[WIP] Monoliths- The Divided Goal

[Dragonson]

Hello zack =) I'm back again.
I'm sorry i haven't been on for some time, but the Flu got me.

Anyways: If you could, i would LOVE to take a look at the current map =)
I can't wait to see what this is turning into.

[Zack1996]

Sure, I'll send you the link to the latest stable pre-alpha.

For everyone else, I'm still working on this, but don't expect any updates. I'll update when there's something worth mentioning.

As for the progress, I finished the second hero and enhanced the Creep Movement system. I'm trying to fix the leaks etc in my triggers and all that while I do the 3rd hero.
Expect a unique new map from this project. If you are interested to test out the map, feel free to contact me.

[Dragonson]

Okay zack, i've taken a look at the map, and it seems pretty awesome =)
Here's my reveiw:

Good Stuff:
The map is generally cool, and it seems that it should be able for a beta release soon =) To put my finger on some of the good stuff i'd like to say:
+The Heroes are awesome. The abilities, the setup, the polishing, the system, everything. You just need more of them ;)
+The point system is really nice =)
+The Battle Points idea is not too original, but it works, and that's good =)
+The Monolith points are cool too, though i think that the monolith shards should respawn after some time. If it only takes the 6 shards to reconstruct the monolith, its gonna be a fast game, since charging them isn't that hard if you avoid the creeps.

Improveable Stuff:
+/-The reputation point system is a great idea =) They do though, not seem to work =( I leveled my hero to the max, but nowhere i could hire any kind of units. I don't know if this is not added yet or what, but you should really add some more information entries.
+/-The terrain is catchy, and it's most possibly better than anything i could come up with =) But it is TOO green. Or well, too LIGHT green. Add some dark-green fog effects, put in some fellwood trees around the place and make the general lighting abit more dark. Since in my experiance, people don't need extreme eyecandy to fall in love with a terrain, they just need some relaxing colors, mushrooms and nice round ashenvale trees. ^^
+/-In the beginning, there seems to be NO WAY to beat the monolith creeps. If that is not something very important to the map gameplay, it should be fixed.
+/-Add more mushroms. You can't have a forest based map without loads of mushrooms. ;)

BAAAAAHD Stuff:
-The only thing in this map i can find that can be described with the word Bad (and is not a obvious result of this being an alpha) is that you need "Moar Epicx!". The spells, even though they are baddass, can seem abit fragile and weak. They need more Pow, and the easiest way to do that, is to add cooler sound effects. Boot up the audio abit =)

I hope that this is not too wrong, and that i have not missed too many core facts to the gameplay.
This is a surface reveiw, not a in-depths. =(

[Zack1996]

Ok, thanks for the feedback.

+The Heroes are awesome. The abilities, the setup, the polishing, the system, everything. You just need more of them ;)
+The point system is really nice =)
+The Battle Points idea is not too original, but it works, and that's good =)
+The Monolith points are cool too, though i think that the monolith shards should respawn after some time. If it only takes the 6 shards to reconstruct the monolith, its gonna be a fast game, since charging them isn't that hard if you avoid the creeps.

Thanks. I'm glad you like some of those. The Monolith Shards are placed there since I haven't started to make the spawning system xD. I was too caught up on making the heroes and stuff.

+/-The reputation point system is a great idea =) They do though, not seem to work =( I leveled my hero to the max, but nowhere i could hire any kind of units. I don't know if this is not added yet or what, but you should really add some more information entries.

Thanks. Its still being worked on. I plan to add some nice units for each race that will (hopefully) help your hero in combat by slowing opponents, disabling them etc. Your hero will still be dealing the most damage.

+/-The terrain is catchy, and it's most possibly better than anything i could come up with =) But it is TOO green. Or well, too LIGHT green. Add some dark-green fog effects, put in some fellwood trees around the place and make the general lighting abit more dark. Since in my experiance, people don't need extreme eyecandy to fall in love with a terrain, they just need some relaxing colors, mushrooms and nice round ashenvale trees. ^^

Ok, I gotta work on the auto-generated terrain. I'll use some doodads and stuff in the new alpha, since it wasn't working when I tried it a while ago.
Also, The terrain is sometimes too green, I do agree. Will try to generate more kinds of different terrain and stuff, so the terrain is better :D

+/-In the beginning, there seems to be NO WAY to beat the monolith creeps. If that is not something very important to the map gameplay, it should be fixed.

Your not supposed to fight the creeps, your supposed to let them fight each other. Many people seem to miss that point, I should add that in. Thanks for the reminder :D

+/-Add more mushroms. You can't have a forest based map without loads of mushrooms. ;)

Will do. They'll mainly be auto-generated but I may manually place some.

-The only thing in this map i can find that can be described with the word Bad (and is not a obvious result of this being an alpha) is that you need "Moar Epicx!". The spells, even though they are baddass, can seem abit fragile and weak. They need more Pow, and the easiest way to do that, is to add cooler sound effects. Boot up the audio abit =)

That's so true! I do need more badass sounds :D
I probably won't be importing anything, but I'll see what I can do with the in-game sounds. All Ultimates should probably have some form of battle cry or something.

Thanks for the feedback, you raised many good points!

BTW, I'm working on a new hero. He'll be rather different from the current heroes, but hopefully just as good :D

[Dragonson]

Glad you like my reveiw =)
Always happy to help a freind yaknow =D

[Dragonson]

So... anything new on the project?

[Zack1996]

Not much. Due to some unforseen issues, I had to rewrite quite some code to reduce the massive lag caused by some of the game features. As a result, there's very little progress. Sorry.

However, this rewrite of the code would hopefully lead to smoother gameplay and a more enjoyable experience. Once I get that mess cleared up, I'll finish the third hero and the Shard system. Hopefully the alpha will be released before Christmas (or on Christmas itself :D)

[Dragonson]

Ohmygawd! Before christmas is coming!
Monoliths Beta! YAYYAYYAY!

[Zack1996]

Lots of things have been happening lately:
Vacation, rewriting codes, and such. I cannot promise a 3-hero release, but it should feature most of the basic things of the map, including the Win-Condition and such.

Anyway, I will try my best to finish all these things by 20th December. It should be possible, since the 3rd Hero is "almost" finished. The first version of the hero would probably be rather basic, but I'll try and improve it in time.

One last thing: Watch out for Critters, they give you some pretty sweet treats :)

PS: I may consider a Winter-theme if this gets released on Christmas, but we have to see about that :P

[Dragonson]

Even better: A winter MODE! (Selectable winter theme ^^)

But if you need anything, like some simple spells that look epic, testing, terrain reveiwing (maybe letting me practice my terraining on your map? O.ô) or something else you think i might be able to help with, gimme a call. =)

[Zack1996]

UPDATE! Here's the map for those who are still interested. First post will be updated soon. Just not yet :P

Changes from the past:

• More efficient coding.
• 1 More hero
• Some rebalancing
• Cool way of getting Monolith Shards
• More info
• Doodads generated :)

I hope you like it. Bug reports and such are greatly appreciated :)

I do know that there are some problems with Spirit Link, as it does not set the health properly, so any help is appreciated :)

Download Here

Merry Christmas everyone!

[Dragonson]

I haven't given it a full Look-Through, but The terrain sure looks better :D
You might wan't to mix the terrain types abit, but apart from that it's Awesome!

[Zack1996]

Once again, thanks for the reply! I just found out that its not possible to create Doodads via triggers, so I used destructables instead :P

Anyway, its kinda hard to mix terrain types. Will try to do something about it seems the terrain blends very badly ATM.

Awaiting more replies :)

BTW, I'll update the first post when I manage to find a screen recording device to make a video or something :)

[Dragonson]

Nice :)
I am currently mixing stuff in the terrain blender myself, since i am not finished with the mapmaking buisness, and think that it would be a good idea to learn 2 terrain.
If you wan't it, you can send me the latest version of your map and let me manually add a little terraining flavour ;)

If you're interested in letting me try out my newly gained skillz, just tell me what kind of terrain you would like, and i can give it a try :)

[scorpion182]

many improvements from the last version, gl !