slow the gap between a winning team and losing team. The losing team in a duel is also now awarded 1 gas.
Minor Changelog
Vitality offers 45 life per point now, opposed to 50.
Constitution offers .15 energy regeneration per point now (up from .1, but lower than its original value of .2)
Agility offers .6% attack speed per point, down from .7%.
Auto attacking heroes start with 50 more life than casters
casters start with 50 more energy, and .1 energy regeneration more than auto-attackers
Gas cost on top tier necklaces has been reduced to 3, from 6.
EXP gained from monstrosities and ragnarok has been increased by about 30%.
Skype: [email protected] Current Project: Custom Hero Arena! US: battlenet:://starcraft/map/1/263274 EU: battlenet:://starcraft/map/2/186418
Dead thread for a while; I always forget to update what I am doing; a lot of abilities have been added. the general "balance" of the game has been established. No abilities are "the best" nor are any combinations. teamwork and counters will go a lot farther than any skills picked will.
I have been adding more options/modes, and making things a bit more noob friendly.
There is no an observer mode; via request from a few people who would enjoy to watch games between other players.
Random, as said above, is a "stronger random" so on auto attack heroes you get little spell power, and more strength; and on casters you get less strength and agilitiy, and more spell power and constitution. Random spell casters are still a little "iffy" simply because there is a slim chance you may only get 1 spell; weakening your build a good bit. There is also a slim chance you will get a great built, plus 20 more starting stats than anyone else; so, it goes both ways.
Dialogs have been made smaller; so as not to consume so much of the screen. the stats dialog triggers were remade, and the stat point investment system is instant now; opposed to a second between stat point allocations. You can now invest your 80 starting stats in about 5 seconds if you know what stats you want.
Important News:
Well, important for anyone who might follow this project; or me.... stalkers... Coming from years of WC3, I started editing this map the way I knew how; with variables and loops. As a text document the script is a bit over 200 pages long. Any good triggerer out there would be upset with my triggering... because... sadly... I did not know what action definitions were. DarlD has been teaching me a bit; and I have read all other tutorials on here that I could find (thanks dogmai and zelda) and have made the decision to remake... all... of my triggers... Remaking 500 variables as records; and remaking everything else as action definitions... is gonna take a while; but my map should have lovely triggers after that (not like my map has lag problems or trigger problems how it is; but sometimes you just need to spend a month accomplishing nothing)
With that in mind; I decided to bring in a helping hand on my project; Atlas (in game), belacadmin13 (on here), is going to be adding more heroes, abilities, and hopefully getting some trinkets and another unique item type added to the game. every map needs some shiny-booms; and he will make them ohh-so-shiny.
Just a reminder that this map is released as an alpha map... still, I know. It should be beta; but considering I am scrapping all of the triggers; I can go without changing the name. The map name is CHA-Alpha; if the servers dont go down and reset the hours, it can be found floating between pages 5 and 8 on most days. Any feedback would be appreciated.
Skype: [email protected] Current Project: Custom Hero Arena! US: battlenet:://starcraft/map/1/263274 EU: battlenet:://starcraft/map/2/186418
If you've achieved this, I swear, I'll eat my hat.
Lol, if you have wc3 I can show you it on a much broader scale; 120 heroes, 160 abilities, 400 items; no "best" 20 builds; let alone "best build". This game isnt nearly that broad yet; making it much easier to smooth out.
Common sense must be used; of course. That is where the "player" comes in. If you invest all of your stats into armor and nothing but armor; you will not kill anything. If you are killing nothing while your opponent kills stuff, they are outleveling you, gaining more stats, and eventually will punch a hole through your armor while you stand there not dealing damage.
In the sense of "players of roughly average skill, using a variety of builds that have any amount of thought put behind them" it is balanced. With larger teams, the amount of "thought" goes downhill a lot too. 3 new players with no concept of the game, but who take good direction can overcome 3 moderate players.
Seriously though; would you eat half of your hat if I can prove to have already done this in wc3? there is a player on there named "randomloser" he has about 800 game wins, from randoming. There is no bonus at all from randoming in that game. He often beats the top 5 player, when they dont random. You are allowed to add ketchup to your hat before you eat it.
If you are completely serious about eating your own hat; and letting me watch, I will arrange a mini tourny between myself and the best 2 players of the sc2 version of my map; we will play 5 1v1 games with each other; each using different builds every game we play. however, if that is the case, I get full youtube rights to the video of you eating your hat; and there will be dubbstep; ohh yes, there will be dubbstep.
Skype: [email protected] Current Project: Custom Hero Arena! US: battlenet:://starcraft/map/1/263274 EU: battlenet:://starcraft/map/2/186418
I have begun work on trinkets; which is a pretty potent gameplay changer. My plan so far is for them to act as passive skills that have 3 ranks, and become exponentially stronger as they rank up. Overall, I plan for their power to be about equal to your innate stats. They will have an impact on gameplay; without being direly important. For the most part; they intend to stimulate possible build weaknesses that may not be realized until later in the game; after all skills have been picked and a lightbulb goes off and you say "shit, if only I had a little bit of this...."
I dont plan to list all of my trinkets as I make them; as they will be constantly changing, but what I have so far: (Mind that once you pick a trinket, which can be reasonably early in the game, you cannot undo your choice for the rest of the game)
A trinket that adds a pure damage immolation. It is nice if you are falling behind in leveling and need a stimulant. If you are ahead in leveling, then you kill creeps faster due to stats already; and the slow damage over time in an area will not have such a potent effect.
A trinket that slows the movement speed of all enemy units in a reasonable radius. Great for when some guy decided 80 move speed and 150 constitution is a fun idea; or if your only chance of winning is that you kill opponents in the field; and you have no way of stopping them from returning to their base to heal.
A trinket that adds minerals in intervals. This is something I never liked the idea of; but being able to see an entire game as a list of data really helped in the balance of this. Often times later in the game, you will be pooling minerals to allys, because you cannot get enough vespean to use the minerals gains; assuming you are leveling fast and are not using the minerals to keep yourself in the game. Gives players that option to get items sooner; rather than having an alternate ability, or counter.
Hopefully within a week I will have the other 6 done; I am taking my time with it; trying to make sure they will all have something to contribute to the game.
Skype: [email protected] Current Project: Custom Hero Arena! US: battlenet:://starcraft/map/1/263274 EU: battlenet:://starcraft/map/2/186418
Just like to point out with excitement, after re-triggering my map with action definitions, and some well made multidimensional loops I have some great numbers to show. I can improve maybe 25% more or my triggers in various ways; but I got all of the major things out of the way.
Trigger Size: From 1.78 MB to .83 MB
Trigger Count: 65 to 37
Events: 76 to 51
Function Calls: 10,200 to 3,600
I am unable to accurately measure the change in run time for my larger triggers which have been condensed to switch functions in action definitions. From what I can tell, the run time really hasn't changed much at all; but the triggers are muchhhh shorter. The only clear numbers I have are in game initialization times; which on a cold start were reduced from 2800ms to 900ms; and the 900ms now loads quite a bit more content. From a warm start, those numbers are 300ms down to 125 ms.
Also, using a few other methods of recording things and applying buffs, I have greatly reduced the chances of a late-game "lag" buildup; or any "lag-spikes".
Just my pride mark of the... past few weeks. Hopefully I find it within myself to start adding more abilities now ><
Skype: [email protected] Current Project: Custom Hero Arena! US: battlenet:://starcraft/map/1/263274 EU: battlenet:://starcraft/map/2/186418