With the advent of the new Smashcraft Legends map coming soon, I'll be releasing the "API" and mod to the public so players can build their own Smashcraft game modes and maps! This will integrate trigger actions and libraries to quickly make a map using the infamous Smashcraft hero roster, including 24 robust and exciting hero characters each with unique playstyles.
You create the rules, you make the terrain, the Smashcraft engine does the rest! Smashcraft TD? Go for it. Hero survival? Go for it! The possibilities are endless. You build completely off the core library of the mod itself.
Look forward to the API release, as well as Smashcraft Legends: Capture the Flag official map to be released by November 2011. Competitive SC2 custom maps will never be the same, keep your eyes open.
After a few more days of hanging out here you'll find that only maybe 3 people know what they're talking about and the rest are bottom-feeding TD designers.
Iv been kinda wondering how long does it take you to make a complete hero and what kind of process do you go trough? I seem to be rather slow at doing it, yet I feel quite saticfied when I create a good hero.
A single hero I usually conceptualize when I get ideas, so the development of a hero design itself can take anywhere from a few hours to a few days, to weeks to finally polish and get the right synergy between abilities going.
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I start with thinking of abilities. Mostly I want to make a theme for hero. Synergy for some spells and every ability should be equally useful.
This is the best place to start. Think of a theme. I'll use Smashcraft as a reference point.
The hero Revolver was meant to be an offensive tank ("offensive tank" being the theme), the gimmick was that his way of tanking was indirect, that is, he himself has no way to force someone to attack him, but he can protect teammates from being attacked by using disruption and displacement. So the idea was to make him a less beefy tank, but stronger offensively, while giving him abilities to displace other characters. He got a reasonably strong chaingun attack, the ability to create unpathable fissures, and swap positions with allies. Essentially filling his role perfectly and creating a very fluid and dynamic experience when playing him.
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The thought process might take anywhere from 1min to several weeks...sometimes ideas just wont come. I have become quite customed on mind mapping process for hero creation. I write things down I feel like the hero could do even if the ideas arent good. Sometimes I draw pictures to make even better idea of the ability im looking for.
That's perfectly fine for conceptualizing a hero. Many times I'll look over old concepts and re-work them to be more intuitive, or I'll look at something and be like "hey, maybe if it did this instead..." and usually just kind of iron out the details over time before I sit down and actually create the hero in data. No one ever said you have to stick to your idea 100% either, many heroes ended up getting complete reworks when an idea did come to me that would improve upon their design tenfold.
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After I get the idea I proceed on making it. This usually takes around 15mins to 1day/per ability. And this is just for visuals. I always start with the visuals (and functionality if its a complex spell). Sometimes I might even give up on the idea if the visuals are not to my liking.
I start with the functionality of the ability, which takes all of 15 minutes. The ability->effect->etc. chain is easy. Actors take considerably longer. The whole process of creating a brand new hero from scratch seems to average about 8 hours, depending on complexity of the hero's mechanics, how many abilities they have, and how complicated the actor work is to make it look amazing.
A hero like Ace took me all of 8 hours to build. Planar took me 4 days. It varies, but once you're really fluid with the editor a week long project eventually cuts down to like a few hours. Honestly.
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After the visuals are done. All is done is the polishing and I neglect this stuff too much...I just throw in random sounds and the tooltips are quite basic too. I could seriosly improve on "finishing" the abilities part.
After you get the spell working itself, go through and polish up the loose ends. You can also just save that for last and do them all at once, that way you get into a groove and it's easier to get the odd stuff done like that all at once since you're just streamlining the process and producing a pattern. I also find it's easier to keep a consistent pattern between things like tooltips or whatnot when you do this, since the process is fresh in your mind and you're not going "er, uhm what other details did I do to standardize this?"
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This week iv been able to make visuals for 9 abilities. They still lack sound, icons and tooltips. Took yet again several hours to get this far and still not finished.
Welcome to making quality abilities. Something highly lacking among mappers.
It sounds like you got the dedication to make a good hero map, even if it's not a dota clone, making a good hero based game takes an enormous amount of time, and especially making it visually impressive will make your game stand out above the rest. The little details will do wonders for making your map look more professional and polished overall, even if the gameplay itself is pretty basic, you can still get an edge over the competition by providing a product that does it 100x better.
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More details of what to expect in Legends can also be found in the above subforum.
Basic quick rundown of what's changing about the new Smash:
5v5
Respawning
Multiple game modes
Etc.
The game mechanics will remain (mostly) the same, but with many new dynamics.
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Ever wanted to make a mod... for a mod?
With the advent of the new Smashcraft Legends map coming soon, I'll be releasing the "API" and mod to the public so players can build their own Smashcraft game modes and maps! This will integrate trigger actions and libraries to quickly make a map using the infamous Smashcraft hero roster, including 24 robust and exciting hero characters each with unique playstyles.
You create the rules, you make the terrain, the Smashcraft engine does the rest! Smashcraft TD? Go for it. Hero survival? Go for it! The possibilities are endless. You build completely off the core library of the mod itself.
Look forward to the API release, as well as Smashcraft Legends: Capture the Flag official map to be released by November 2011. Competitive SC2 custom maps will never be the same, keep your eyes open.
For suggestions, updates, and to follow how the project is going, check out the official Smashcraft forums: http://playsmashcraft.com/viewforum.php?f=17
The original Smashcraft's 2.0 teaser video, for you uncool blokes who have never heard.
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After a few more days of hanging out here you'll find that only maybe 3 people know what they're talking about and the rest are bottom-feeding TD designers.
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Here's my review of Zealot Frenzy.
sucks
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@tordecybombo: Go
Assuming they fixed it in between the time I haven't given a shit and now. (aka beginning of time).
Then yeah it's a good thing. Fortunately for me, it made your map invisible when Smashcraft got featured.
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Zero dollars.
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Grats on your map becoming invisible and eventually being killed by being featured.
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TD thread. Must eradicate.
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yay this makes me want to start mapping again not
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I totally want to play a laggier Dota 2 or LoL on a shitty framework.
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I was referring to yours as well Bounty.
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Looks like shit.
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I think they meant how much money have you spent on your map project.
In that sense, I've spent nothing.
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A single hero I usually conceptualize when I get ideas, so the development of a hero design itself can take anywhere from a few hours to a few days, to weeks to finally polish and get the right synergy between abilities going.
This is the best place to start. Think of a theme. I'll use Smashcraft as a reference point.
The hero Revolver was meant to be an offensive tank ("offensive tank" being the theme), the gimmick was that his way of tanking was indirect, that is, he himself has no way to force someone to attack him, but he can protect teammates from being attacked by using disruption and displacement. So the idea was to make him a less beefy tank, but stronger offensively, while giving him abilities to displace other characters. He got a reasonably strong chaingun attack, the ability to create unpathable fissures, and swap positions with allies. Essentially filling his role perfectly and creating a very fluid and dynamic experience when playing him.
That's perfectly fine for conceptualizing a hero. Many times I'll look over old concepts and re-work them to be more intuitive, or I'll look at something and be like "hey, maybe if it did this instead..." and usually just kind of iron out the details over time before I sit down and actually create the hero in data. No one ever said you have to stick to your idea 100% either, many heroes ended up getting complete reworks when an idea did come to me that would improve upon their design tenfold.
I start with the functionality of the ability, which takes all of 15 minutes. The ability->effect->etc. chain is easy. Actors take considerably longer. The whole process of creating a brand new hero from scratch seems to average about 8 hours, depending on complexity of the hero's mechanics, how many abilities they have, and how complicated the actor work is to make it look amazing.
A hero like Ace took me all of 8 hours to build. Planar took me 4 days. It varies, but once you're really fluid with the editor a week long project eventually cuts down to like a few hours. Honestly.
After you get the spell working itself, go through and polish up the loose ends. You can also just save that for last and do them all at once, that way you get into a groove and it's easier to get the odd stuff done like that all at once since you're just streamlining the process and producing a pattern. I also find it's easier to keep a consistent pattern between things like tooltips or whatnot when you do this, since the process is fresh in your mind and you're not going "er, uhm what other details did I do to standardize this?"
Welcome to making quality abilities. Something highly lacking among mappers.
It sounds like you got the dedication to make a good hero map, even if it's not a dota clone, making a good hero based game takes an enormous amount of time, and especially making it visually impressive will make your game stand out above the rest. The little details will do wonders for making your map look more professional and polished overall, even if the gameplay itself is pretty basic, you can still get an edge over the competition by providing a product that does it 100x better.
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sc2mapster is my oyster