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Typhoon - Bandits

This is the techtree I designed for Techtree Contest #13, which followed the "Colored Mana" theme. The idea was that techtrees were to be designed following the philosophy of one of the colors from Magic The Gathering. In my case, I designed my faction after the Black philosophy of selfishness, opportunism and a shameless will to power.

The template map used was (6)Typhoon, which was required as per the rules of the contest. I wanted to post it here to make it more readily available to the public, as I finished mine a little before the contest deadline was reached.

The map features a fully customized Bandit techtree, which was designed with the intent of fitting in comfortably with the naturally occurring melee factions, and is playable by selecting Human at 90% Handicap. The faction does have AI, and so you can play against it by setting computer opponents to Human with 90% Handicap.


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Information

The Bandits thrive on ambush tactics as well as hit-and-run. Whittling away opposing armies in quick strikes before retreating to regroup is the primary method of combat. Upon reaching the second tier, the Ratmen from the Sewer Tunnels provide substantial glass-cannon firepower, as well as a tank that tends to be a little frailer than most. The Shadow Works, on the other hand, provides units that are geared more towards disrupting enemy units. The third tier is where the Bandits get access to their Night Runner assassins, who are adept at hunting heroes, as well as the Nether Dragon, their flying assault creature.

Unique to the Bandits is the capacity to get more out of mercenaries than any of the vanilla factions. They are able to perform a research that will get them Veteran and Elite mercenaries. Additionally, their Town Halls grant them access to hiring mercenaries dependent upon the map, which in this case is the unit roster from the Sunken Ruins Mercenary Camp. This gives them a little more access to mercenaries than anybody else, allowing them to make use of the later game upgrades should they choose to do so, but also allows them to spend a rather substantial fee if they find they need some extra defense at home in a pinch.

While hiring Mercenaries is one of the primary crafts of the Bandit faction by design, another is unconventional means of developing income. With the Artifact Smuggling upgrade available in the early game, the Bandits are able to sell any unwanted items for extra gold, giving them a considerable income boost for selling their spoils. The Life Insurance upgrade gives a small refund for any units that die in combat based upon their unit level. These income boosts may prove critical to the Bandit's operations. The Bandit Lord is also a unique choice in that he is primarily an economic hero. While capable of fighting rather well, his main strengths lie in establishing map vision through his Sentry Traps and acquiring extra income through his Bounty Hunters Aura, which grants a small bounty for all units killed by those under the Aura's effect.

Through these unconventional moneymaking schemes and their hit-and-run ambush tactics, the goal is to pick apart as much as you can of the enemy while keeping as much of your own assets in tact. After all, you are here to turn a profit.




[2019-09-27]-Uploaded.


-MODELS-

Ujimasa Hojo
Gluma
Callahan
Thrikodius
paulH
Retera
EvilCryptLord
Direfury
PeeKay
Daelin
crl
JesusHipster
sPy
UgoUgo
nGy
JetFangInferno
Power
s4nji
Skizzik
Vortigon

-ICONS-
Blizzard Entertainment
Ujimasa Hojo
Gluma
Illidan(Evil)x
Mad
MrRious
BlazeKraze
Amargaard
bu3ny
Marcos DAB
PeeKay
Darkfang
bigapple90
Daelin
Greed26
VaLkYroN
4eNNightmare
Sorenkj
PrinceYaser
Nugamentum
FhelZone
Stanakin
The Panda
Wezthal
CrazyRussian
morbent
viiva
Nash
NFWar
La morte
The_Avenger's_Return

-SKINS-
n/a

-SYSTEMS-
Bribe
Archmage Owenalacaster
Illidan(Evil)x

Special thanks to Spellbound for hosting Techtree Contest #13!


The primary governing decision behind the design for the Bandit faction was to keep things simple, while innovating into new territory of the melee game. I wanted to do something with the Mercenaries, but not in a way that wouldn't fit in with the melee game, and not in a way that would just end up being a boring rehash that pretends to be interesting. As such, the Veteran Mercenaries upgrade was born. The idea was ultimately to give the Bandits an edge in something that no other faction really capitalized on. After having watched a few of Grubby's videos of playing pro-level Warcraft 3, I deduced that the only mercenaries people tended to hire was the Forest Troll Priest, and the Forest Troll Berserker. So I had hoped to give the Bandits a suitable edge in these areas.

I also wanted to capitalize on all things Bandit related, be it ambush tactics, illegal trade deals, even Shadow Demons. i wanted them to be an economic race, but in a completely unconventional sense that utilized characteristics from the melee game in an attempt to shed a new light on what could be possible. Extra income for selling items, small refunds on lost units, as well as incorporating the ingame Bounty system was ultimately what was settled on. As far as Ambush tactics went, I wanted to draw considerable inspiration from the ingame Bandit Creep units, but without simply rehashing what has been done before. Defend and Evasion were both more or less done before, so I decided to put the two abilities together. Everything else more or less fit together nicely. The Heroes were also intended as a tribute to each ingame Bandit creep, named after their most powerful incarnation.

Ultimately, the faction was designed to have a rather Lord Of The Flies feel to it, with the decay of humanity into a more primal, bestial form of survival and almost tribal savagery mixed with unparalleled cunning. It's every man for himself, and while the motives are inherently selfish, that's what has become necessary to survive.
~


The poll for the contest is here. Check it out to vote on your favorite entry.



Contents

Typhoon - Bandits (Map)

Reviews
deepstrasz
Not sure neutral hostile mercs are supposed to be in the main building. It's weird. They are all animals and stuff. Veteran Mercenaries should apply to already trained mercenaries as well; maybe you don't want to hire more or too many afterwards and...

deepstrasz

Map Reviewer
Level 68
Joined
Jun 4, 2009
Messages
18,706
Oh, that music is from ingame, I put it in the map for when you play the Bandits :p
Good ear on the source :D
Paul Anthony Romero is a genius. Not only that but he knows how to create catchy melodic lines. Many genial composers use technique above let's say, music.
ell me when the contest review is out. Will approve this instantly by then if there's no major issue in the judge's review.
Oh, you also reviewed it?
 
Level 35
Joined
Feb 5, 2009
Messages
4,552
No problem, I'm looking forward to seeing what the result in the contest is. I do hope I can win first place, but there was some pretty stiff competition so the suspension is intense.

I love the soundtracks from Heroes of Might and Magic 3 and 4, back when 3DO and New World Computing was still running the show on the series :D
 

deepstrasz

Map Reviewer
Level 68
Joined
Jun 4, 2009
Messages
18,706
Haven't but I can spare some time if it's not during new year's eve
Don't worry, as I mentioned, I already did a long time ago but I am waiting for the results so I can read on Kam's review too.
Of course, if you want to review it too, there's no problem. It's likely you'll find other things than I do.
I love the soundtracks from Heroes of Might and Magic 3 and 4, back when 3DO and New World Computing was still running the show on the series
Yeah, I love all of them, even from HV. Afterwards, I didn't even play the other games. I don't know. Feels like they're rebooting ad infinitum. Listened to some of the musics from those but wasn't as impressed as with the classic ones. Maybe, I haven't heard them enough and on the proper background.
 
Level 35
Joined
Feb 5, 2009
Messages
4,552
@Daffa @deepstrasz

As promised, I am letting you know that the contest results have been posted: here

That being said, they were allegedly being reworked and upon being posted, it's been noticed that this version is not in any way reworked, and is up for debate towards its legitimacy. However, we were also finding it difficult to get an appropriate judge, although if either of you or both of you are up for trying your own hands in the judging, that would be pretty sweet :)
 

deepstrasz

Map Reviewer
Level 68
Joined
Jun 4, 2009
Messages
18,706
  1. Not sure neutral hostile mercs are supposed to be in the main building. It's weird. They are all animals and stuff.
  2. Veteran Mercenaries should apply to already trained mercenaries as well; maybe you don't want to hire more or too many afterwards and are pretty confident about the ones you already have trained thus far?
  3. Hide also works during the day but the description only mentions the night. Having this on most units especially first tier ones is dangerous for balance.
  4. You can StarCraft burrow-like hide a villager for example near a mine and deny the enemy building a main construction there unless that unit is revealed and killed.
  5. Magic Conversion doesn't restore hit points from player owned units that have the Haste buff for instance.
  6. Lookout towers lose life when attacking.
  7. Abyssal Tear's timer says Pocket Factory. Abyssal Spawn's is Clockwerk Goblin.
  8. Shadow Form for Nether Wyrms might be too much as they'd be able to flee battles and regenerate. They are top tier units.
  9. Maybe you want to tone down that Plague FX.
  10. Ruthless Aura level 1 says 500% chance to stun after learning it. Same for the other levels, the numbers are huge.
Generally, a good altered melee implementation. More than bandits though.

Also based on the results
Techtree Contest #13 - Results
Approved.


If you want more reviews, you should participate in the The Grand Review Exchange!

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Level 35
Joined
Feb 5, 2009
Messages
4,552
Oh sweet :D

Damn, it says 500% stun? It always amazes me that no matter how meticulous I was, there seems to be tooltips I missed out on.

I did admittedly consider having the Veteran Mercs apply to existing Mercenaries, but I think I chickened out of it because of trying to calculate the math for applying the bonus health values on top of existing bonus health - could give it a whirl, though. The Creeps being available at the Merc Camp structure is definitely intentional, sort of the creeps available on the map are to be available in the Merc Camp. Although I didn't trigger that so much as I just enforced it so if I imported it to another map I would change the units sold, but a system would be more ideal probably tbh :p

That is... definitely uncanny that Magic Conversion isn't working on player owned units. I think it should be working there, so definitely an issue that needs fixing...

Definitely some unusual tooltip things I must have missed, buuuut also I don't know if the Abyssal Tear timer has a way of changing it, same for the Abyssal Spawn. That does sound kinda goofy tho :p

Thanks for the response, it's actually good to find out about stuff I missed in preparation :D
 
1. Man-Made Men has Pandaren Elemental in its ultimate duration bar
2. I'd say this faction ultimate point is economic control, which I see it being delivered well
3. The theme hits the spot quite well for being Black-based if that's right as your intention
4. I find the sewer rats weird, but I'll take it anyway
5. The spawn mercs can be quite powerful, even to the point of replacing tier 1 given proper early economy gains
6. I find the mage hero sync is a bit weird for the ultimate skill he has (Diamond of Summoning thing)
7. Oh yeah, music is great actually :D
8. Hide still has that description issue if I checked right
9. Plague takes over too much of the screen (harder to look for units in it)

Personally, I like this race given it sort of reminds me of my own race to a degree (especially those money-gathering tactics), though it's more solid than mine.

Will upload a video of me FFA against 5 Easy AI.

I'd give this a 4.5/5 (5/5)

EDIT:
Video will be up at 13 Feb 12:00 GMT+7 (5:00 UTC)
 
Last edited:
Level 35
Joined
Feb 5, 2009
Messages
4,552
Oh sweet :D

Admittedly, I'm not too sure how to change the things that come up for the Duration Bar, but maybe there's some newfangled way I need to look into :p

Definitely looking forward to the video, thanks :D

EDIT: I think the reason the plague graphic takes up so much space is because I had to increase the unit scaling of the Reaver soooo much to be as big as it is - so I think I need to either do a different graphic for it, or possibly remove the graphic altogether. It does seem to be a very unpopular choice, and I can sort of see why :p
 
Level 35
Joined
Feb 5, 2009
Messages
4,552
You know... I just checked, and I did not make a custom buff for that.

I think that might be it xD

I might get around to doing an updated version - but I might wait until I can get a sense of Contest Results being properly finalized so that it doesn't mislead anybody about the entry :)

UPDATE: Just tried out the Custom Buff and it totally worked - I think before I thought that didn't do anything, now I know :p
Thanks ^_^
 
Last edited:
Level 28
Joined
Apr 6, 2010
Messages
3,097
The tent healing only seemed to work once, every time I put a damaged unit inside after the first time it didn't seem to heal faster than with natural regen.

Maybe have another method of healing that doesn't neutralize the unit being healed, if only the drop selling Healing Salves. I know you're supposed to use a hit-and-run style, but it's very limiting to have healing that can't be used mid-fight.

Maybe it depends on the map, but on this one there's very few items to grab (and consequently to resell). Maybe replace it with one that gives more wood, given how many 200+ L upgrades there are.

Merc upgrades should affect currently bought mercs. And maybe it's just me, but just "same unit, higher stats" is kinda boring, maybe give them different abilities.

I feel the Cheaper Materials upgrade should be available from Tier 1, since (in my experience at least) that's when you build the most structures in a short amount of time.

Bounty kills should give lumber (at least for lumber-costing units), I never had any issue with getting gold but was chronically short on lumber (even with 7 gatherers).
 
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