[Aeon of Strife] Heart of the Night

[jopi]

Many thanks!^^

Current doodad count (without destructibles, i think) is: 15969

Yes those high grass works like the brushes in LoL (abusing the inability of looking 'uphill' of wc3). Thats why the a) look different than the 'normal' grass doodads and b) are placed quite 'blocky' to make clear where this hiding zone starts/ends.

I also have to admit, that the lighthouse is not made by me, its by bhusta or Naze who worked on the terrain before me. Also the arena in the middle of the map and the cathedral (land-mark of top right control point, for screens look in earlier posts) and tavern (bottom-left land-mark) is by them.

As for the terrain there won't be a big difference of the two halves of the map, as it wouldn't fit the lore (IMO). (The whole island belogs to the city (right base) while the left base is a ship in the harbour of the island.) Or at least it isn't/wasn't planned yet, it might change, but I would say, not before the first playable versions are up.

 

[jopi]

Soooooo, after a long time I can post some updates again!

Main reason for this was me moving paired with some loss of motivation here and there^^

What you see is the top lane, its nearly done as far as the bot lane is so then i can make the cliffs around the control points at the same time.

Screens

In the second and last screen you see brown tall grass, it works the same way as the green, but my idea was to give it some kind of 'purpose' so i can make some fields with barns and so on... On the last screen I will add another farm building (like in the second screen).

I hope you like it so far and I think that within the next 1 - 2 weeks i can finally set up some constant work-flow^^

 

[pred1980]

It looks as always great. When is the release planned it's the more interesting question ?

 

[Heinvers]

Good to see you again jopi^_^
Anyway, back to this:
1. I'm not liking the hard edges of those grass tiles (honestly I don't, but mehh).
2. Could you tint down a bit those hay models? (they stand out a bit too much right now)
Seeing that this is a WIP I have nothing else to complain.
--------
Also +3 rep for a good work.

 

[jopi]

well release... I honestly don't know. Everything I know from Crigges is that the main systems seem kinda finished (at least thats what I can say as someone wohs not into coding at all). So the main breaking point is the terrain beeing done (playable area), so all the wurst stuff can be imported. After this the 'design-phase' will start, as I don't think we have fixed hero concepts yet, just the main hero idea.

For the grass, i know what you mean Heinvers, I'm gonna put my hands on that with some grassy dirt when I find some time again and yes the color of the hay is kinda meh... I'm gonna change that too^^

 

[Crigges]

Well jopi is mostly right iam finishing the main systems atm.
I got some problems with the fullscren menu, which cost to much performance in it's current state, so i need to rewrite there a lot of stuff.
But the unit and hero systems are mostly finished and i guess in a few weeks the development of heros and the integration of the terrain map can start.

 

[bhusta]

I got my hands on the latest terrain version yesterday and I have to say that I am kinda proud how this project developped over the past two years.
The overall quality of both sides (terraining and triggering) is higher then I could ever expect it to be.
It was never plannend that this project takes so much time but I believe it is worth waiting for it.

Unfortunately, my current situation doesn't let me actively work on this project for the next 4-5 months.
I spoke to the team and everyone else seems to be motivated and productive.
Even our 2D-artist gave us some textures for the ingame menus.

So, maybe this thread becomes calm during my absence but I asure you progress is being done.

 

[Heinvers]

I got my hands on the latest terrain version yesterday and I have to say that I am kinda proud how this project developped over the past two years.

It is awesomely terrained.
--------------------

I spoke to the team and everyone else seems to be motivated and productive.
Even our 2D-artist gave us some textures for the ingame menus.

Great team you have bhusta. Cheers to that!

 

[Gekigengar]

This is pretty original, and not just another AoS out there, subscribing

Terrain looks good, Conceptually great, map objects are unique, awesome!

 

[jopi]

sooo time for some updates again!

Just two screens this time ....

First one is a unplayable part of the map but I though it's nice to have some things to see apart from the lanes.
Second one is actually a update on the church that was already made before I joined the team.
Both are WIP obviously.

Screens

jopi

 

[Heinvers]

I'm loving the effect that Talavaj's windows give to that church^^ Nice one jopi.
kudos to the whole team btw.

 

[bhusta]

This is pretty original, and not just another AoS out there, subscribing

Terrain looks good, Conceptually great, map objects are unique, awesome!

Thank you, it's always encouraging for us to hear kind words from other map makers.

Screens

Man, at work these screenshots look really dark but fortunately it's only my bad screen
Nice water wheel, I am curious how many different constructions are still possible with our set up.

I'm loving the effect that Talavaj's windows give to that church^^ Nice one jopi.
kudos to the whole team btw.

Yes the windows are pretty neat.

 

[Heinvers]

So what's new around?

 

[bhusta]

The ingame menu gets some work at the moment, maybe I can make screenshots for tomorrow.

 

[bhusta]

Here is the first screenshot of the ingame menu.

You can always enter and leave the menu by pressing ESC.
What you see here is the shop window. It is an early design and will change probably.
At the very left you can see the menu bar. Besides the shop window, we will also have a score and a guide window.
In the score window you will see statistics about all players like kills/deaths/items/abilities.
The guide window will have advanced explanations and tips of the gameplay and your hero.

Right next to the menu bar you see the item pool which is entirely random at the moment.
In the middle you can (or can't) see the item description.
Unfotunately, there is no description yet simply because it is bugged.
At the very right you can see the current seleceted item.
Above it you can see what items the selected item can be build into and under it you can see what it requires.

 

[Garodar]

DAT MENU is SICK! DDDDDDD

 

[jopi]

News 2014 June

As the progress goes on we also want to showcase the way the heroes will be
designed in HotN. Our main goal is and will be in further development to allow
players to develop their heroes the way they like to play them. This concept was
already mentioned in the news of march but without the specific values we
decided to set.

First of all, some basic numbers:

• every hero has 6 abilities to pick from, all are available from start,
  there are no classic 'ultimates'
• every ability has ten levels
• maximum hero level is 30

It is not intended to have every ability on max. level when your hero is on max.
level. So you will have to choose which of your abilities you like, fit your team /
the situation and are good against the enemy team.

And now to the part that makes HotN different:

• every hero gains multiple skillpoints on level up (10 on lvl 1 and then 3
  for every next level, this makes a total of 97 skillpoints to spent on abilities)
• abilities will have different levelup costs with the progress of levels
  (see table below)
• to unlock a spell for the first time (lvl 1) you will have to spend 3 skillpoints
• On level 3,6 and 9 abilities will gain an additional effect, thus the costs are
  increased
• on level 10 the 'ultimate' effect of the ability is unlocked, representing that
  your hero is specialized with this ability (maybe we will make a limit here
  so you can only have a set amount of abilities on 'ultimate' level)
• also we might implement level requirements so you can't have a lvl 5 spell on
  level 1 (total cost for this would be 3+1+2+2+2=10)

Skillcost table:

Level	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Cost	3	1	2	2	2	3	3	3	4	5

Here is an example on how an ability might look like (this is just an example and
might not find its way into the map at all):
___________________________________________________________________

[reaction=http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20090112003736/wowwiki/images/6/6f/BTNFlamingArrows.png]Magma Spike (Skill Shot):[/reaction]

Shoots a magma projectile in a straight line that damages and ministuns the first
target it hits.

• Ignite (lvl 3): The target burns for a while after it was hit and is
  damaged for X every second.
• Tremor (lvl 6): The target is slowed for some seconds after it was hit.
• Explosive (lvl 9): The initial damage as well as the effects of Ignite and
  Tremor are spread on an AoE when a target is hit.
• Pulsar (ultimate): After a succesful hit a magma core remains at the
  location the target was hit. After a few seconds the magma core explodes, dealing
  damage in an AoE and stunning every target hit by the explosion that has the buff
  Ignite on it.

___________________________________________________________________

We hope that you see what our goal is and how this will affect the gameplay.
What do you think about it?

The HotN-Team

 

[andreariona]

Looks awesome so far! Can't wait to checking it out.

 

[deepstrasz]

It's interesting. I am not entirely sure what it's exactly about.
-How will the coliseum affect the heroes battling in it and those outside capturing regions?

 

[bhusta]

Hey deepstrasz, I am actually listening to your "drive" at the moment

It's interesting. I am not entirely sure what it's exactly about.
-How will the coliseum affect the heroes battling in it

First of all there will be traditional farming corners in the coliseum. But to answer your question...

It is a question which always returns and I can not answer definitely, because we changed its' purpose during the development multiple times. The problem about explaining one of our features is that every other feature is connected each other. To understand what we are up to will be explained best with video material which we can't deliver yet.

What I can say is that the coliseum will be an optional possibility to turn the momentum of the game progress. For example if a team is in the loosing position it can get a come back by winning inside the coliseum. So, what will happen inside it?
At first it was planned to be a periodically event which forces all players to fight each other. Why we decided to dismiss this, I explained a few times before.
What we are up to can be explained with the example of the moba game Sins of a Dark Age, where randomly appearing quest give players the opportunity to gain some gold and extra exp. This random time factor won't make it into our map because we want the players to decide when an event will be fired, but the random events are appealing to us.
This can deliver some kind of diversity which shall make it worth to play this map over and over again.
Additionally to gain gold and experience we have the factor of victory points, so the winning team of the coliseum gets some kind of victory point bonus or maybe victory point generation over time bonus.

and those outside capturing regions?

This is our replacement of the AoS typical towers which are compareable to the capture points in the league of legends dominion map. But different. Crigges, who is a lol player has specific plans for these points.
In general they generate victory points per second but they have a lot of other features, which I can't mention at this moment.

I hope this answers you question for now. Unfortunately I can only generalize to those kinds of questions because we changed so much and the final set can only be achieved by testing the game, which we can't.

 

[Heinvers]

Great looking menu bhusta That's an awsum ability jopi. Cheers!

 

[deepstrasz]

Hey deepstrasz, I am actually listening to your "drive" at the moment

That's an honor!

Additionally to gaining gold and experience we have the factor of victory points, so the winning team of the coliseum gets some kind of victory point bonus or maybe victory point generation over time bonus.

The coliseum could work as a specific payment place. This way players are "forced" from time to time to go there and do things in order to get special points in order to buy items or whatever. This way there would not be a necessity for a timed event.

This is our replacement of the AoS typical towers which are compareable to the capture points in the league of legends dominion map.

Not sure if I got the right meaning of my question to you. I asked what will the enemy players be doing outside of the ring while their contenders are in the coliseum?

Oh and probably it'll be better to write about the map once I can test it

Hey is there an easier way to quote specific parts of a message? I usually use the quote button and then have to delete parts and copy paste end quote and start quote.

 

[bhusta]

The coliseum could work as a specific payment place. This way players are "forced" from time to time to go there and do things in order to get special points in order to buy items or whatever. This way there would not be a necessity for a timed event.

It is a good idea. But it is a little bit too big to have only that feature. Besides in one of the upcoming news we will explain our shop system which is also a little bit different.

Not sure if I got the right meaning of my question to you. I asked what will the enemy players be doing outside of the ring while their contenders are in the coliseum?

Yes I misunderstood your question. This is another one of our aspects that need clarification. There are multiple ideas running through our heads.
The most simple way is to say entering the coliseum is a stratigically decision and if the enemy team captures one of your capture points while you are battling in the coliseum, it is a lost risk.
Players will not be forced to go into the coliseum or even teleported into it by the game itself.
The only reason being forced will be the fear of loosing the game.

Hey is there an easier way to quote specific parts of a message? I usually use the quote button and then have to delete parts and copy paste end quote and start quote.

Nope, I do it the same way. You can use the quote function if you go advanced but this won't link to the text you are quoting.

 

[bhusta]

Good evening,
enjoy our latest terrain showcase and tell us your thoughts and suggestions.
We are happy about any feedback!

Special thanks to deepstrasz who provided us with one of his songs.

 

[Binsu]

@bhusta
Great terrain I must say, it must have took a long time to finish the whole terrain (assuming that you guys have finished it). I got nothing to suggest seeing that there are no flaws (my opinion but could be better if you showed some parts that is zoomed on areas to actually see those areas clearly making it easier to spot flaws if there is and suggest something to cover up the flaws.)

Going back to some old posts also, that Ingame menu looks so hot. So neat and organized! I hope to see more!

 

[bhusta]

Damn, I uploaded the wrong video
Now, it is the right one.

@bhusta
Great terrain I must say, it must have took a long time to finish the whole terrain (assuming that you guys have finished it). I got nothing to suggest seeing that there are no flaws (my opinion but could be better if you showed some parts that is zoomed on areas to actually see those areas clearly making it easier to spot flaws if there is and suggest something to cover up the flaws.)

Unfortunately, in its current stage it is still far from being finished. It is more eyecandy for the community and us. But one can see what we already achieved and where we are going to.

Going back to some old posts also, that Ingame menu looks so hot. So neat and organized! I hope to see more!

Thank you. I strive to show more technical stuff during the next months.

 

[Heinvers]

It looks so alive and beautiful. You've done (and the whole team) an extraordinary job these last few days. Damn it's gorgeous It puts a smile on my face. Just wonderful. Cheers!

 

[pred1980]

Its very nice, very very nice! I hope here are enough ppl to play your map after your release.

 

[jopi]

ok, now thats a nice teaser ^^
I saw it for the first time right now.

As bhusta already said the tarrain (and even if I only mean the playable) is still quite far from being finished though I have to say that I can slowly see it being done^^.
There is at least one half of the city and the area around two control points to do. Also the harbour (left base) might get some re-touching here and there due to the map rotation we did some time ago.
From my side I'd like to say that for the next month or so I won't start working on a new part of the map and concentrate more on things that only need some small things to be done.
The reason for this is that my finals for this semester are coming closer. I hope that afterwards I can get my hands on some bigger things to do, with more time and new motivation after a small pause, as I have to admit that I'm at a small motivational low, and somehow I'm procrastinating the work on the city. The reason for this might be that I know how much time it will take .... :S

But still! Stay tuned for the finished church and what I have in mind with it
(including the graveyard around it and something big behind it)

jopi

 

[deepstrasz]

Good evening,
enjoy our latest terrain showcase and tell us your thoughts and suggestions.
We are happy about any feedback!

Oh my! The map seems huge! Is it just me or the zoom fools me into seeing flat terrain most of the times? Or is it specially intended so the units won't feel up and down which could get players angry not being able to click enemy units correctly?

 

[jopi]

well deepstrasz, I know what you mean but actually the height variation is pretty high. On the other hand our goal was to obstruct vision as less as possible.

Here are two screens which are a good (and extreme) example.

 

[Heinvers]

Pretty fine job jopi

 

[deepstrasz]

Here are two screens which are a good (and extreme) example.

I see. So you've let the battling areas flat and made the transitions realistically.

 

[bhusta]

The july news are coming very soon. This time, it is about the ingame shop menu, but it's delayed by us changing the whole concept of items and the systems that should actually display them.

 

[Heinvers]

Cool. Can't wait to see the updated shop btw.

 

[jopi]

So I'm back!

Here are some new screens of the upper right control point and church. The screens are made with ingame light and fog, at night (as this is planned like it will be in the map). An exception is the full chruch view, obviously.
You might notice some (outer) cliffs that are not done yet, as i will do them later so I can finish the inland terrain first.
Next on my agenda is to finish the city and the last screen shows what might await the port/harbour (muhahahaha XD).

I hope you like the progess so far.

The others are working on the shop and menu and might show some progress soon, too. Also we've started so design the first heroes. At this stage I would say this is nothing more than a brainstorming what everyone of us wants to see in this map but maybe some of this ideas might find their way into the map.

 

[Heinvers]

I see that you're building a ship lately, have fun
No complaints so far. Just please consider tinting down those bright green/orange grasses :/

Otherwise everything is good in it's WIP-ish state

 

[jopi]

Thanks for the advice Heinvers!

Here are two fast screens. First one shows the tinted darker green grass. In the second one you see what I intented to do but didn't until now, making a custom texture. The goal was the make the 'grass' (actually it's ment to be wheat) have the same color as the hay pile next to it. I hope it looks better now although I will still be working on the perfect wheat color^^

 

[Heinvers]

1st screenshot:

Elevated path looks good and weathered as it should be in real life. I like the lil' blocked stairs detail. Appealing crystals coming from those cliffs look natural-ish. Yes, the grasses blend with the environment better now.

----------------------

2nd screenshot:

The sandbags detail to the windmill's windows looks eye catching (good work), the wheat field is a must for that zone. As for the custom textured wheat models although still demanding more work for texturing is not bad. I'd say (I do texturing too ) that it could use more shading and lil bits of highlights.

----------------------

Awesome stuff you got there naturally

 

[bhusta]

Yeah, really nice changes jopi. I hope people won't get an eyecandy overload
But it is also funny how weird the editor screenshots look compared to the ingame once.
In the editor the omnilight does not work right and I think the fog looks ingame a little bit different.

So, do you want to redesign the front of the ship or add a new ship to the docks?
The initial design for the Wargrin had a similar design but pathing and camera problems made me change it to this rectangle form.
Now where the terrain is flipped the camera problem should be gone, but the pathing problems are still there.
One can add a bridge made of planks or so that connects the ship with the island, but then you use invisible plattforms which we wanted to avoid,
because of the behavior of area markers from spell which are wrapping around the terrain and not the real pathing :/

Also I had a problem with angled doodads that they get messed up when the terrain get raised.
But with the combination of Crigges new compression method and oger-lord doodad2model merger you could transform the new front to a single model.
The inner polygons could be simply removed, to save additional space.

--

Yes, I couldn't keep what I said about the July news, but I'll try to speed it up now.
There were a few problems and bugs which are now solved and the designing part can start again.

 

[deepstrasz]

It looks wonderful, when we'll be seeing gameplay?

 

[bhusta]

It looks wonderful, when we'll be seeing gameplay?

It's overdue since a long time, isn't it?

A "soon-ish" is what I would like to say again but it's not very satisfying.
The problem is, while we have great progress the nature of how the work is done doesn't allow us to show more then terrain screenshots at the moment.
Thanks to Crigges the coding part became more ambitious then I could ever think about.
And I mean it in a good way. We intended to release a first playable version as Christmas present, but gameplay stuff should be shown earlier.

This week-end is devoted to the funmap event so news will be delayed by another week.
I'm trying to show a new version of the ingame shop until Sunday. Additionally to the shop, there will be items included (obviously) and also information about the attributes, because we changed a lot about it.
So, if I manage to post the news on Sunday, it will be a bigger one.

 

[jopi]

well, apparently building ships really is a lot of fun. This might be the main reason why something, what started as just a test to find a good way making a ship, ended up in the actual ship-rework. Here you can find some WIP screens. How do you like it so far, and do you have any suggestions?.
Also I'm planning make the front of the ship reinforced with metal and spikes (for reasons, I just dont want to give to much away^^) but somehow I can't find any fitting models.
So maybe you know some good models for this (spikes aren't the big deal but the metal tiles)?

 

[Heinvers]

The ship's hull looks pretty sturdy as of now.

Also I'm planning make the front of the ship reinforced with metal and spikes

I wouldn't put spikes on it if I were you but the metal idea is good

(spikes aren't the big deal but the metal tiles)

The metal tile is a great idea if you ask me

Keep up the pace :"3

 

[jopi]

Screenie time again, just some minor updates on the ship and control points, once the ship is done i will fit it into the port (space for this has been already made ). After this I will make the paths in the port what potentially means I will have to change them in the city, too.

I had to change the ship, so there is a place where the 'heart' will be located. The crystals you see in the center of the controlpoints are fully animated, move up and down and turn a bit. The rings around them move with them and change from the constellation you see in the screens to complete horizontal and back again.

 

[bhusta]

So much eye candy again.

Fun fact:
Since jopi decided to make a hexagon control point, it became a set feature
in our map. For example, the control points really react to units as they enter
or leave the hexagon plattform.

 

[Heinvers]

Excellent job jopi, nothing to criticize as of now

@bhusta that sounds great.

 

[Crigges]

Jopis Controlpoints looks realy nice. They fit perfectly with my triggers!

 

[deepstrasz]

This is starting to become more art than a map.

 

[bhusta]

Here is a little teaser of the re-designed shop. I am going to show and explain the real deal tomorrow.