- Joined
- May 6, 2009
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- 89
Creating an ORPG
Hi there
Just a quick note on why I made this:
I made this tutorial, because when I started on my ORPG, I couldn't find any resources that are related to ORPGs. There is one, but it doesn't seem to be complete and it doesn't really give much info on ORPGs. I am still working on my ORPG, so if I find anything usefull that I think would be good, I will update this
Enjoy
PS this tutorial is kinda long so just bear with me
Sections
- Heroes
- Quests
- Items
- Terrain
- Hostile Units
- Systems
- Other random stuff
1. Heroes
Firstly, to create an ORPG you will need lots of time, and quite an extensive understanding of the World Editor.
If you are not sure of the World Editor
then check out this tutorial:
In an ORPG, Heroes are the most important characters/Units as they are what you will be playing with, so they have to be pretty good. I will start on this first.
A good hero would have the following attributes:
- A good model
- A good icon that suits the model
- A good background story (only needed if you select your hero from a tavern)
- A good set of spells
- Hero MUST be balanced (but don't make the hero crap for that sake of balancing...)
- And a role to play in a party of players (eg. a Mage is a spell caster, an assassin is a damage dealer etc...)
Models can be found here:
Remember to give credit to the creator of the Model
Icons can be found here:
Remember to give credit to the creator of the Icon
Then we come onto the spells for the Heroes.
Firstly you will need abilities/spells.
It is pretty easy to create them, but the more complex ones that require triggering behind them aren’t as easy.
If you do not know how to create simple custom abilities, then I recommend that you go and learn the basics of the World Editor and then come back to this.
Take a look at this link:
An ability used by a unit MUST NOT be based off of the same spell as another spell used by that same unit. If you do this, then War3 gets "confused" and will cast either one of the spells. This is primarily for Active spells, but I have seen things go wrong with Auto-Casts and passives.
If you are too lazy to create your own spells, then use other people's spells...
Spells can be found here:
Remember to give credit to the creator of the spell
Once you have created your abilities/spells, you will need a way of giving your heroes these abilities/spells.
There a 3 ways of doing this (if there are more, please tell me and I will add them in here)
These 3 ways are:
- The normal way
- Spell books
- Buying abilities
The normal way
Pros:
- It requires no triggering and is effective
- You can only have a max of 6 abilities
- These abilities are set for your character
Pros:
- They can store up to 11 different spells
- You can have up to a max of 6 spell books
- Easy to use Hot keys
Cons:
- Nobody likes them...
- They require a sufficient amount of triggering
- Did I mention that nobody likes them?
Pros:
- Efficient & easy to use
- Allows you to choose the abilities that you want
- If you don't like an ability, you can remove it, and buy another one
- Requires a lot of triggering (especially with upgrading included)
- Can only have a max of 6 abilities
- The spells can sometimes be really rubbish and disliked
- You need items that resemble the ability, and this could take up valuable map space
Take a look at these links:
For Spellbooks
For Buying Abilities
Finally for the Heroes, you will need a way to pick them.
This can be done in 4 different ways.
- Tavern (most popular way)
- Circle of power (second most popular)
- Click selection (relatively new way)
- Icon Selection (Not very common, and is sorta confusing)
Taverns are the most used way and are a good way of showing the player the hero's information. The only problem with taverns is that you cannot see what the hero looks like (although it is not a big problem, it is annoying sometimes). Tavern selection is pretty easy to trigger and very user friendly.
Circles of power:
Circles of power are the old school way of selecting heroes. They are easy to make and easy to use. They also show you what your hero looks like. The only 2 problems with them is that you cant show hero info (like storyline of role played without using another trigger) and they require a lot of space.
Click selection:
Click selection is a really cool way of selecting a hero. It shows you what your hero looks like, the hero info can be shown when the hero is clicked, and it requires almost as much space as a tavern. The only problem is that they require some slightly complex.
Icon selection
Icon selection is quite rare... Especially in ORPGs (I myself have never seen one in an ORPG, but have seen one). If you don't know what they are, then let me enlighten you.
The icon that you select, is like the unit, but is actually that units icon. The icon will have a select button in it, or you have to double click on it to select that unit.
Icon selection is quite cool, but has the problem of not being able to see what your hero look like. It also has the problem of "How the **** do I make the Icon into a unit!?!"
If you want to learn more about hero pick systems
go to these:
- http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/...-279/gui-hero-click-selection-advanced-40991/
- http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/trigger-gui-editor-tutorials-279/hero-selection-systems-31799/
- http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/trigger-gui-editor-tutorials-279/hero-selection-systems-38699/
2.Quests
In an ORPG, quests are a good idea. They provide a way to earn gold, and get exp quickly. They also give you a chance to reward the player with an item, that cannot be bought or found if they complete a really herd quest. An ORPG doesn't really need quests, but they just make the ORPG more fun to play.
NOTE: One ORPG that would have really been awesome if it had quests, would be D3FI4NCE'S Open RPG.
Quests are quite a mission to come up with, so ask your friends, or even on the Hive. And if you do not like the idea, change it to suit your map. Quests are also quite a mission to create, so try to make your map have quality quests, instead of quantity (rather have 10 excellent quests, than 30 rubbish, irrelevant quests)
There are 5 different basic types of quest.
These are:
- Find me quest (find a person and bring them home to receive a reward)
- Kill me quest (kill a unit and return for a reward)
- Buy me quest (buy an item and bring it to the person to receive your reward)
- Collect me quest (can be a collection of kills, or items)
- Protect me quest (protect the unit for a set amount of time)
Find me quests are pretty easy to make, but are kinda annoying if you get it wrong.
Kill me quests are the most used quests in ORPGs. They are really simple to make, and you would have to be brain dead to be able to mess them up.
Buy me quests are not common, but are seen now an then in ORPGs. Simple to create and easy to accomplish. Just don't make the item cost too much.
Collect me quests are also very common and used a lot. They just require one integer array and a simple trigger. Used often with killing units.
Protect me quests are not uncommon, but not common either. They are basically a simple trigger that counts down, and uses an if statement to determine the outcome of the quest.
Creating quests is quite a complicated matter and I have struggled with Ideas for quests for a long time. So I again recommend that you ask around for quest ideas and objectives.
If you are not sure on how to create a quest
then take a look at these tutorials:
- http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/...ls-279/creating-easy-multi-user-quests-38376/
- http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/...9/how-to-make-a-find-that-person-quest-65778/
- http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/trigger-gui-editor-tutorials-279/quests-6175/
3.Items
Items... these are what most ORPGs actually fail with.
Items are a difficult subject to create because they need the following:
- Classes (Low level, Normal, High level)
- Types (Sword, Axe, Shield etc)
- Hero specifics (can only be used by a certain hero)
- Inventory Usage (you can only carry one shield, etc)
I am not very clued up on items, so I suggest you take a look at this tutorial:
4. Terrain
An ORPG is only as good as its Terrain. if you have an ugly terrain, then your ORPG will look ugly.
The art of terraining is quite a hard to art to master (some would disagree with that, but others would agree)
To create a good terrain, there must not be doodads everywhere. Use cliffs or rivers to block off areas instead of trees.
Use tilesets to make the ground look pretty instead of environment doodads.
Make your rivers and lakes have rolling shores.
Take a look here if you do not know how
To create a good looking map, you should progress in this order:
- Create the different landscapes 1st.
- Create the mountains and pathing 2nd (this includes trees)
- Create water (rivers, lakes etc)
- Create the towns/cities
Landscaping is pretty simple... Separate your map into the different sections using their tilesets. Like a forest would have leaves and grass for tilesets, desert
would have sand and hard rock, barrens would have some blight, sand, hard rock and a little bit of dead grass.
Mountains and pathing:
Mountains are made by using multiple raised terrain. Don't create them too high (over 4 elevation levels) because this will make it look messed up, and interfere with the camera panning. Pathing can be done by using trees and other doodads such ad rocks, rock spires, destructibles and props. Tress should be the most used next to mountains. Placing trees is also pretty simple. Don't place them in huge clusters, and don't place them sparsely. Use the placement size tools on the doodad palette (preferably the second one in a circle) to create the tree walls.
A tip on creating towns and cities:
Make the buildings/structures doodads. This will give them a pathing size and also make them unclick able.
In the cities/towns, have your inhabitants walking around, as it adds a little atmosphere to the place.
Then also have shops and things placed in random spots, and not in a communal area.
Here is a list of all hidden material in War3
If you cannot terrain well, then ask a friend who has a good artistic side to help you with the terrain. If they don't understand how to use the World Editor, then show them how. It saves time and it gives you a chance to work on the other aspects of the map while your friend is terraining.
5. Hostile units
Hostile Units are what an ORPG lives off of... Without hostiles, there can be no leveling, no challenge, no point...
Hostiles are very easy to make, and easy to come up with.
you get your basic units like:
- Kobolds
- Gnolls
- Wolves
- Spiders
- Murlocs
Then you get your "normal" leveled creeps like:
- Bandits
- Furbolgs
- Trolls
- Golems
- Orcs
Then we come on to the difficult creeps.
- Ogres
- Centaurs
- Undead units
- Skeletons
- Dragons
Finally we get to the epic bosses and mini-bosses. These units can be made of your own accord, but are generally portrayed as a huge Undead thing. Your final Boss should be the last and most powerful unit that you fight in the ORPG. It should also preferably take a whole party (max amount of players) all at your ORPG's max level to kill. It should also be very balanced, because if it can kill a whole party of max level heroes in a matter of seconds, then the ORPG becomes a let down. Also they should have pretty insane spells that look cool
6. Systems
Systems are all the functions that your ORPG uses.
These are a list of all the systems that your ORPG MUST have the in it:
- A save/load system (because without that, your ORPG will suck ass)
- A creep respawn system (so that you can actually kill all the units in an area multipule times)
- A hero respawn system (because there is no way in hell that you will never die)
- A pick and repick system (so that you can have a hero)
- Item system (so that a level 1 Hero cannot use a weapon that can pwn almost anything it can attack)
- Ability system (so that your hero can have spells...)
Other systems that I would recommend that you use are:
- Roll system (so that you can have a way to see who gets an item)
- Teleport system (so that you don't have to run everywhere)
- Multiboards (so that you can show general info)
- Stats system (like " -ms " so that you can see your heroes stats)
There are a lot of save load systems out there so just look for one if you don't know how to make one
Multi-Board tutorials can be found here:
And dialogs (those things where you click the button) here:
7. Other random things
A few other random things you would probably want to have are custom UI (like cursors)
A custom load screen
which you can get here:
They do a very good job btw
If you are reading this sentence, then I thank you very much for reading this tutorial, and I really do hope that it has helped you in some way, and if you are planning to make an ORPG, I wish you luck
and when it is finished, I would like to play itPS If you ever need any help with anything in your ORPG, I would be glad to help (just PM me and I'll see what I can do)
Regards:
}{odge-Podge
Last edited:
i am gonna do that. But it may take some time to get the remake posted though. Im really busy for the next 4 months xD
