Against the Darkness Spell Contest

[1)ark_NiTe]

I would like to organize a week long contest for the creation of a spell for the Hunter hero in Against the Darkness. The spell would most likely need to be in GUI, possibly JASS (read Rules) and fit the characteristics of the Hunter.

This contest would involve creating a four level, non-ultimate spell to be given to the Hunter hero in Against the Darkness' next release. The spell would need to fit his qualities of hunting and animals and be fairly balanced and ready to go for game play. The reason that I am posting this here is because I would need to get publicity for the contest and also have help creating the format.

• No imported special effect models
• Must fit the qualities and characteristics of the Hunter
• Most likely no JASS will be accepted, unless the author makes it clear to me how to manipulate it.
• The spell must be multinstanceable
• Special effects must be timed or destroyed appropriately.
• Entries must include the attached map with the spell in it, tooltips, and explanations of what the spell does and how to use it
• Reward: Name credits in Against the Darkness v1j and any version beyond
• Contest would be 1 week long. No exceptions.
• Winner will be decided by me, 1)ark_NiTe

• Hunter: Ranged, Strength based, "on-your-own"/solo type hero.
• The Hunter deals more damage than any other ranged hero, and more than any other melee hero with his ability Ballistic Bullets activated.
• He has a slower cooldown on his attack than any other ranged unit.
• The forest is his home and he has many qualities that could allow for him to have potential control over animals.
• A unique spell would involve using this quality of manipulating animal behavior.
• Since his most of his spells are offensive, creating a unique, defensive, or passive spell could give you an advantage in this competition.

• Hunting Wolf: Summons 2 Wolves to fight the Hunter's enemies. Lasts 60 seconds. With each new level, a new breed of wolf is summoned.
  
• Tracking: When Tracking is channeled the Hunter relies on his senses to track the Death Knight if he is nearby. If the Death Knight is found, his position will be shown on the minimap for 5 seconds.
  
• Ballistic Bullets: Increases the damage of the Hunter's attack by using miniature rocket propelled bullets, but drains mana with each shot fired.
  
• Aspects of the Claw (ultimate): Take on the Aspect of the Claw to give the Hero 5 bonus armor, 90 bonus damage, and spell immunity. Lasts 65 seconds.

 

[Xarwin]

If this would get launched, I'm ready for it!

Great idea.

 

[Wolverabid]

I'm in as well. When the contest begins, expect a healthy amount of submissions.

 

[Deleted member 126647]

Sounds like a nice idea, and good publicity for your project.

And the GUI part helps to attract newer, less experienced users (in most cases, I know its a generalization.)

 

[1)ark_NiTe]

It's good to see that I have the support of a few Moderators, I'm glad that yall like the idea of the contest. Now just to see if it will be approved as an official contest.

 

[Dr Super Good]

LOL no jass? Thats like saying I would like a spell but I do not want it to be ultra efficent and not leak. I recomend you redefine "no jass" to "no custom script and use of pure jass (jass in custom code in GUI is allowed)" or else it will be almost impossiable to make a good spell that does not leak. I could have reworked my divine shield spell I made a year ago into something rangery but since you do not allow jass (It was pure jass + handle var use) I guess I will not enter.

Since im kind and many people seem to be interested, ill give some ideas that may help people who want to enter.

Spirit Shield
The hunter after many years of hunting wild animals and nearly being killed leared to summon spirits and ghosts who live around him to save him and protect him for harm, as long as he can quench their demand for mana.
Basicly this makes a devine shield but an active one, one which drains mana per second to be on and futher more, the longer it is on the faster it drains mana. The mana drain remains after being disabled meaning that it will still drain mana faster than default if turned on soon. The mana drain cools down when it is turned off, but it is slow. Inorder for it to be turned on, atleast 3 seconds of mana at the current drain rate is required as to stop turning on to disrupt channel spells. With higher spell levels, the penalty for turning on is lowered and the shield's drain rate increases slower, also the cooldown rate is improved when the shield is off.

Rain of arrows
The hunter after years of practice of hunting and trapping finally has devised the ultimate trap to kill foes. He fills a tree with bows and arrows that automaticly fire 1 arrow every second at passers bye that the hunter is hunting.
Basicly it is cast appon a tree and does a kind of starfall effect at enemies who pass by the tree. It has a fixed duration that improves with levels but the damage the arrows deal could be based on the hunters stats. The duration and damage would be high but the area would be low (reccomend no more than 500) as to not allow it to rigg the game but fufil the role of being able to hunt the dark thing by getting it to go into one of the trapps then fighting it. The caster must be paused for atleast 3-6 seconds when setting it up to stop it becomming an incombat ability.

 

[1)ark_NiTe]

Interesting idea. And yes, no JASS. I am not too concerned about leaks since;

1. With advanced special effects the only leaks you get are location leaks
2. This map is only 30 minutes long, providing hardly any time to leak enough to cause a split or crash.

A main reason I do not want JASS is because I can understand hardly any of it and since this is my map... I would like to be able to understand and modify all aspects of it anddd I am horrid with math, which is one of the main reasons I cannot understand it. No further explanation is needed on that one.

 

[wyrmlord]

Jass spells can be modified very easily if the author of the spell provides a way for users to modify most of the spell. Usually this is done with constant functions placed at the top of a spell for damage, effects used, etc. Also, readability also depends on the author as well. If the person comments their code enough and gives variables good names, things can be understood much more easily.

Back to the subject of the contest:

Your first post doesn't really seem to convince me to participate much. You're also saying the spell should "be balanced and ready for gameplay" yet you haven't provided the contestants any way of knowing what is 'balanced' and 'ready for 'gameplay'. I think you should provide a bit more information about how the spell should fit in, examples of the hero's other spells, and so on. I think it would be a bit hard to know how to balance the spell and what theme the spell should fit into without more information.

I also think you should be caring more about leaks. As leaks pile up, even if no server splits or crashes happen, the gameplay will still slow-down. It's also very possible to make the game lag beyond playability in under 30 minutes, it's happened to me before. You'll also never know just how often certain (possibly leaking) spells are cast, and how long the game would go on for (unless the game is timed). It's also a good habit to get into.

Off-topic: What's an "advanced special effect"?

 

[Wolverabid]

1)ark_NiTe, It's important to address wyrmlord's concerns ASAP (especially for those of us who have yet to play Against the Darkness). Set us up with as much detail as possible regarding the Hunter, his foes and how their abilities contrast. You should also get some decent screen shots for eye candy. Send me a PM and I will provide more detail and help.

I think you should provide a bit more information about how the spell should fit in, examples of the hero's other spells, and so on. I think it would be a bit hard to know how to balance the spell and what theme the spell should fit into without more information.

I also think you should be caring more about leaks.
Off-topic: What's an "advanced special effect"?

 

[1)ark_NiTe]

I also think you should be caring more about leaks. As leaks pile up, even if no server splits or crashes happen, the gameplay will still slow-down. It's also very possible to make the game lag beyond playability in under 30 minutes, it's happened to me before. You'll also never know just how often certain (possibly leaking) spells are cast, and how long the game would go on for (unless the game is timed). It's also a good habit to get into.
Off-topic: What's an "advanced special effect"?

Wyrmlord-- It is possible in other maps, yes. But it doesn't happen in Against the Darkness. It's not like this is a map that has never been played before. Many, many people have played by now--I have played several, several times myself--and it has never lagged due to leaks. There is just not enough time, and not enough potential leaks to cause any lag. This is the complete truth, Against the Darkness does not lag. Ever. The game is timed for 30 minutes. And only about 8 spells use special effects that cause location leaks, 5 of these are ultimates (which can only be used once every 180-240 seconds per player) I cannot address location leaks in GUI as far as I know, or I would. But really, in this map, there is no point to do so.

Your first post doesn't really seem to convince me to participate much. You're also saying the spell should "be balanced and ready for gameplay" yet you haven't provided the contestants any way of knowing what is 'balanced' and 'ready for 'gameplay'. I think you should provide a bit more information about how the spell should fit in, examples of the hero's other spells, and so on. I think it would be a bit hard to know how to balance the spell and what theme the spell should fit into without more information.

Firstly, I wasn't attempting to convince you. Secondly, the contest is not official, meaning I haven't written the complete rules yet and all the information that will be needed. Upon approval, I will provide much more information for the real contest. And even so, you are very wrong. If you haven't noticed, this is a Hosted Project meaning that I have my own forums which you obviously haven't visited or else you would know there is an sticky thread called "Hero's and Their abilities" which tells you of each of the 7 hero's in Against the Darkness' spells are. It only goes into detail on the ultimate spells though, which is why when I mentioned the possibility of this contest elsewhere I provided the following information on the Hunter:

Hunter: Ranged hero, Strength based, "on-your-own"/solo type hero.

• Hunting Wolf: Summons 2 Wolves to fight the Hunter's enemies. Lasts 60 seconds. With each new level, a new breed of wolf is summoned.
  
• Drunken Haze: Drenches enemy units in alcohol, causing their movement speed to be reduced, and have a chance to miss on attacks.
  
• Ballistic Bullets: Increases the damage of the Hunter's attack by using miniature rocket propelled bullets, but drains mana with each shot fired.
  
• Aspects of the Claw (ultimate): Take on the Aspect of the Claw to give the Hero 5 bonus armor, 90 bonus damage, and spell immunity. Lasts 65 seconds.

1)ark_NiTe, It's important to address wyrmlord's concerns ASAP (especially for those of us who have yet to play Against the Darkness). Set us up with as much detail as possible regarding the Hunter, his foes and how their abilities contrast. You should also get some decent screen shots for eye candy. Send me a PM and I will provide more detail and help.

So I assume that you don't consider the screen shots that are already in my forums decent? Erg. Thanks. Nonetheless I will take some more screen shots today or tomorrow.

 

[Wolverabid]

You must have misunderstood me, friend 1)ark_NiTe, my apologies.

Quite to the contrary, I assure you, the material in your forum is exemplary: I would hope that more of it can be transferred into this contest submission thread, as you have already done with the Hunter's abilities.

I haven't written the complete rules yet and all the information that will be needed.

It is my opinion that this contest will soon be approved. Please begin to prepare and then finalize your information.

Thanks.

 

[Kitabatake]

What's the hunters model? Is it some sort of a rifleman?

 

[1)ark_NiTe]

He is the Rifleman model, yes.

And I am sorry that I misunderstood Wolverabid, forgive me?

 

[wyrmlord]

Removing leaks is a good habit to get into, even if you don't need it. Let's just leave it at that.

Firstly, I wasn't attempting to convince you.

So you're not trying to convince people to join the contest? Sorry if I'm not understanding this correctly, but I just thought your description wasn't really convincing for people deciding whether or not to join the contest.

Secondly, the contest is not official, meaning I haven't written the complete rules yet and all the information that will be needed. Upon approval, I will provide much more information for the real contest.

Unless I'm mistaken, you're supposed to have all the information about the contest before it's approved (unless the information could give others an early advantage).

And even so, you are very wrong. If you haven't noticed, this is a Hosted Project meaning that I have my own forums which you obviously haven't visited or else you would know there is an sticky thread called "Hero's and Their abilities" which tells you of each of the 7 hero's in Against the Darkness' spells are.

You can't expect everyone will have the intelligence or will want to figure out where on this site you have the information about everything. So as to make it easier for everyone viewing this thread, you should probably put all the information in the first post (and I doubt it's that hard to do).

 

[1)ark_NiTe]

Done. Check the first thread.

 

[wyrmlord]

Looks nice, only one thing though:

>>The spell would have to be in GUI

>>Most likely no JASS will be accepted

You'll have to fix one of those sentences.

 

[1)ark_NiTe]

Looks nice, only one thing though:

>>The spell would have to be in GUI

>>Most likely no JASS will be accepted

You'll have to fix one of those sentences.

Thank you. Fixed

 

[Wolverabid]

Thread Moved

After being distracted for quite some time, I FINALLY remembered to move this for you 1).

I'm not exactly sure how you would like to proceed from here. Please let me know.

 

[1)ark_NiTe]

CLOSED. See the newest contest thread by clicking here.