Techtree Contest #5 - Innovation

[Kam]

It is a method used to find the most and least desired paths based on a sample of responses.

So I ask 100 people to rank X,Y,Z in their desired order. You will end up with many different variations but there will be (usually) and most desired order - lets say Y,Z,X. What this tells us is that Y is the overall preferred candidate.

 

[Pharaoh_]

I will create a special form for the voting process, following the example 67chrome linked, to make it easier for people to simply edit the text here and there and force them to vote on every entry. If it doesn't work out as intended, we will stick to the classic way of voting.

 

[Kam]

Lost

During the reign of the Burning Legion there was a concerted effort to delve into the deepest of black magics. They were close to opening the necessary planar connections when the final battle at the World Tree took place and the Legion crumbled. The Alliance thought that there was nothing more to fear from their hideous foes. They were unaware that deep in the ruins of the Undead research facilities those Planar rifts were being widened from the other side by forces so far Lost in history that their existence was unheard of.

This is the Lost Race.

The premise is that structures and upgrades cost lumber and gold, units (other than reviving heroes) do not. You are restricted not with a food cap but instead with the very link to the other side. Organic combat units will die eventually unless prolonged through combat kills or construction of Cruxes. You will need to plan your production rather than making one unit at a time in order to take advantage of the Essence system. This is a hyper-aggressive race, turtling or otherwise delaying will see your demise.

Obviously it's not perfect, however it's going into a project so further work will be done and feedback from this is much appreciated. For some reason the Shadows sound set is an Acolyte even though it's set to a Shade.

I suggest starting the game and choosing Undead in the lobby so you have the correct UI and the "feel" isn't disrupted.

A note to judges: This race is meant for my project so there are some things you should be aware of. Unit commands are all set to a grid rather than random keys:

Q W E R
A S D F
Z X C V

I was also rushed so if balance is off it's because I was thinking more about fighting the other altered races than the vanilla races.

Edit: Also please note that the portal spell is partially functional. There were some advanced code issues to deal with and the author did not have time. It functions one way so it is still a useful ability. Also the birth system kinda sucks but it was the most uniform thing I could come up with.

Edit: Known bugs:

-Abyss and Reliquary dummy build models are heroes
-I believe the race selection system is screwing up the ingame blight ooze, it's supposed to be red

Credits

ike_ike - Puppeteer Icon
Rightfield and Co.- Lost Soul model
The Tales of Raviganion unit and building models/icons
Tarrasque - Brutal Lord model
Dionesiist - Sharadar Hell Knight Model
Rising_Dusk - Graverobber (Soul Leech) spell
From Deadeye spell Pack: http://www.wc3c.net/showthread.php?t=104469
Luorax - Expire system for Lost race
Pyrogasm - Singularity (Void)
http://www.wc3c.net/showthread.php?t=102401
Ampharos_222 - Razor model
Infernal Knight model
Fresh Shambler model
watermelon_1234 - Diabolic Countdown spell
Tainted Fountain spell
Dark Dragon - Dark Torture spell
Shadow Crossing spell
Terror Blade (Terror) spell
Black Magic spell
From DD Universal Spell Pack
Maker - Mens Imperium (Corruption) spell
From Lich King Spellpack
Frankster - Demonic Bulwark / Bastion / Citadel model
Amigurumi - Evil Beholder model
M0rbid - Evil Beholder icon
Thrikodius - Warp Dark (Lost unit spawn effect) model
Stanakin Skywalker - Call Help (Terror) icon
PurgeandFire111 - Haunt (Vile Marionettes) spell
4eNNightmare - FierySoul (Scorched Touch) icon
NetherSwap (Anguish T2 upgrade
Mc ! - Black Hole model (Void)
sPy - TreeExtraction_Rain model (Blight Growth)
Pharaoh_ - Consumed Mine system for Lost race
Archmage Owenalacaster - Nexus Portal spell
From Magic Race - http://www.wc3c.net/showthread.php?t=104843
NFWar - RetournedCaptain icon (Shambler)
DarkNova (Nullify) icon
Q w e r t y - Bonedigger Halo (Conduit) model
Boogles - Soulfire missile (Ravager missile) model
PeeKay - AstralBlessing (Purgatory) icon
Torment (Collateral Destruction) upgrade
InnerFire (Surge) upgrade
shamanyouranus - Blood Fury (Unbridled Fremzy buff) model
Revilo - Forgotten One and Beholder edits

Hero:
scorpion182 - Shadow Attack (Hideous Halo)
judash - Moron Eater (Horror) model
http://forum.lowpolyworkshop.com/topic/9034949/1/
Juan_Ann - Impale (Skewer) icon

 

[Bannar]

I've decided to resignate from ths contest. Even that I have spent ~170 hours on project I haven't completed it fully enough to be proud of it. And if i'm not, I won't upload anything. Good luck to everyone.

 

[Deleted member 157129]

Yeah, updated the final entry post, a little overdue, hate all you want. I regret not going through with this when the contest first started, rather than putting in a "last minute effort", as is my habit. I never got a chance to bugfix, tweak balance and get feedback on the gameplay. It was fun anyhow.. except for the countless corruptions I had to get through. I even learned quite a bit of JASS, I'd say it ain't half bad for six days experience. Good luck to all contestants, and I hope voters and judges alike will look beyond the awesomeness of the imported resources present in some of these maps (including my own) and focus on the actual techtree and the innovative ideas that make our races different from each other, from average RTS races and from the WC3 races.

 

[Kam]

I spent far too much time on this.

 

[Narogog]

Final Entry

edit: Reuploaded View attachment (6)SwampOfSorrows Nerubian By Narogogv1.66.w3x
Concept
Focusing on the insect side of Nerubians, i made them similar to ants so they Require "tunnel entrances" for constructing units. and moving their armies about.

Units

Worker Gathers Resources
Tunneler Builder unit, and moves about under ground. can attack buildings after you research sapping

Scout Fast unit with an excellent los.
Warrior tough Melee unit can become invisible after an upgrade.
Webspinner Light Ranged unit can cast web.
Cave Spider Slow and Heavy Siege unit, powerful but expensive History these creatures have been bred by the Nerubians for centuries, making them bigger and stronger but over time their optical capabilities have been reduced.
Princess Heavy Ranged unit, Launches Spiderlings as its projectile which then begin to attack the target. Can cast For the Hive, which will make the target unit powerful but causes it to die after 10 seconds, when cast on tunnelers it makes so that they can cast an ability called sap which will do massive damage to a target building.

Weaver Controlling spellcaster, can cast Wall of Air, PainfulBinding and Bind.
SeerInsightful spellcaster, can cast Vision, Curse, and Frost armor

Hero

Queen Mother Mystical Hero, adept at summoning minions.
Spiderling Attack increases Attack speed of the queen and causes her to launch spiderlings at her enemies.
Spawn eggs creates a bunch of eggs that hatch into scouts or spiderlings?
Queens Presence Increases nearby allies units health regen.
Queens Command Increases the units damage and health regen and prevents the from dying from For the Hive instead the unit get stunned.

Lord Strong Hero, adept at absorbing damage.
Impale Slams the ground with the Lord's massive claws, shooting spiked tendrils out in a straight line, dealing damage and hurling enemy ground units into the air in their wake.
Chitinous Carpace Reduces damage dealt to the Lord
Bounty Gives gold to you whenever the lord damages an enemy.
Fearsome Presence Frightens enemies reducing their damage and makes so that they have a chance to run.

Tunnel Spider Behemoth Hero that is incredibly difficult to control and has been shrunk with magic to make it smaller and more easy to control.
Shockwave deals line damage
Cave Fighter gives a chance to deal bonus damage as well as giving it a chance to shrink to avoid damage.
Tunnelcreates a tunnel to the target location.
UnbindTunnelSpiderCauses the Tunnel Spider to return to its normal size, increasing hitpoints, damage and armor.

 

[Bannar]

LOL; How can you guys fix things after 12:00?

It's a bit wierd in case I have needed 2 hours of work to finishs and I wanted to be fair with everyone == didn't uploaded at all (it would be ~2:50).

Can I still upload it?

 

[Kam]

I would suggest you upload it and let Pharaoh_ decide later.

My guess is he won't allow it.

 

[67chrome]

I like the Schulze Method that chrome proposed too, but I don't fully understand it. Does anyone have a 100% knowledge of how its voting works?

A wiki link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schulze_method

Well, I'm not 100% sure how it works either, but the gist of it is something like this: every person ranks which entry they like best to worst, in WC3C higher numbers were used to show better ranks. Each entry is averaged with the scores it received (so if you don't rank a race in any particular way it will essentially be the same as giving it the average score). The numbers themselves given to races don't matter, it's just the order they are placed in. (so you could rank races 91-100 rather than 1-9).

 

[Bannar]

Okey I'll upload it now. If Pharaoh_ decides to DQ, let it be (it's in wips post btw, forgot to mention).

 

[Ahimtar]

so, its over. im quite disappointed that i had that crucial bug, that way i didnt work on my race more because it was kind of pointless, though im still competing and trying not to be last. gl guys too

 

[ashbringer753]

well I've tried almost all of the races and I'd like to upload a small critiscm here, ahimtar and spinnaker's race could not be rated due to a lack of playability in warcraft 3(not editor).

67Chrome's Drow:
+: really fun to play race, the sacrifice system is the most innovative in this contest, although some light glitches. Hydras and Wyrms were really awesome. The wall scion idea is really great. I could go on a lot with what's great in that race.(all triggered spells) models and icons made especially for this contest. I believe this is the entry that has the best potential. I have one question: How did you manage to change the Ubersplats?
-: only one caster.

Kam's lost:
+:Awesome aesthetics (building animation, rewrapped models and on...). Building system is innovative as you could check the hp of buildings under construction next to the hero's icon.
Fun mana based summonig system.

-: casters are hard to manage due to a total lack of autocast spell, also, casters shouldn't have damaging spells.
totally unbalanced race( i could defeat a player with 4 units).


Shiik's Slayers:
+:innovative orb unit building system.

-: you cant know anything about the units you are making until the unit is built.
Lack of aesthetics( peon building a demonic orb with a hammer, units with random icons...)
Incomplete race

Dionesiist's cabal:
+: fun unit upgrades
fitting models/good aesthetics, exept from buildings
names are chosen in a developed and precise way

-:lacking original hero spells
unit roles are too flat.

 

[GhostThruster]

So I got Wazzz, ashbringer, shiik, dio, naragog, 67chrome, and Kam.
Anyones I miss?

Btw, I will be accepting bribes in the form of rep. I will also accept PayPal transfers, the latter is more preferred.

 

[Wazzz]

apart from Ahimtar (is he in? his map is rather bugged beyond comprehension), Spinnaker (just read his isn't playable, apparantly) and GhostThruster, i think that about covers it

also where's myyyyyyy review ashbringer? =D

 

[Ahimtar]

well, id like to compete, im not gonna win because of the bug, but it still took me few days to make... so i dont want to just forgot about it and id like to hear some response

this.

 

[Wazzz]

how CAN you hear a response about how your race plays when people can't even PLAY it?

honestly as far as i'm concerned, if the race is bugged and does not work, judges shouldn't waste their time on it

especially when you were 'too lazy to open the world editor' for a large period of time

all it's going to do is prolong the final results for those of us who's maps do work

 

[GhostThruster]

Dw, I've already started judging and it will be done soon. Ahmitar, I will judge yours, but I warn you I'm not very inclined to have my Wc3 kill itself every time a left-click something.

 

[Bannar]

What wrong with my race? It's working nice.
ashbringer753, you probably even ddin't try it ; )

To be honest my race features the most unique build system across all the entires; There is ton of triggers to make it bug free (yeah, script is made this way so 12 fallens could play at once if I would add them in start game settings).
There are innovate siege units (yeah one for tank/buildings one as air range against mass of tank units (taurens/knights etc.)). I haven't added review in case I had no time to do so. Anyways; I have put in this one a lot of time and a lot of heart.

 

[67chrome]

I have one question: How did you manage to change the Ubersplats?

All the building ubersplats have their texture file under ReplaceableTextures\Splats\[Splat Name].blp in the .mpq, so i simply made a custom texture splat. There are a few ubersplats not used by the melee races, namely dimensional gate southwest, dimensional gate southeast, demon portal, and the Naga town hall, so I wrote my texture's path to those splats. Of course, most of those splats are considerably large, so I had a lot of empty space on the edges of my splat textures. (All those paths are pretty convenient to, as they only have 1 variation for them. All of the melee splats have different variations for different tilesets, so getting the right path for a map can be kind of difficult in some cases. I know with the sunken ruins tileset, the most generic pathnames are the ones that work, while with northrend you'd want to try the paths that look wintery)

Anyways, thanks for the feedback on my race so far

 

[Bannar]

@Wazzz you are completely wrong and I guess you were never judging before. Each ocntest has it's own set of sections. Usually for hero/techtree/map one of them is called 'Playability' (I suppose you know what I mean). Even if some entry sucks, judges must rate it and follow to next section in which Playability isn't rated at all. I had similar situation while judging WMM contest (and yes, 5/10 entries had playability 1/10).

Great example is one of Map Making contest - won by Kobas whos entry wans't working at all - but his entry scored higest ranking in all other sections.
So yeah, you can say nothing to Ahimtar in case his project has to be judged + you can rate it after entering the editor.
Dude, working race is one (once again, I dont know why someone said my project doesnt work >.>) but what the core is completely different situation. I wasn't looking carefully on other entries, put for sure none but so much effort in scripting/making spells/stuff bug free/lagless/MPI/MUI as I did (talking about Trigger Editor part only).
So yeah, I wouldn't like to hear someone said just NO to my entry because of freaking one small mistake considering that I've spend about 200 hours of my life to make race feel unique, differend and complete.

Think next time and be mature.

 

[Pharaoh_]

I will be really insensitive, concerning the delayed submissions/edited ones. I'll play it blind and normally link them in the poll.

However, anyone that edits their submission from now on, they are going to be disqualified.

Poll is coming up in a few minutes.

 

[Kam]

I would hope that when people test these races they play against insane AI's as they are barely even the equivalent of a human player.

 

[Pharaoh_]

Do you guys want me to find a second judge?

 

[Kam]

Why don't you judge?

 

[Bannar]

Pharaoh_ please judge this time. You are one of the most reasonable and relieable one here.
Plus you're usually doing this one quickly ;>

Btw Pharaoh_, dont you think that contest should be started after actually find a judges? Meaby even just one, so we are sure that there is nothing to realy worry about. I'm not sure which one, but last time there was music/something like that contest, there were 3/4 entries and 0 judges.. for about 1,5 they were waiting for them -.-

 

[Pharaoh_]

I'm afraid I don't have the time to do this :/

I was thinking of Wraithling, if he wants to, he won two techtree contests in a row.

 

[Bugz]

Wraithling is joining, if i am remembering correct.

 

[Pharaoh_]

Nope, he wouldn't compete this time.

Edit: Spinnaker, we already have one, it's not like we float in unawareness. I just suggest a second one, for the sake of fairness.

 

[Bannar]

And thats good suggestion. I my opinion there should be no limit for judges ;>
Just they shouldn't prelong judging too much (like they did in your tech tree contest 3 ;/ )

 

[Ahimtar]

how CAN you hear a response about how your race plays when people can't even PLAY it?

its almost playable, you just cant try to build or train anything, i provided a test map and there is enough to see in editor i think...

especially when you were 'too lazy to open the world editor' for a large period of time

well, yea, i was playing WoW

honestly as far as i'm concerned, if the race is bugged and does not work, judges shouldn't waste their time on it
all it's going to do is prolong the final results for those of us who's maps do work

well, if its that crucial, just dont count my entry or whatever, i dont care that much so someone would just waste time because of me...

 

[Bannar]

Ahimtar, I've already explained that Wazzz behavoiur was just immature, and in fact he isn't judge you don't have to care much about it.
It's not kind to say it's pointless to even open your entry - once again, playability isn't all of the points etc. and any judge should actually test your project and score it like anything else.

Although.. you were playing WoW? oh man.. basically wtf..

Poll is up!

 

[67chrome]

All right, here is the racial overview of my entry, filled with a bunch of fun facts and lore.

Notes:

Drow are a subspecies of elves and originate in Dungeon and Dragons lore. They generally always have black skin, red eyes, and white hair. They are predominantly evil and live underground, and participate in a lot of evil activities (live sacrifices, slavery, gladiator matches, etc.). Their predominant deity is Lolth, a spider goddess which is the god of a lot of things it would make sense for a spider to be a god of (assassination, shadows, poisoning, whatever). Drow are also a Matriarchal society, which is sort of interesting and a good excuse to have a lot of female units. Anyways, in Dungeons and Dragons (at least when Icewind Dale II came out, which was sort of a while ago) Drow were a rather cool race to play, though they had so many snazzy racial features that they had to be balanced with the other races by gaining levels at a rate of 2 levels behind most other races. Among these bonuses was a rather sizable amount of magic resistance. Anyways, being stronger than other races made them seem like a solid choice for a defensive race, which is mostly how I came about that decision. Also, because they live underground I tired to match the aesthetic of the buildings to fit this, giving them a lot of flat-roofed structures and nothing that looks designed specifically to combat weather. I also tried to incorporate spiders and spiderwebs into the designs of a lot of their stuff, including the ubersplat used by most of their structures. And i really tried to make them feel evil with their abilities and especially the way you can abuse slaves and kill them with varying incentives.

The Drow are a defensive leaning race focused on base management and keeping their troops alive, sort of like a hybrid between Terran and Protoss. They can easily wall off locations and each unit costs a considerable amount of resources, allowing an entire 100 food to be taken up by less than 2 control groups. This allows them an advantage in terms of space, allowing a few drow units to take out several weaker units. To emphasize the importance of utilizing space, several Drow units have area-effect attacks and/or abilities that are great for taking out large numbers of weaker units.

Almost all Drow units and structures have the mana shield ability, which diverts 75% of their damage taken to mana. Mana shield may be upgraded 3 times, mimicking the damage reduction granted by 2,4, and 6 points of armor.

To further emphasize their focus on defense, the Drow do not have a siege unit (though void maws summoned by umbralmancers can indeed out-range base defenses for moderate damage, and a fully grown Wyrm can out-range most defenses as well). Both only deal around 100% damage to structures rather than dealing bonus damage however.

As mana will generally be completely drained before a unit suffers significant damage to health, you might want to de-activate mana shield on some mana dependent units such as the heroes and activate it when things get dicey so they have the mana reserves to escape via abilities. However, the Drow have no innate health-replenishing abilities but are very good at restoring mana.

Structures:

	Dungeon/Arena/Colosseum	The town hall of the Drow race. This structure can do a considerable amount of things, and contains several abilities. Firstly, it can purchase slaves (similar to hiring mercenaries), which will grant a random level 1 unit as a slave, which can harvest resources, build structures, and repair mechanical units. The restock delay is the same time as the build time for workers of the other races, and the Dungeon/Arena/Colosseum can stock up to 8 slaves at once. The second ability it has is Force Labor, which simply unloads a random slave from the structure's dungeon for use as a worker. Alternatively, units held within the structure can be clicked on and they will be unloaded and pushed out of the center of the structure in no more than 2 seconds. The structure's third ability is Throw in Dungeon, which can load any nearby enslaved unit for further use back into the structure's dungeon. The forth ability is Feed/Fight, which pits a random slave held within the structure against the target player unit. If the unit is a Drow (Spellbow, Dusk Knight, Umbralmancer), the Drow will gain bonus damage, hp, and mana upon slaying the slave pitted against them. If the target is a beast (Hydra, Basilisk, Wyrm) the beast will grow in size upon feasting on the slave pitted against them, growing in size and strength based upon the level of the foe they consumed. If the target is a hero (Abyss Knight, Frost Archer, Dark Summoner), the hero will gain bonus experience from killing the unit. For the Drow and heroes, this generally isn't terribly cost effective if you purchase the slaves and is better used against free units acquired with shackle. Against beasts, feeding them slaves generally should be cost effective as each growth makes the beasts a comparative creep level stronger with damage, damage dice, health, and other bonuses such as armor, attack range, and even the area effect of attacks. When beasts grow in size, they do require more food to maintain as well though. This Structure's fifth ability is Sacrifice, which kills a random unit held within the structure in order to gain a global buff that increases the damage, armor, regeneration, and rejuvenation of all player units for a moderate duration. Higher level sacrifices offer better bonuses. The sixth ability is to torture a random unit held within the dungeon, which kills it in a painful way and inspires all player-owned slaves to work faster by boosting their movement speed. Again, higher level units offer better bonuses. The final ability is that to sell a random slave held within the structure's dungeon upon the underground market, generating bonus income based on the level of the unit sold. This is a good way to make some quick cash off of units captured with shackle if they can't be put to better use in any other way, but is most certainly a loss from units purchased.
	Garrison	The teir 1 troop production building, capable of training Spellbows and Dusk Knights, as well as researching all of the tech involved specifically with them.
	Armory	The lumber drop off/global upgrade center. Capable of improving the armor and damage of all units, as well as upgrading mana shield, structure health and mana, and spire's capacity to hold Spellbows.
	Spire	Defensive structure, loads Spellbows to attack. Benefits from all the upgrades Spellbows do, and can house 4 Spellbows initially and be upgraded to hold 6. (Currently does not benefit from Spellbow gladiator bonuses).
	Wall Scion	Food production structure, can also link with another wall scion to create an impassable barrier. Each scion may only maintain 1 barrier, but it may be broken down and re-directed as many times as needed.
	Altar of Lolth	The altar, used to summon heroes and revive them. Can summon the Abyss Knight, Frost Archer, and Dark Summoner.
	Library	Spellcaster production structure. Can train Umbralmancers and contains the caster upgrades for them.
	Hatchery	The non-caster tier 2 unit production structure. Can spawn Hydra and Basilisk, and contains all unit-specific upgrades for them.
	Wyrm Roost	The end of the tech line unit production structure. Can produce Wyrms and contains their corresponding Draong's Breath upgrade.
	Treasury	The item shop, can buy and sell items. Also contains the backpack upgrade. The only really customized item of note here is the Orb of the Arcane, which restores mana with each attack. The amount restored is based upon the heroe's level using it.

Units:

	Slave	Basic worker unit. Can build structures (Human build style) and harvest gold a lumber. Enslaved units that are purchased will be a random level 1 unit available in the map (Peon, Peasant, Acolyte, Wisp, Shade). Stronger units may be enslaved as well via the Umbralmancer's Shackle ability. Units can carry additional gold and lumber, harvest lumber faster, and repair structures faster based upon their level. (all slaves require the same amount of time to build a structure however, though higher level units have a greater effect with power-building if ordered to help). One thing to keep in mind is most units have a food cost equal to their level, and higher level slaves will be more taxing (food-wise) to keep around. All enslaved units may also be used as a sort of currency for a variety of abilities the Drow's town hall can preform, which usually result in the target slave being killed.
	Spellbow	Spellbows are the piercing damage dealers of the Drow, and can hit 3 targets with each attack. They can be upgraded with improved range and damage, as well as the ability to place blast traps (mines) that will detonate when enemies come to close.
	Dusk Knight	Primary meat shield, Dusk Knights have a fair pool of health and mana. They start with a bouncing attack capable of striking 3 targets in total, but dealing less damage to each target struck in the chain. They can be upgraded to use deflection, reducing the damage they take from piercing and magical attacks and giving them a chance to not only avoid 100% damage from such attacks but reflect the attack back upon the source. They can also learn Phase, an ability that grants them a burst of speed forward and allows them to jump over obstacles, as well as rendering them untargetable for the effect's short duration.
	Umbralmancer	The only non-hero caster of the Drow, and a very essential caster to the race. Umbralmancers initially have the ability Shackle, which reduces the attack rate and damage output of targets. Any unit that dies while under the effects of shackle will be instantly added to your pool of slaves in a random town hall (provided you have enough food supply and room for them). Umbralmancers can be upgraded to gain Imbue, which restores a decent chunk of mana to a nearby target. Their final ability is Void Maw, which summons an immobile ward with a magical attack and incredible range. Void Maws deal 200% damage to mechanical units, making them somewhat effective at damaging structures (dealing 70% damage instead of 35%), but rather fantastic at taking out rival siege weaponry.
	Hydra	The end tier tank of the race, Hydra's survivability is based on regeneration rather than damage reduction. Hydra's gain additional attack speed each time they take damage (maxing out at a 100% bonus). They may be upgraded to regenerate 1% of their max hp per second, allowing them to heal after tough battles. They can also be upgraded to have a 3-part attack that inflicts 3 different poisons on targets struck, causing damage over time, burning mana and draining mana over time, and briefly dazing the target (granting a chance to miss attacks and slowing them) with the poison reducing attack speed and armor. Against heroes these poisons also reduce strength, intelligence, and agility.
	Basilisk	Basilisks are the end-tier magic damage unit of the Drow. Unlike several other races, Basilisks are ground units rather than flyers, and rather susceptible to melee attacks. Basilisks fire crystallizing lasers out of each eye at their targets, stealing attack and movement speed for a brief duration. The effect stacks an unlimited number of times, causing basilisk’s dps to continually raise as they are attacking and their target's to become increasingly helpless. Basilisks may be upgraded with increased attack speed, allowing them a greater benefit from their initial passive. They may also be upgraded with Glass Hides, an ability that shields basilisks from attacks from above, reducing damage taken from air units and towers by a flat amount.
	Wyrm	Wyrms are powerful flying units and the most impressive units in the Drow army. Their attacks deal true damage, bypassing armor and other defensive measures. There attacks reduce the life of units hit by the amount shown (or slightly less if they are taking 50/25% damage from being on the outer reaches of their aoe attack). Their attacks also damage all targets (friend or foe) in an aoe, which is true for both their ground and air attacks. They may be upgraded to allow their ground attacks to scorch the earth, causing additional true damage over time to any units unfortunate enough to be caught in the blaze. All Wyrms take reduced damage from magic and spells and benefit from reduced durations and effects from most spells and abilities as well. Finally, larger wyrms can devour targets whole. The bigger the Wyrm gets, the bigger the target they can devour.
	Abyss Knight	The strength hero of the Drow. Abyss knights are a true tank, with powerful initiation and survival abilities. Her first ability is Shred, an ability that deals respectable damage to all adjacent hostile targets and steals armor from them, giving them to the Abyss Knight until it's cooldown is refreshed. Her second ability is Flash Step, which allows the Abyss Knight to leap over obstacles and stun and damage hostile targets near the point of impact. Her third ability is Tenacious Aura, which increases the magical resistance of nearby units (reducing damage taken from magical attacks and spells). Tenacious Aura may be activated to dispel all hostile effects on units within the aura's range as well as granting spell immunity for a brief duration, but doing so will disable the aura effect until the spell's cooldown is refreshed. The Abyss Knight's ultimate is Bridge of Shadows, an ability that allows the Abyss Knight to teleport all friendly units within the effective area to her location. Paired with Flash Step, this can allow the Abyss Knight to offer incredible mobility to any Drow force, enabling them to leap over walls and past barriers, applying sudo-flying mobility to an entire force.
	Frost Archer	The agility hero of the Drow. Frost Archers are largely focused on dishing out damage and debuffing their foes in the process. Their first ability is Spider Swarm, which summons 3 crystalline spiders a moderate distance in from of the hero in front of the hero. Each spider causes damage in a small aoe upon birth and death. Spiders' attacks will also chill targets for a brief duration, and melee units that attack them will be chilled as well. Not to leave any overused slow effects out with an ice-themed ability, they also chill units upon their aoe birth and death damage. The frost archer's second ability is Strafe, which allows her to fire an arrow at up to a set number of units, stealing damage from each. Each target struck will have their damage output reduced by a flat amount, and this damage reduction will be added temporarily as a damage bonus to the frost archer until the ability's cooldown is refreshed. Targets that are slowed will take double damage and have their damage reduced by an additional 50%. Strafe also carries a passive effect, allowing the Frost Archer to fire off an extra attack every 1.5 seconds at a random enemy. This effect will activate even while moving and incapacitated, giving the Frost Archer incredible kitting potential, but it will become disabled when Strafe is on cooldown. Her third ability is Crystal arrow, which damages all targets in a line and creates an impassible barrier for a moderate duration. Targets unlucky enough to be struck with the ability will be rooted to the ground and trapped by the barrier. When Crystal arrow is ready to cast the Frost Archer also benefits from the ability to chill targets with her auto-attacks. This passive will also be applied to Strafe while it is active. The Frost Archer's ultimate is Spiderweb trap, which places a spiderweb trap at the target location. When an enemy unit gets to close to the trap it will activate, webbing all hostile units within the effective area to the ground for a brief duration and unleashing a swarm of angry spiders for the effect's full duration, which will proceed to poison as many units as possible, dealing damage over time to any targets struck. When sprung, the trap will also reveal a large spiderweb that persists for the full duration and slows the movement speed of any hostile units on it to a crawl.
	Dark Summoner	The intellect hero. Dark summoners are focused on augmenting allies and disabling and confusing enemies. Her first ability is Torment, which unleashes a wave of angry souls in a line. Targets struck will take initial damage from the effect and become silenced and damaged over time for a moderate duration afterward. If a unit dies while under the effects of torment, their soul will be raised under the Dark Summoner's control for a brief duration. The Dark Summoner's second ability is Insanity, which marks a target unit as every nearby unit's target, allowing allies to turn upon their own. The marked unit will be rooted to the ground for the effects duration and taunt all nearby units (regardless of allegiance) to attack them once per second as long as the effect persists. Using insanity can be a great way to clump units together for the Dark Summoner's other abilities. However, like several other potent disables insanity's duration is considerably reduced against heroes, which is something to consider when choosing a target. The Dark Summoner's third ability is Dark Cloud, which conjures a dark cloud at the target location. Upon it's birth the cloud will conjure an illusionary double of all units within it's effective area under the Dark Summoners control that last for a brief duration. The cloud's persistent effect is reducing the movement speed and accuracy of all hostile units within the cloud, as it's overwhelming darkness blinds them. Inversely, friendly units within the cloud will gain the ability to evade attacks. Casting dark cloud over both allies and their attackers can significantly improve the chance to evade attacks. The Dark Summoner's final ability is Coagulation, which covers the target area in chaotic magics that stop all passive health regeneration from units within the effect as well as dealing damage equal to a % of their max HP per second. The Dark Summoner does not need to channel to keep the effect in place, but it only damages organic based ground units.

Credits

67chrome: race creation; most of teh triggers; skins for the Spellbow, Dusk Knight, Umbralmancer, Hydra, Basilisk, Wyrmling, Wyrm, Abyss Knight, Frost Archer, Dark Summoner, Wyrm Roost, Spiderweb Stone Ubersplat, Treasure Pile Ubersplat (and their respective icons, if they needed one). Icons for the Multi-Shot, Bladed Bow, Blast Trap, Bouncing Blade, Deflection, Shackle, Imbue, Void Maw, Multiple Heads, Rapid Regeneration, Triple Attack (and it's variants), Crystallizing Gaze, Glass Hide, Frenzied, Dragon's Breath, Force Labor, Throw in Dungeon, Feed/Fight, Sacrifice, Torture, Mana Shield (drow), Mana Shield (structures), Weaponry +1/2/3, Armor +1/2/3, Creature Attack +1/2/3, Mana Shields +1/2/3, Load Drow, Unload Drow, Link Wall, Unlink Wall, and the building screenshot icons.

Blizzard: For making an awesome editor that allowed me to make the race. Most of the building used are simple edits of existing blizzard work as well, and their skins are a CnP collague of existing blizzard skins.

Pharaoh_: For the snazzy link scion/unlink scion ability (modifyed from link tower of insolence)

Paladon: For the Abyss Knight's flash step ability (modified from random charge)

 

[GhostThruster]

@Spinnaker: Soz I read you resigned or something.

 

[Wazzz]

My behaviour wasn't immature, spinnaker, your reaction is. The fact remains that it takes a long time for judges to finish rating these races.

You fail to take into account that we were given extension after extension to complete our races. If you can't produce something capable of being tested, then what's the point? Especially when 'balance' is one of the key aspects to be rated.

Do you honestly expect balance to be tested just from looking at it in World Editor and thinking 'hmm... looks balanced'? That's pretty immature and sounds like you lack experience if you honestly believe that.

But, of course, like all 'mature' people you will completely ignore circumstance (how lazy his attitude was, how he keeps saying 'i know mine won't win', etc.), and instantly defend things under the assumption that they should be defended.

Yes, how 'mature'.

ADDITIONAL: Because of how arrogant your response was, let's take a look at the judging mechanics (which i'm sure you definitely looked at since you quoted the 'playability' aspect)

Gameplay	How fun the gameplay is; does the race itself offer various features to experiment with?	/10
Balance	How easily can the race stand against the default races? Is it particularly easy to wipe out or too hard to confront?	/10
The Legion	Are the roles of the warriors shared in a flat manner, are they getting too repetitive or each of them plays a unique and significant role in the battlegrounds?	/10
Originality	How creative is the race from every aspect, technical & conceptual?	/10
Appearance	Does the final output look good? How well do the models bind with each other, resulting the proper feel of an actual race? Does it look like a simple race-edit?	/10

Let's take a look. Gameplay cannot be determined by opening World Editor and looking through at the race without actually playing it. Balance can't be either. Legion can be to an /extent/, but not without proper play testing. It could be possible to determine Originality from opening World Editor, but once again you really need to play the race to get a proper grasp of it. The Appearance would be about the only thing you can determine from World Editor alone.

And how about that, 'playability' isn't an aspect. Keep your assumptions out of here and actually bother going to the first page for a change.

Interesting how you tell me to 'think' and be more 'mature'. Seems to me you're the one that needs to think more, primarily about growing up. Your 'everybody deserves a fair chance' attitude is stupid as it ignores circumstance.

FINAL POINT: I take it you ignored the fact that submitions must follow the Map Submission Rules. As you ignore a lot of things. Map Submission Rules states that 'everything must be ready to go'. The map can't be played, therefore it violates those rules. It clearly states on the first post that any submission violating those rules is to be disqualified.

So, how about reading the rules next time?

 

[Narogog]

I like your race 67Chrome, i'd vote for you if I weren't competing, your slave idea is cool

 

[Kam]

Kam's lost:
-: casters are hard to manage due to a total lack of autocast spell, also, casters shouldn't have damaging spells.
totally unbalanced race( i could defeat a player with 4 units).

I'm curious how you were able to defeat an insane AI with four units. I was only able to do so once with a much more significant number of units. Also why can't casters have damage abilities?

 

[Wazzz]

imo, damage abilities on caster units is a little boring, but that's no reason to say they're not allowed
basically it's saying that you transfer energy to deal a significant amount of damage in one hit against a target enemy unit
this can be considered somewhat overpowered in many situations, but no more than being able to continuously deal damage with a single unit while not taking any damage at the same time (excluding the fact that an ability doing this would work against any unit, indiscriminate of unit stats)

i, personally, prefer to avoid them when creating a race for the melee game, but not having played your race yet i cannot truly determine whether or not it is overpowered. i will check it out when i can and get back to you further on that.

 

[Hubcool]

Ahimtar, I've already explained that Wazzz behavoiur was just immature, and in fact he isn't judge you don't have to care much about it.
It's not kind to say it's pointless to even open your entry - once again, playability isn't all of the points etc. and any judge should actually test your project and score it like anything else.

Although.. you were playing WoW? oh man.. basically wtf..

Poll is up!

trollololol, what do you mean immature?

Anyway, 'Your final submission must be bug free enough to test and play'.

 

[Traxamillion]

Anyway, 'Your final submission must be bug free enough to test and play'.

This.

 

[Bannar]

And it is -.- The problem is that none opened my race yet.
Wazzz, I've already answered in pm, but again - if you are experienced memeber you should know that here on hive there were plenty of uncompleted entries that took high places or even won the contests.

You are explaining everything word by word.. for what reason? Who said that most of aspects can be judged with unplayable race? But that des not mean you do not have to open it in WE etc. In my opinion map is totaly bugged only if you can't do a shit anywhere.

And, have you looked on my race? No.

You have said what you wanted to say; I did what I felt is right.

 

[Traxamillion]

And it is -.- The problem is that none opened my race yet.

We are referring to the fact that you said it being playable is only one element of the scoring, when indeed it has to be playable for it to be even judged.

 

[Wazzz]

spinnaker, rules are in place for a reason

if the map is not ready to go, it does not follow Map Submission Rules. If it does not follow Map Submission Rules, the creator is disqualified. I don't know how to make this any simpler for you.

Quite frankly I don't give two shits how long you spent on your race, if you can't make it playable by the submission date, then why should you be judged?

Seriously, you call me immature and you're the one bitching about the rules. If you don't like the rules, don't compete. Easy as that.

 

[Bannar]

In case I just dont eliminate ppl like that.
You should always at least try.

@Traxamillion Omg, dude go look on hive, there are plenty examples already. Meaby with rules it isn't 100% right but it's fair for those who put so much effort in their project.

I've been telling that many times in a row; rules are not everything.

And when 'they' submit entry, suddenly they realise that something, something realy small wasn't fixed and that it's too late..
It's shame and ignorant to bitch someone's entry with knowledge that he had spent ton of hours on it.

Guys, do you have even a piece of humanity here? Or just sit in front of CPU smashing everyone?

 

[GhostThruster]

OMG HUBCOOL HAI LOOK AT ME I HAVE FSJAL AVTARA@!!@i

@Spinnaker: I will judge Ahmitar's fairly and try to test it to the best of my ability.
But honestly you're missing what those guys are trying to point out.

 

[Bannar]

@Spinnaker: I will judge Ahmitar's fairly and try to test it to the best of my ability.
But honestly you're missing what those guys are trying to point out.

Thank you. Additionaly, judging (as I hear) significantly 'damaged' entry shouldn't take you much time.

And no, I miss nothing. When I saw for the first time similar situation here on hive, I was acting exactly as Wazzz and others did. Then I had discusion with the 'opposite side' and I realised that I wasn't either wrong nor right.

It's not accident that there were already many examples of such situations on hive. God, can't you look on Contest Archive?

Judging is not all about rules, right they are here to 'sort' things out but judging is always about: rules mixed with heart, with feel and with reasonable thinking.

Good luck, GhostThruster.

 

[Traxamillion]

Judging is not all about rules, right they are here to 'sort' things out but judging is always about rules mixed with heart, with feel and with reasonable thinking.

So judging is not about the rules but it's all about the rules. Got it.

 

[Bannar]

It should be: about: rules mixed with heart, with feel and with reasonable thinking.

Meaby some day you'll be smart enough to understand that. I know what it's just a forum, but I like to 'implement' some RL in all the actions I'm performing and how I'm acting everywhere.

 

[Dionesiist]

Yes, because the world is governed by love. Clearly we have all been blind to the fairness of everything.

 

[Jazztastic]

Spinnaker, attacking the people behind the words doesn't make you more correct. Listen to what they're saying, don't just call them stupid when you miss the point . . .