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Map of only Sky.

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Well i have had this idea for much time and i want to share it.

The idea is a map that has no land, just airships flying round. The purpose of this is to make it seem as if you are controlling an airship high in the sky. The map is completely made up of fog, weather effects, and cliff elevation (the cliff elevation is for making large structures that look like are floating, used as ports or docks for the airships) The airships would be able to dock and let out your trader, or warriors. An option in the begin of game will let you either become Trader and have a score based on money, or warrior and have a score based on kills. There be four races, Human trader/warrior, Dwarf Trader/warrior, Orc Trader/warrior, Goblin Trader/warrior.

Human Trader/Warrior: The Human will have a special ability called diplomacy, which allows the human to never be attacked by pirates.

Dwarf Trader/Warrior: The Dwarf has an ability called High Quality Materials, this makes the dwarves airship stronger and faster. Dwarf warriors also have more health than others.

Orc Trader/Warrior: The Orc has an ability called Master of Arms, this makes the orc airship have more attack, also the orc warriors have more attack than others.

Goblin Trader/Warrior: The Goblin has an ability called Black Marketing. This ability makes everything the goblin sells give him more gold. Goblins have weak but very fast warriors and airships.

Thats the idea so far. If anyone knows of cool names that could be used instead of "Trader" and "Warrior" My english vocabulary is small so i cant really think of cool names for an airship warrior or trader.

IF someone wants to make this map go ahead! id love to see it happen!
 
Level 28
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I really like this idea!

Seems like some kind of steampunk map (or maybe that's what I want to see?)
Well, either way: I believe this will be something like an RPG?
Pretty original, haven't seen such a thing before (only space-maps, if these count as well).

And from your last sentence I derive you're not going to create it yourself? :/

For "Trader" perhaps "Broker" or "Stockbroker"? (Someone who sells/buys stuff... just like a trader :p)
 
Level 4
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That would be an epic map. I'm looking forward to seeing someone make something out of this too. And ap0calypse's idea for a broker sounds better, because that way you're only mediating between the people who are buying and selling. You won't have to spend your own money to do trade deals. Basically the broker could be like a messenger between the two, probably having to fly their ship back and forth a couple times to complete a deal.
 
Level 19
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I really love your imagination, because maps like this would be what people are actually screaming out for:)
I hope the project would turn out great!

Here's a +Rep to encourage you:)
 
Level 28
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I was planning on testing a few things out, but I currently have exams so my activity is pretty low.
After 2 weeks, I'll check some cloud tiles and the models in the UTM, if things don't work out I'll ask someone else to do those things since I suck at art ^^ (already made a reminder note).

I'm not saying I'll create the amp (since I probably won't), but a little push in the right direction could help to attract more people and start an actual project (who knows?)
If anything else comes to mind (about the gameplay), please share it here.
 
Level 4
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The tile is just plain white with a light blue terrain fog. The islands are made of rock-shaped doodads wrapped with in-game terrain textures.

The problem with this method is that each model used has to be imported with its materials flagged as unfogged. If they aren't, they show up like in the bottom right of this picture:
http://img815.imageshack.us/img815/4174/fogeffect.jpg

I can do that for anyone that needs help setting the imports up to get it all ready.

Edit: I just tried it with Dungeon White Fog (Light) since Wind (Heavy) moved too fast and covered everything in huge gusts. The light fog seems to make it look really nice with a moving texture. I had to lift the islands up a little to get them out of the fog, but using the weather effect was a good idea.
http://img811.imageshack.us/img811/1349/fogsky.jpg
 
Level 8
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How did you get just the plain white? and can anyone edit models to show no fog, or do i require a program?

if you know of a tile that looks like clouds it would be awesome! the UTM has a doodad thats a big dome like the underground dome, but its clouds. it looks pretty cool.
 
Level 4
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I just made a 64x64 plain white texture with a completely white alpha channel for the white tile.

Anyone can edit the models to be unfogged with War3 Model Editor:
http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/tools-560/war3-model-editor-62876/
Just go into the material manager and make each material unfogged.


Maybe the dome would look good if it was completely flattened. I'll try it.

Edit: It's too spherical. Even when flattened, the cloud texture is way too rounded. I'll keep experimenting with different cloud effects though.
 
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Why not?
Make ports around, this ports are cities. You can buy items here, upgrades, get quests, blahblah.

Quests can be:
  • Hunting - hunting a computer player. After the computer player died, return back to the guild you got the quest. Rewards q:
  • Delivering - You'll be given a set of items that you need to deliver to a random port, then return to get your rewards.
  • Treasuring Seeking - the name implies it q:
And more you can think of.
Also, why not make it just like Alliance vs. Horde?
At the start of the game, half of the cities will be Alliance and half is horde, while some will remain neutral.

And, when you choose your race, you can pick what job you want.
  • Patrol ~ Your main job is to patrol horde/alliance cities, not to conquer. If a city is under attack, defend it D:
  • Conqueror ~ Conquer stuff. If it's an hostile city, you'll need to fight your way then. Neutrals can be 50% hostile and 50% not.
  • Trader ~ Raise your factions economy! Trade stuff.

All, a fame system will do to.
Every Horde players will a +100 fame on Horde and -100 Alliance, and vice versa.
When these two become 0/0, the user will become neutral
If its negative (-), the user will be an enemy to where it is negative, and vice versa.
So, if you have both negative, beware q:

Your fame increases when you completed a quest, conquering, and others you can think.
Your fame decreases when you fail a quest, attack allies, and others you can think.

That's all I can think of now.
Glad if I can help
 
Level 4
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It definitely does seem like a fun concept to make. I'll keep working on the terrain. If anyone wants it passed over to them to work on or add things in, just let me know in a PM or something.

Should everything walkable be on floating islands like the ones in the screenshots? And how much bigger should the floating islands be?

I changed the textures for the floating islands to be Village tilesets (dirt and grass) instead of Dalaran Ruins. Dalaran Ruins were a bit too dark and gloomy for a map in the sky.
 
Level 4
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I have no idea how the layout should look though. I'm just randomly dropping islands in with some doodad decorations on them. I guess we can always change it around later.

Are you planning on adding the things in that you suggested?

Hunting specifically sounds like bounty hunting, so maybe those types of quests could be called bounty quests/missions. And from your ideas about treasure hunting and conquering cities, I guess that means the islands should be much, much larger than they are now in order to give enough space for all of that?
 
Level 4
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Well I'm done with it for the night, so I'll send it over. I think it would be easier with a steampunk theme. Then flatter metal platforms and piping could be used instead of bulky terrain doodads. Oh well, more experimenting tomorrow :smile:
 
Level 28
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Supertoinkz: although the concept of the different types of missions is good, I do not like the Horde vs Alliance.
That's been done too much before, why can't they just get along? D:

I'd prefer something more like Raiders (I was afraid to use the word 'pirates', raiders fits better imo) vs the civilized world (goblins, humans, orcs and dwarves).
Raiders will be constantly patrolling area's in the 'danger zones' amd will randomly attack you if you pass by (though there will be a message that you're entering the danger zone).

The fame-system can be done in the same way though: the more you do for the civilized world, the higher your reputation will be and you need to perform all kinds of knightly quests.
If you turn 'to the dark side', your reputation will decrease and you have to raid cities or perform reconnaissance missions or sabotage something.


I know that systems like this requires manhours of work, but it is possible ^^

@ Coffeeholic: I love the terrain! Really well done, if it would be possible to create a terrain with a more orange glow and a dark blue one, then it would even be possible to change the terrain as the sun sets/rises :p (sun sets -> orange / night -> dark blue / sun rises -> orange / day -> light blue).
Just ideas, since we don't need that much other tilesets.
 
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Level 8
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I like supertoinkz's ideas alot. and i like the coloring on the sky. one thing would be the cities that are in the sky are more like castles or spires coming up out of the clouds. but i love the floating islands, maybe they could be pirate islands. Also if the players want to land in the cites they can enter a region and be teleported to a place on the map thats like a city, s they can walk around, What do you think of this?
 
Level 4
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Well a transparent tile leaves a big black rectangle beneath the map unless the angle of attack is around 350 or higher. I don't think that would work too well for an entire map based in the sky unless the entire game is at a horizontal view.

Warcraft 3 Campaigns has a great cloud model that might be the answer to the whole cloud problem. The only problem is, I think their site is down.
 
Level 28
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It's a bit simple and requires too much triggers if you do it his way, I would've done it otherwise :/
It also leaks O_O no idea how it could ever have gotten approved xD

rednek, i did not know there are transparent tiles, sounds cool. also for the name of the air warriors, maybe Aironaut, and for name of map maybe, Airships or Life of a Pilot?
Aeronaut sounds good.
I don't really like the map names though, sorry xD (though if I would pick one, I'd prefer Airships).
 
Level 8
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medion555, great! what are you good at triggers? Jass? Terrain?

Ok ill think of better names, i might get my English Studies teacher to help me. oh yeah and this is all part of my final year test. i have to go and speak and type english.

Hrm, i further search for cloud models.
 
Level 28
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I've been testing some stuff and came up:

shopmenudemo.png

Done:
  • Keyboard controls.
  • Easy set-up.
  • Description / Item name shows up correctly.
  • Fixed UI.
  • Made it MPI.

To do:
  • Add price (forgot to do that :p)
  • Create buy-command.
  • ... (Probably more, but I can't think of anything).
 
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Level 28
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A closet is actually rather good, yes :D (when you're inside your own ship, or entering some kind of tavern or whatever :p).

Chanan: wouldn't "Aeronauts" be a better map name? (Your idea actually).

Edit: oh yeah, I fixed the system.
It's kind-of working right now (you can scroll through the item list, all items give the correct values and it's easy to add more items).
You can check my previous post to see a screeny.
 
I really like the map idea, but what will be the way to trade ??
To buy items somewhere and to sell them elswhere with a higher price wuld be lazy; have you think about the fact that you could settle a real company, working thanks to investments, some sky resources and the fact that other players could buy it (not only the warriors but also the other traders) (and of course computers but at lesser price) ?

You should really make the "Trading" part interesting and funny to play each time you start again. There are not much maps based on this and I think people would enjoy it :)
 
Level 4
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To buy items somewhere and to sell them elswhere with a higher price wuld be lazy;
How about price haggling? When you go to offer a price to an NPC to buy something of theirs, they counter your bid if it's too low. Inversely, the NPC will counter your price if what you're selling is too high in price. The price range they'll accept can be randomized but partly based on the type of materials you're buying/selling. So sometimes they'll buy and sell at higher prices, or sometimes at slightly lower prices. I guess if you shoot for too much or too little, they can decline your offer to buy or sell your materials.

By the way, sexy shop system ap0calypse :wink:
 
Level 8
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yes but how in the hell do you make that?!? it sounds impossible! im having trouble just making the terrain look perfect.

And the way of selling would be certain Computers buy different item for different prices. Lets say there an item you et on one side of the map. it will sell for the highest price on the other side of the map. And to make it hard to travel far we could set up a fuel system that takes mana away slowly and when the mana gets low you have to near a city or fountain to recharge. And there are pirates to stop you and attack.
 
Level 4
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Well you could take a default range for what an item is worth and multiply it by a random factor, so the minimum and maximum values in the range bracket the prices the NPC will buy/sell them at.

So let's say you have an airship engine you're trying to sell with a default value of 90-100 gold. You go up to an NPC to sell it, and the default value of the engine is multipled by a random number between 0.9 and 1.0 (but 1.0 and 1.1 when you're buying). The random factor happens to be 0.95, so the minumum and maximum values the NPC will accept are 86(rounded up from 85.5)-95 gold. If you offer to sell it to the NPC for 100 gold, he will offer a random number between something like 70-95 gold. Then it just repeats until you both come to an agreement within his price range, or he'll decline the sale after a certain amount of offers.
 
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