• 🏆 Texturing Contest #33 is OPEN! Contestants must re-texture a SD unit model found in-game (Warcraft 3 Classic), recreating the unit into a peaceful NPC version. 🔗Click here to enter!
  • It's time for the first HD Modeling Contest of 2024. Join the theme discussion for Hive's HD Modeling Contest #6! Click here to post your idea!

Skeleton Castle Defence v1.8

Skeleton Castle Defence
Created by Razwerd

Map Info:

The Forces of Hell have destroyed the nearby town and killed all of the citizens. Now what stands between them and the destruction of the whole world is a last standing fort and the Castle. The country's Heroes have been summoned to defend it.
The main objective is to defend the Castle for 25 minutes by killing all the attackers and Devil himself!!

Features:

- A variety of heroes to choose from to defend the Castle
- Many bosses to defeat as the time passes
- Recipe Items which fit the heroes
- Cooperation with the allies is needed
- Nice positions to defend (Gates, towers, barricades, cliffs etc.)
- Upgrades for the defenders
- Short game with lots of action all the time
- Different difficulties for more challenge

Screenshots:


Fountain Area

213876-albums5604-picture58351.jpg


Statue

213876-albums5604-picture73342.jpg


Kassan Guard

213876-albums5604-picture73341.jpg


The Castle

213876-albums5604-picture73340.jpg


Castle Guard

213876-albums5604-picture58349.jpg


Devil

213876-albums5604-picture58350.jpg


Gate
213876-albums5604-picture58352.jpg



Change Log:




Map published


-Added 2 new heroes (Spear Thrower, Wizard)
-Added a new recipe (Axe of Despair)
-Increased the gold cost of some items and recipes to better balance the map
-Nerfed Elf Archer's ulti (Decreased targets by 1 and also reduced damage)
-Decreased the amount of units that come in reinforcements
-Increased the hit point bonus that creeps get as the time passes
-Fixed a bug with Devil and some other minor bugs


- Completely changed the Hero Pick and Revive systems (Replaced Altars with a Tavern)
- Improved terrain
- All bosses are buffed for more challenge
- Added a new recipe (Berserker's Gloves)
- Fixed a bug with Devil


- Added a new Hero (Court Guard)
- Added 3 new recipes (Fire Cloak, Power Stone, Razor Claws)
- Increased game duration by 5 minutes.
- Increased level cap to 20.
- Added a new boss at 20 minutes.
- Improved all bosses and gave them new abilities for more challenge.
- Improved Devil a lot.
- Improved Spear Thrower (Poison Spears and Rain of Spears).
- Fixed a bug when the creeps entered the Square.
- Elf Archer's Forked Lightning can now hit 5 units instead of 3.


- Changed map name (Castle Defence --> Skeleton Castle Defence)
- Changed map preview screen.
- Improved creep paths and response with better triggering.
- Buffed Devil (Increased health, damage and better abilities).
- Fixed Doom Revenant projectile art.


- Added a new hero (Lord of the Sky).
- Added 2 new base items (Steel Axe, Orb of Power).
- Added 2 new recipes (Demon Sword, Deathbringer).
- Added Easy - Normal - Hard difficulties to make it more challenging and fun.
- Every player now gets 1 gold per second.
- Changed Wizard's name to High Priest.
- Replaced High Priest's Inner Fire skill with Expanded Mind.
- Robot Man's ulti remade (Changed from Auto-repair to Automail).
- Better AI for enemy creeps and reduced leaks for less lag.
- Improved terrain a bit.
- Minor bug fixes.



- Replaced Lord of the Sky's ulti (Previous ulti didn't work properly).
- Fixed a trigger about Devil.



- Added new hero (Dark Mage).
- Added 6 new recipes and changed some others.
- Added new special enemy unit (Explosive Skeleton).
- Shotgun Man's skills are reworked.
- Changed Lord of the Sky's ulti because of bug.
- Replaced Elf Archer's Hex skill with Ground Trap.
- Skill hotkeys are bound to QWER.
- Greatly improved terrain.
- All heroes are more balanced (Mana cost, cooldown, attributes).
- Many items are reworked.
- Added quest with credits and testers.
- Recipe and hero pick tooltips improved.



-Various bug fixes.


- Reworked models and scaling to be compatible with Reforged.
- Added new hero (Rifleman).
- Added 3 new recipes (Necklace of Dodging, Gauntlets of Power, Ultimate Weapon).
- Reworked a lot of abilities (Replaced with custom ones).
- Increased maximum level to 25 (new levels for abilities).
- Added upgrades for the units, towers and Castle.
- Balanced xp and gold gains.
- Fixed a lot of bugs.


Credits:



Apheraz Lucent, CRAZYRUSSIAN, PeeKay, I3lackDeath, 4eNNightmare, Dan van Ohllus, Furiontti, HappyCockroach, 67chrome, Naro, kola, -BerZeKeR-, NFWar, The Silent, bigapple90, Raging Ent, Wezthal, Callahan, wugiboy, Happy Tauren, L_Lawliet, GodLike, Uncle Fester, The Panda, General Frank, Asssssvi, D.ee and Hellx-Magnus for the icons, models and spells.


I also want to thank everyone in the Hive Workshop for their help in this fantastic site! :)

Keywords:
Castle Defence, Hero, Skeleton, Hell, Devil, Tower, Walls, Defend
Contents

Skeleton Castle Defence v1.8 (Map)

Reviews
Ralle
Moved back to pending as the author updated it.
Shar Dundred
Map appears to be functional & doesn't break any rules. Approved.

Moderator

M

Moderator

Vengeancekael - [Contact]
Date: 2012/Jun/15 21:50:56

Reasons:
Poor Gameplay, not a lot of originality or fun: General Mapping Tutorials

Other:

Comment: [Rejected]
Too simple and unoriginal. There are no custom spells, the hero selection system is utterly noobish-like, since you're using altars and you've placed one for every player. The hero also needs to manually teleport to the castle which really is not a necessity at this point.
Overall this feels too empty and not that fresh, it requires real custom heroes with custom spells and a good concept, along with a maybe more impressive terrain.

Resource Moderation - Rules

[EDIT] Orcnet: Back to pending

February 1 2015
StoPCampinGn00b: Set to await update / needs fix, see my comment.
 
Level 5
Joined
Jan 5, 2012
Messages
116
Updated to version 1.2

- Completely changed the Hero Pick and Revive systems (Replaced Altars with a Tavern)
- Improved terrain
- All bosses are buffed for more challenge
- Added a new recipe (Berserker's Gloves)
- Fixed a bug with Devil
 
Level 5
Joined
Jan 5, 2012
Messages
116
Updated to version 1.6

- Added new hero (Dark Mage).
- Added 6 new recipes and changed some others.
- Added new special enemy unit (Explosive Skeleton).
- Shotgun Man's skills are reworked.
- Changed Lord of the Sky's ulti because of bug.
- Replaced Elf Archer's Hex skill with Ground Trap.
- Skill hotkeys are bound to QWER.
- Greatly improved terrain.
- All heroes are more balanced (Mana cost, cooldown, attributes).
- Many items are reworked.
- Added quest with credits and testers.
- Recipe and hero pick tooltips improved.
 
Last edited:
Level 6
Joined
Dec 9, 2010
Messages
121
Hello Razwerd,

I just finished playing your map and I have a few comments to help you improve.

There were a number of big issues with the map that I think can only be fixed with time and dedication.

The map seemed to have nothing unique, compelling, or otherwise engaging to keep players interested. The game was very short; creeps seemed to spawn at ridiculous rates for having only 2 human players. The "gate" destruction mechanic does not work well, particularly when there is no way to repair them, and you pretty much lose the perimeter defenses as soon as they die.

The heroes were uninspiring; my Dumbledore hero had four default wc3 abilities. While it's true that his ultimate was useful, it felt like I just clicked an AoE and watched things die, in an otherwise hopeless battle against epic amounts of skeletons.

The AI was bad. Sometimes enemies would pause randomly after killing our towers, and sit there for a good 60 seconds. Our AI was equally appalling. "King Atlas" (sic) rushed the enemy as soon as they got close, and died almost immediately, despite his HP value being relatively high.

The towers had problems also. The cannon towers do not have Projectile Homing enabled, and they would miss their main target all the time. The Arrow Towers were just plain weak. Also, none of the towers were enabled to give XP to nearby heroes. This is a value that can be changed in the Gameplay Constants, and would help heroes gain XP at a more constant rate, rather than having to compete against your towers for XP.

The map was small, and the terrain uninspiring. The few recipes that were there felt like they had been thrown in rather than an integral part of the game. I didn't even know what to buy, but to be honest it wasn't a problem, because in the entirety of the game, I was able to purchase exactly 1 recipe item (before the imba skeleton waves crushed everything).

There was no option to build, repair, or otherwise fortify the castle. Our troops were few, and they would get almost immediately slaughtered. Buff the Heal on Priests and have them autocast it; right now they spend half their time auto attacking skeletons when you or your allies need healing.

Sadly, this game will take a lot of work to fix. If this was an initial attempt at a castle defense map, then my advice is this: Don't give up, but perhaps start over with a new map, new heroes, new items, and new terrain (perhaps even a new concept).

I remember my first maps well. They were honestly not at a level that I could have submitted them to the hive workshop and expected much positive feedback. But that's not to say that you can't improve. Use this map as a lesson from which to learn. You made a lot of gameplay/design mistakes here, but I believe you can come back with a better second attempt, and an even better third attempt, etc.

Unfortunately, I don't believe this map is at a level where it can be played even casually. Consider redesigning large elements of the gameplay to make it more replayable and fun.

Good luck with future maps, and don't take this criticism personally. I believe you can improve from here.
Mech
 
Level 5
Joined
Jan 5, 2012
Messages
116
Thank you very much for your honest feedback.

The map seemed to have nothing unique, compelling, or otherwise engaging to keep players interested. The game was very short; creeps seemed to spawn at ridiculous rates for having only 2 human players. The "gate" destruction mechanic does not work well, particularly when there is no way to repair them, and you pretty much lose the perimeter defenses as soon as they die.

I created this map a long time ago when I still didn't know even half of what I know now about map editing, so what you say here is true. However, the map is truly recommended for 3-4 players, 1 at each gate and 1 extra at bottom gate. I'll fix that in next update.

The heroes were uninspiring; my Dumbledore hero had four default wc3 abilities. While it's true that his ultimate was useful, it felt like I just clicked an AoE and watched things die, in an otherwise hopeless battle against epic amounts of skeletons.

The same as above. I didn't have much knowledge to create real custom spells and unique heroes, so I tried my best with what is given by default.

The AI was bad. Sometimes enemies would pause randomly after killing our towers, and sit there for a good 60 seconds. Our AI was equally appalling. "King Atlas" (sic) rushed the enemy as soon as they got close, and died almost immediately, despite his HP value being relatively high.

The enemy AI is buggy, however I'm fixing most bugs and stucks at next version.

The towers had problems also. The cannon towers do not have Projectile Homing enabled, and they would miss their main target all the time. The Arrow Towers were just plain weak. Also, none of the towers were enabled to give XPs. This is a value that to nearby heroe can be changed in the Gameplay Constants, and would help heroes gain XP at a more constant rate, rather than having to compete against your towers for XP.

I never really paid much attention to the towers so I hadn't noticed that. How can I enable towers to give XP?

The map was small, and the terrain uninspiring. The few recipes that were there felt like they had been thrown in rather than an integral part of the game. I didn't even know what to buy, but to be honest it wasn't a problem, because in the entirety of the game, I was able to purchase exactly 1 recipe item (before the imba skeleton waves crushed everything).

I agree about the map and terrain. However, the recipes in most custom hero maps are left to the players to choose the best and customize their hero. The skeleton waves would of course crush everything with 1 or 2 players and I apologize for not putting correct recommended players.

There was no option to build, repair, or otherwise fortify the castle. Our troops were few, and they would get almost immediately slaughtered. Buff the Heal on Priests and have them autocast it; right now they spend half their time auto attacking skeletons when you or your allies need healing.

That's a nice idea, I may carry it out in next version if I have enough time. I'm thinking about buffing ally troops and fixing priests too.

Sadly, this game will take a lot of work to fix. If this was an initial attempt at a castle defense map, then my advice is this: Don't give up, but perhaps start over with a new map, new heroes, new items, and new terrain (perhaps even a new concept).

You're right, this was my first attempt at a map at all, so it probably lacks compared to other well made maps.


All in all, I'll probably update this map once more to fix most bugs and things mentioned above. I'll take everything you advised into consideration if I were to make a new map! Thanks again for your great feedback!
 
Last edited:
Level 32
Joined
Apr 2, 2013
Messages
3,953
I experienced most of the problems Mechanical_Man had.

I think most of us would agree the map isn't very unique. It isn't extremely generic, but many would classify this as just another hero defense that only lasts for 25 minutes.

First off, the terrain/visuals are borderline acceptable. It isn't empty, but it there is a strange mix of ugly doodads and tile usage around the map. I highly suggest you re-do the castle terrain so it doesn't consist of a mash of oddly placed walls.

The AI needs to be fixed before I can approve the map. Other things such as some abilities not showing their level, the canon tower not homing (Personally I don't think it's necessary to switch it to homing) and having the unfavorable feature of mana cost increasing when learning some new skills but not others won't cause the map to be rejected, but it may just affect user ratings and opinions on the map.

The map is now set to await update / needs fix. It will automatically be set back to pending if you update it. It's your choice if you want to start a new map or improve this one.
 
Top