SC2Mapster

this week im going to be working on act 4 terrain/triggers, act 2 doodads/terrain, and I'm going to work on fixing raining fire on the Brutalisk. Meat hook and raining fire will have their graphic effect updated in act 2.

• I've raised the level cap to 100 in act 4.

• XP gain should be working fine between 80-100, and I'm pretty sure the initial bugs have been hammered out. I was getting problems yesterday when you got to level 82/83, and it would say like 2000 / 1300 XP. 28/10/2012

• I'm noticing (online mode, on older computers) that Teleporter Beacon sometimes doesn't work in act 4, so I'm going to try a few different things to ensure that it always works (as long as you're not stunned or standing in a vortex).

• Production of act 4 is already taking twice as long as act 3, and only a third of the total work is done. I'm starting to run out of room for the indoor zones, so several areas will be subject to change until release.

Act 4 terrain is coming along nicely. I'll need to do alot of act 4 specific trigger work on this one.

Act 4 progress -

Items: 88% (Act 4 items are satisfactory...for now).

Mobs: 80% (11/11 non-boss unit, & scaling data completed, I'm not exactly happy with the variety of mobs so I may add more if it feels like it needs it).

Import Data: 90% I need a snowy cave doodad.

Bosses: 25%, (9/11 bosses Unit, Actor & Scaling data completed. All fights are in rough draft form. I will be fine tuning their difficulty levels as I add new mechanics)

Terrain: 9% The first outdoor zone is in alpha test phase (with 2 bosses). I still haven't started on the indoor zones yet. About one third of the map is playable, with mobs and bosses. Waypoint system and caves triggers aren't done yet.

Quests 0% These quests have to be impossible to solo. A healer is required, and there are 3 zones in act 4.

im going to be working on act 4 stuff on and off.

So far, for act 4 I have 6 new chest armors, 6 new shoulder armors, 3 new helms, 9 new boots, 3 new bracers, 4 new gloves, 10 new rings, 4 new shields, and 3 new relic/misc slot items.

• (17/01/2012) 3 new act 4 bracers, & 4 new shields made.

• (16/01/2012) Act 4 items have had their tooltips updated, several buttons now have a new graphic icon. Some act 2 & Act 3 gear has had their icons updated. Trying to get +lifestealing gear working.

• (14/01/2012) 6 more act 4 items made.

Act 4 progress -

Items: 86% (I just need to make some new gloves for tank/dps/caster).

Mobs: 80% (11/11 non-boss unit, & scaling data completed, I'm not exactly happy with the variety of mobs so I may add more if it feels like it needs it).

Import Data: 50% (Custom Unit Models have been brought in, I want to either use an Aiur tileset or import a snow tileset).

Bosses: 25%, (9/11 bosses Unit, Actor & Scaling data completed. All fights are in rough draft form. I will be fine tuning their difficulty levels as I add new mechanics)

Terrain: 0%

Quests 0%

0.98a will be the current version of the week! 0.98a is primarily a test to see how well the act 1,2,3 & 4 data can coexist simultaneously, before proceeding to the next phase of act 4 developement. 0.98a also addresses a few issues encountered in Act 2 and 3. Read the Latest Updates

• When I published act 2 of 0.98a the first 2 times, I forgot to update the Requirement Nodes data to the act 3 values, causing upgrades to stay lit up even when you have them. Trying to puchase these upgrades (when you already have them) consumes minerals due to the nature of the issue. This issue has been pointed out and fixed.

• I'll be spending a couple days updating the requirements for the Relic slot items. New Relics are under developement, and I'm laying down the framework for 'class specific items.'

• I'm considering replacing the old style of gear with these new +int/str/agi items. It takes me about a day to do 6 items (and the easiest part is importing the data into acts 1 & 2 after im done creating it in act 3). So in a day I can convert 2 items into 6 class specific items (with a remaining 228 NON class specific items left to process). I simply cannot process them all.

• Going to work on abolishing the hero icon. You click your portrait to find/select your hero instead. Hotkeys are F1 and F2 (to replace the old F2). I just need to get this this system to work while using vehicles and merchants.

Updates on US bnet are halted at the moment until I've got enough Act 4 unit data for a working beta version. Players (hopefully) won't notice any changes when 0.98a goes live, when actually alot of work has been done under the hood. Only 2 major changes; the stats dialog (in all 3 acts) is finally able to count the crit and haste on your gear, and you can bring act4 beta gear back to acts 1,2 & 3.

Act 4 progress -

Items: 80% (All Act 4 Items have been made, acts 1-2 item database still needs to be replaced with act 3/4 data).

Mobs: 80% (11/11 non-boss unit, & scaling data completed, I'm not exactly happy with the variety of mobs so I may add more if it feels like it needs it).

Import Data: 50% (Custom Unit Models have been brought in, I want to either use an Aiur tileset or import a snow tileset).

Bosses: 25%, (9/11 bosses Unit, Actor & Scaling data completed. All fights are in rough draft form. I will be fine tuning their difficulty levels as I add new mechanics)

Terrain: 0%

Quests 0%

I'm checking out lobby variants, and I might be able to use them to make PVP modes and hard modes for previous acts after I'm done act 4.

• In preparation for act 4, I've implemented 7 new rings, 3 new relic slot items, mercenary whistle, a new type of grenade, and I've got the stats dialog counting the haste on your items. Previously unobtainable gloves/boots/chest/shoulders/helm will also be made available in act 4.

• 3 new enemy types created for use in act 4, I've finished updating the stats dialog (in all 3 acts) and it's finally able to count the crit and haste on your gear.

Act 4 progress -

Items: 80% (All Act 4 Items have been made, acts 1-2 item database still needs to be replaced with act 3/4 data).

Mobs: 60% (9/10 non-boss units made, acts 1-2 unit data needs to be replaced with act 3/4 data).

Import Data: 50% (Custom Unit Models have been brought in, Parts of a 'snow' tileset still need to be imported).

Bosses: 10%, (3/11 bosses done. Seeking inspiration from warcraft 3 hero abilities, several fights will be very scripted like The Destroyer fight and Nezzax the Consuming)

Terrain: 0%

Quests 0%

• 01.) I most likely will :)

• 02.) I may add new forum posts with hero descriptions over the next couple months.

• 03.) yes. Is friend :) If you could be more descriptive in your error reports I'd appreciate it (and possibly be able to pinpoint your problems easier).

@TalDarimDestroyers: Go

I've looked at the act 2 quest triggers. Again, I see nothing wrong. If you could give me some description of any sort at what point the quest chain stopped working for you it would give me a better idea of where to look. Also post what version it says you're playing at the loading screen ('Release 0.97a') etc. What SC2 client you have (US, Sea, EU) and how much ram you're running (some oversized trigger sections require 3+ gigs of ram)

It also helps to know exactly what quest items you had at the time quests 'stopped executing.' I checked the requirements on the act 2 quests. All you need is to have either the key to act 2 or Templar Talisman or Tal'darim beacon. I've personally levelled a hero this week (with someone else) and every quest worked. I update these maps just about every week and I know there's been no game-breaking issues with act 2 for months.

• It looks to me like you didn't fight the destroyer in act 1

@TalDarimDestroyers: Go

I've levelled 2 characters to 70+ in this last month without problems. You must be doing something wrong or not reading the quest objectives (hover your mouse over the quest objectives if you're ever wondering what you're supposed to be doing).

To play act 2 you

• Fight the destroyer in act 1, to get the key to act 2. Save hero or walk through the cave marked by an exclaimation mark behind the destroyers loot. You MUST have the key to act 2 or templar talisman or else you can't fire any quests in act 2.

• Load up act 2, and reach the overtaken outpost to the South

• Talk to Chal'marr. After a brief cinematic, he will tell you to go talk to Zen'yth, a phased stalker east of town.

• You talk to Zen'yth and he sends you to rescue a Dark Templar marked by a ping to the north.

• Upon returning to town the dark templar drops some really nice loot, and you go approach Chal'marr to continue the questline.

• The rest of the quests in Act 2 are from Chal'marr, except for one quest where he eventually tells you to go inside the nexus (the big protoss building in the middle of town) and ask the merchants about some giant ursodak boss.

• NONE of the act 3 quests are fired through Chal'marr, there are 2 questgivers, Zen'yth and Al'rak. Zen'yth is the phased stalker next to Chal'marr, Al'rek is scouting the area north of the landing site. When you approach Chal'marr, he directs you where to go for your quests (and leaves for shakuras) if you're new to act 3. To complete act 3 you need to go through 7-8 quests, and each questgivers version of the first 2 quests are different.

The new Brutalisk hero has been unleashed on US BNET! This new strength hero is a capable tank, and also has the potential for ridiculous damage dealing! Nothing says happy holidays like a new zerg hero with rain of fire, immolation, death hook (a single target effect that pullls a target to you), breath of fire, an aoe taunt and marauder heal. I'll be continuing to work toward starting on an act 4 after some online playtesting this Christmas.

Merry christmas/happy holidays and thanks for playing folk!

@TalDarimDestroyers: Go

1. Nope. I'm not going to add anything that might make the save file bigger, I really want the save files to be as small as possible to increase multiplayer reliability. There will of course be new gear, more stat points, and always the possibility of new talents for some heros.

2 Alot of what I've been doing is working in preparation for an act 4. I'm pretty confident I can do an act 4 (level 75-100), but it won't be ready until HoTS most likely. Thanks for posting!

• (17/12/2011) I'm working on some fearsome looking new abilities inspired by Warcraft 3 including 'rain of fire.' I'll need alot of different looking abilities if I'm going to pull off an act 4.

• (18/12/2011) I've almost finished that Zerg hero, I just have to get it's talents working, reduce it's scaling by a bit because it is insanely OP ATM. After thorough balance testing period I'll post it on US Bnet.

• (10th) I'm working on a new system for storing talent upgrades which should reduce the total size of the save files by 40% or more! I want peoples save files to be as small as possible because alot of save data gets thrown around in multiplayer games, where older computers sometimes can't process every players 20 kb save files. Existing heros will have their talent upgrades reset when this fix goes live, which will probably be on the 16th.

• Results have been tested and it seems my new system reduces the size of save files by about 55%! I'm going to take this time to make changes to how the second backup bank works, to increase it's reliability.

• (11th) I've switched to working on the HP values in act 3. It will look and feel like nothing's changed, when actually, enemy health has been scaled down to 10%, and everything gets 90% damage reduction. I will also be changing how combat text and enemy health is displayed, so these values are properly exaggerated by 90%. This is all just to pave the way for a new act, so that someday I can make 5player bosses with up to 5 million health.

• (12th)After getting the initial bugs out, I've redesigned the act 3 unit portrait system (bossbar), to allow units with up to 5147 K health (5.1 million) which exceeds the gameplays maximum value by 10x. If the number of health gets higher than 51,400 it switches over to 'k' (thousands) like '51k.' I believe I can scale things up another 10x (to a potential 51 million health), but there's no need to do that yet.

Below we have a picture of Nezzax the Consuming with 556k health in 5player mode.

• (12th) today I've got 4 abilities working for that zerg hero I've been (not) working on. Pickup items (items that don't take up bag space) have littered throughout acts 1 2 and 3, I've implemented 3 new potions that restore 9550 shields/life/energy. I just need to implement new rings and relics and I should be good to raise the level cap for a new chapter.

• (13th) I was working on the save system last night, and I managed to get it to store your mercenaries across games. It doesn't store anything particular about each of your 6 mercenaries, it just stores whether or not you have them. Mercenaries are automatically calibrated to your level regardless. Abit of trouble getting the act 3 mercenaries working in acts 1 & 2, needing to import the hybrid hydralisk model to acts 1 & 2. Players still need to wait till act 2 to buy the phased zealot and act 3 to get the act 3 mercenaries, but once you get them, you can bring them back into different acts. So you can show up to act 1 on your level 50+ with your posse of act 3 mercenaries. Once purchased, you don't have to re-purchase your mercenaries unless they die.

oh awesome! I'll post acts 2 and 3 for you.