Map DevelopmentTalk about your developing projects. Release beta tests and get useful feedback before the final release. Maps should be attached to your post.
Map Basics
Size: 128 x 128 (Small)
Tileset: Ashenvale
Player Limit: 8 Human Players, 4 Computer Players
Match-up: FFA
Type: Hero Arena / Scenario
Current Stage: Alpha xD
Special Features: Creep Movement, Goal
Background Story
After the destruction of the Four Main Mystical Monoliths, their magical energies disrupted the thoughts of the other creeps bound to lesser Monoliths. As a result, the creeps divided themselves into armies and started clashing against each other. You are one of the last heroes who can rebuild a Monolith and restore the unity between the creeps, can you do it? Or will you be crushed by the others who aim for the same glory?
The Original Monoliths
You can test the Blizzard version, its just in your Frozen Throne -> Scenario folder. I'll just explain the gameplay here:
In the Blizzard version of Monoliths, you select a melee game race. Based on how many players there are, you will face the same amount of creep enemies. Each creep owns a Monolith, which your team will has to destroy. The creeps basically have a simple Tech-Tree and is controlled by an AI, each of its units are from the basic Ashenvale creeps.
There are also Monolith Shards in the Blizzard Version. If picked up by a creep player, they gain lumber, allowing them to build a rather powerful defensive tower. If picked up by a player, it turns all the creeps players into enemies of each other, and gives some of their units to the Neutral Hostile player. This is where I got the idea of the creeps clashing.
Idea Behind the Map
Monoliths, does this name ring any bells? It should, because it was a map that Blizzard made in hopes of teaching mappers about the more advanced features of WC3 World Editor. However, it leaks and got boring after a while. After some weeks of planning, I have finally embarked on a new project three days ago. Note that the following are merely plans for the future.
Gameplay
The game is played similarly to any other hero arena, with some twists.
You start the game with a "Start Location" sort of thing. You then choose a hero (most of which come from the original version of Monolith, with JASS triggered spells). Your Start Location will turn into the building which fits the race of your hero.
There will also be 4 lesser Monoliths, each spawning a set of random creeps (they are determined at the beginning of the game), consisting of 1 Commander Creep with an aura, 3 melee creeps, 1 caster creep and 1 ranged creep. These creeps have no set path and will wander the forest in search of enemies. Your hero will gain EXP and Battle Points (its basically a form of score) when near a battle. Participating in a battle grants him more of the two stated points.
When you feel like ending the game/when your thrashing the enemies but feel that they will turn the tables around, you can take your hero to look for some Monolith Shards. They can be found on little critters that run around, you just need to take it form them. You can then charge the Shards by going near a lesser Monolith for 5~10 seconds (undecided). Simply bring the Monolith Shards to the middle of the map (marked by a Circle of Power) to place the Shards in a circle. You will have to gather 16 shards (4 charged by each Lesser Monolith) to end the game. The scores will then be tallied and the players will be ranked based on overall, monolith or battle points.
You gain Monolith Points whenever you do somthing Monolith related.
Charging Monolith Shards
Let's first take a look at this screenie, which shows a hero charging his Monolith Shards:
As you can see, there is a Blue Lightning Effect between the hero and the Monolith, this shows that the hero is charging his shard. Charging is done by using the Monolith Shard item on a Lesser Monolith. The Link breaks if the hero dies or leaves the area (500), cancelling the charging.
Here's another screenie which I will use for more in-depth explanations.
As you can see, the hero has 6 slots, all filled by icons representing Monoliths. Each of these slots are filled at the beginning, with their charges at '0'. The slots are as such:
Quote:
1st slot- Neutral Monolith Shards
2nd slot- Monolith Charging Progress
3rd slot- Charged Monolith - Gray
4th slot- Charged Monolith - Light Blue
5th slot- Charged Monolith - Dark Green
6th slot- Charged Monolith- Brown
Whenever you acquire a Monolith Shard, you gain 1 charge for the item in your first charge. This is the one you use on the Monolith to charge. When you begin charging a Monolith Shard, you lose 1 charge for the item in the first slot. The item in the second slot also starts gaining charges, until it reaches 100. When it does, you gain a charge to the item which shares the same color as the Team Color of the Lesser Monolith you used to charge it.
The process takes about 5 seconds (might be changed).
Races
The creep races are ripped from Blizzard Entertainment's Monolith(aka Monolith: When Creeps Attack), since they were pretty good. They are as such:
Furbolgs
Satyrs
Wolves
Beasts
Dark Trolls
Spiders
Thunder Lizards
Plans and Progress
Progress
Progress is curretly fairly good, but temporarily slow.
An alpha version is downloadable at the bottom of the post.
Things Done
Randomly Generated Terrain
Monolith Spawning
3 Heroes (UPDATE!)
Shard Charging System (5/09/09)
Creep Movement System [Improved] (04/10/09)
Battle EXP System [Grants EXP when you/someone else does damage] (25/09/09)
Revival/Hero Choosing System (03/10/09)
Regeneration System (03/10/09)
Critters and Shards :)
Plans for Alpha
2-3 Heroes
At Least 3 Triggered Ablities Per Hero
Basic Gameplay
Monlith Shards and Winning Condition
Plans for the Future
Unit Help Hiring System
More Heroes
Screenies
Credits
magIc_seeKer - Suggestions + Support
Blizzard Entertainment - Original Map Idea and Warcraft itself.
Bloodcount - Support, Ideas, Help
BlackRose - Support, Help, Testing, JASS Help, Beta Testing
MagiC_sEEker - Support, Help
Damage- Support, Suggestions, Beta Testing
FhelZone- Beta Testing
Damage- Beta Testing
Dragonson- Beta Testing, Support, Terraining
Tyrande_ma3x - Handle Counter
Thanks for the reply! I did decide to trigger at least 75% of the spells in the map. The spell you see in the screenshot is somewhat like Healing Wave, but yet different 0_o
Currently, what it does is: Bounce to an ally, heals him. Bounces to an enemy, damages him. Bounce to ally, bounce to enemy and so on. When all units in range (increases per level) are hit, it bounces back to the hero, healing him if the last unit hit is an enemy.
The damage and heal are not extremely powerful, since it should be a spammable ability.
To those who worry about the gameplay being complicated, don't worry. I will try my best to make sure that everyone gets how to play the game on first try.
JASS. I plan to JASS the whole thing since I found out that it was awesome and uses less lines of code, GUI is hard to edit too.
Anyway, the spell can be put simply this way:
Summons a chain of life, which bounces, alternating between healing an allies and damaging an enemy. When there are no valid targets, the chain will then return to the caster, healing him if the last target was an enemy.
Don't worry, though, the other spells will be simpler (I hope 0_o)
BTW, I'm not sure if I should use the Loading Screen that Blizzard used for their version of Monoliths. The story is kinda different and it would be weird if the creeps "worshipped" the Monoliths together. So... Any ideas for the Loading Screen?
Just for the knowledge of those who want to know, I probably won't be importing many things in this map, so the map size should- hopefully- be below 1MB for the early Alpha (let's hope I can get the basics and at least a hero done by then xD).
PS: magIc_seeKer, I've added you in the credits for supporting this and giving suggestions :)
hmm the screenshot should represent maybe the battlefield where units fight, or maybe a ruined monolith with some magic runes around it that should suggest that...even tho the players destroyed those monoliths, some of the powers were kept hidden and now are looking for a way to rebord the monoliths or something like that >.<''
a cool thing would be to add a new race to the map...and change the story line maybe like this :
After the destruction of the Four Mystical Monoliths, creatures that were bound to there power have been realesed. By time passes by, other creatures that heard that the Monolith Evil is over decided to return to there beloved homes...but things are not allways the way you expect. Some of the mystical powers of the Monoliths faded within the Earth Mother, waiting and growing untill the day they will get there revenge. Now that day has come ! But...the question is...Are you ready for it?
=EDIT=
ow and ty for adding me in credits for supporting :D
The map has barely progressed, so I didn't show any battling yet :P
I'll remember to add a fight scene hopefully by the end of the week.
Adding a new race would be good. I'll think about it when I'm finished with the gameplay and stuff.
I have done the area around the Middle of the Map (only bit of terraining I've done) and I'm still stumped on what to use to mark the placements of the Shards (I want to make it look like a Ritual Circle)
Anyway, I thought the Monoliths granted the creeps wisdom and allowed them to build and stuff? It was kinda what kept them united to attack. That's why their destruction brought about the creeps raging war against each other.
The story isn't very important anyway, I doubt people read it :S
I never played the blizzard version, whats the gameplay like?
You can test the Blizzard version, its just in your Frozen Throne -> Scenario folder. I'll just explain the gameplay here:
In the Blizzard version of Monoliths, you select a melee game race. Based on how many players there are, you will face the same amount of creep enemies. Each creep owns a Monolith, which your team will has to destroy. The creeps basically have a simple Tech-Tree and is controlled by an AI, each of its units are from the basic Ashenvale creeps.
There are also Monolith Shards in the Blizzard Version. If picked up by a creep player, they gain lumber, allowing them to build a rather powerful defensive tower. If picked up by a player, it turns all the creeps players into enemies of each other, and gives some of their units to the Neutral Hostile player. This is where I got the idea of the creeps clashing.
Quote:
Originally Posted by scorpion182
i want see more custom spells in this map :D
Don't worry, there will be :) I plan to give each hero 3-4 triggered abilities at the very least. You can see a custom spell in the screenie, I'll just quote myself about what it does:
Quote:
Summons a chain of life, which bounces, alternating between healing an allies and damaging an enemy. When there are no valid targets, the chain will then return to the caster, healing him if the last target was an enemy
Tell me if the description is hard to understand.
Thanks for the replies :)
PS: I've started the Monolith spawning and will leave the creeps as they are for now, I'll tweak them next time :D
if you need any ideas for races, heroes, or other stuff like that just let me know :P
Thanks, but I'm fine for now :D
Updated first thread with new screenies. I shall explain the Monolith Spawning System here.
Quote:
Firstly, we must understand that units spawn once every 2 minutes, and they do so as a "party". Each party consist of 2 sets of melee units, 1 set of ranged units, 1 set of caster units, and 1 leader unit.
The unit in each set is randomised at the start of the game. Each set can hold only 1 type of unit, and the number of them increases for those units of lower level. Therefore, it is possible to get a small army with many powerful creeps, or a bigger one with many creeps. This allows players to look for the Monoliths more suited for them to tackle (the creeps are supposed to wander around and look for fights, so its no advisable to clash against a creep party with a single low levelled hero).
There is a limit to the amount of parties per Monolith, so as to decrease the chances of a player getting ambushed from all sides and dying in seconds.
Check out the new screenies on the first post or in my album.
BUMP!
This isn't dead yet.
I was slacking, but I managed to make a Monolith Shard Charging System and a Creep Movement System (the party of creeps thing). Neither are polished yet though.
