New Zombie Invasion Map

[WanderingPeanut]

Zombie Warfare

It is the year 1000, and an unexpected surprise is headed for Europe...

At its simplest, the idea is risk... with zombies. Zombies will slowly encroach on human territories and the humans will fight back, eventually they will eradicate all the zombies or be consumed by the ever growing horde.

Rather than being a "Wall 'em Up" like Eras Zombie Invasion, I intend this to be map to be a lot more Tactical, at first zombies will be able to tackle humans on even footing during the medieval ages, but as technology improves, the zombies will need to be more subtle and infect the humans population base as opposed to charging headlong at the humans troops. Alot of the skill in playing as zombies will be scouting effectively and choosing the easiest and therefore best target to attack (if you face tough opposition you're unlikely to end up with more zombies than you started with, or even any at all!).

The humans also have a more difficult time than walling and waiting. They must increase technology if they want to effectively eradicate zombies and keep up with zombie evolution, but to do that they need lots of people to gather resources who will be much more vulnerable than soldiers.

The Gameplay

Humans

Humans
-I have built a population system which accurately(ish) models the real growth of nations over time. This is implemented so that the population (represented as gold) of the human players grows automatically over time.
-Every 1 gold/population represents 1000 people. As the population grows more peasant type units will be created to harvest, build etc...
-When population grows by 400 a peasant will be created (each peasant represents 400k people). Population cannot grow unless food used (no of peasants) is less than food produced.
-Population growth can be speeded up through technology and by building more farms.
-Soldiers require population as well as lumber to train.

-I have made a realistic tech tree that includes up to 20 levels of technologies like: Metalworking, Military Training, Industrialisation, Electricity, Explosives and Flight.

-Resource gathering moves from harvesting from trees to garrisoning peasants in Factories.

Zombies

Zombies
-Zombies will spawn in one of 4 random areas: the North or the East of Europe, the Black Forest or Africa and the Middle East.

-Zombies must kill humans to get more zombies

-When a zombie kills a unit it has a small chance of getting a special zombie, instead of an ordinary zombie.

-To deal with the problem of excessive mass and to give the zombies upgrades, the zombie players can kill of excess units to get upgrade points.

-These points can be used to upgrade zombies, increase the chance of getting certain special zombies or upgrading individual special zombies into Epic Zombies!

-The zombies have detailed evolution with 2 levels of upgrades.

-Zombies can swim but their movement speed is severely reduced.

How (I think :D) it improves on other zombie invasion maps

Hidden

-A highly realistic and accurate Europe map.

-Historically accurate countries, including the Holy Roman Empire and the Byzantine Empire.

-Less focus on walling and hiding more on fighting and tactics (hopefully).

-Less predictability: the zombies will not always come from the same direction, and there are randomly generated Neutral Hostile units (capturable by human players).

-An increased difficulty mode for experienced players.

Credits

Hidden

-James7 for Europe Template Map

-Tennis on WC3.net for host detection system.

-Maker for leak fixing.

-Anteep for the general map idea.

-The Hiveworkshop community for answering my various questions.

-Some-Guy for excellent criticism on battle.net.

Thanks for Reading.

[WanderingPeanut]

~Bump~
I'm finding it incredibly difficult to balance with the quality of people on battle.net - when one side is incredibly stupid I balance it towards them and then when I have a good game its not balanced.

To counter this I've come to the good people on Hive to help me balance this map: download it, play it a couple of times (preferably on both sides) and report back. I'd like to know:
-How many people were playing, any early game leavers, etc...
-How the game(s) turned out.
-How quickly humans/zombies got through the tech tree.
-Your opinion on the game.

EDIT: I have a few problems with my map that I hope someone can solve: The game occasionally causes WC3 to crash (this usually occurs later on in the game), when I exit the game it causes wc3 to freeze up or crash (this seems to get worse the longer the game is and is probably linked to the first problem) and sometimes one player will experience much more lag/low fps than all the other players (usually a humans player).

[WanderingPeanut]

~Bump~
Good News! Ive fixed all the errors Ive mentioned earlier and I have a final Beta out if anyone wants to play it. In the full version I will add:
-Strategic Resources for the Human players to fight over such as gold and oil.
-Another level of zombie upgrades that require investment in earlier in upgrades.
-Endgame tech for humans, such as tactical nukes and flying units.
-Random/Caused and semi-caused events: global warming, black plague etc...

[Davy Jones]

The map is really nice. The size itself is gorgeous, maybe too huge. The problem is the map really lags my Warcraft. It would be a nightmare to play in MP.

[light bolt30]

WanderingPeanut do not double post its against the rules on the hive. Also if there is any triggers that isn't really necessary please delete as it may cause leaks and may ruin the gameplay greatly.

[WanderingPeanut]

Thanks Davy (although alot of the credit should be going to James7 for making the map template) , and light bolt, I've heard it said that I'm allowed to double post after a minimum of 48 hours as a "bump" to put my map back on the first page of the map development forum, I'll have a look at the rules anyhow.

Also I believe I have fixed any leaks and optimised slightly (the game seems to run at about 30ish fps on my computer as opposed to 25ish earlier, though this will probably slow down as more stuff is created). This said, usually one or two players will experience a lot of lag, while the other players are fine, I really dont know why this is.

I'll be able to release a final version as soon as I can get some complicated triggers involving oil to work. (I want the production of factories to be increased significantly by combustion tech as long as the player has enough oil, the number of vehicles to be limited by oil, and I also want less developed players to be able to sell oil to more developed players to get resources.
Hopefully this will be soon.