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Battle Planes 0.15.0

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Battle Planes

A map by Cokemonkey11

Contents
* Introduction
* Screenshots
* Version Control
* Changelog
* Credits
* Contributing

Introduction

Battle Planes is a battleships-style AoS/MOBA that focuses on simplicity. It uses
automatically firing weapons, and some innovative systems, to produce a design that's
nostalgic, yet fun.

What make Battle Planes different? Design principles: (1) Short games aide replayability
and reduce burnout (2) Bias for action means big damage and low durability leads to
faster-paced gameplay (3) MOBA design principles focus more on action and less on grinding
(4) Fresh means not being afraid to do things new-and-improved (5) Classic battleships is
a competitive and brilliant game - when in doubt, remain unbroken.

The western nations and eastern faction have long been allies and shared knowledge, as
well as technology; but the recent discovery of numerous, rich resource deposits near an
unnamed gorge has resulted in a bitter standoff. Secure your team's victory in one final
cacophony of helicopters, explosives, and other armament.

This map was previously titled "The Gorge".

Screenshots




PE862R1.jpg




eKHPGvt.jpg



Version Control



All iterations of this map are maintained in a public git repository at
https://bitbucket.org/Cokemonkey11/the-gorge/

Changelog



0.15.0 13 Mar 2021:
  • Fully extracted object data into wurst.
  • Reduced enhance stone lock duration from 3 minutes to 2.
  • Fixed a bug that granted an assist for each kill.
  • Add a warning on the smuggler ship.
  • Increased the capture/contest radius for enhance stones slightly.
  • Fixed a bug where Gunship's rockets would behave oddly on death.
  • Gently increased the DPS of all weapons.
  • Increased the cost and DPS of tier 1 weapons by 50%.
  • Gently increased the effectiveness of all repair crews.
  • Frigate's healing ability no longer interrupts orders on cast.
  • Added hints to direct attention to equipment sell value (100%).
  • Increased Smuggler's invuln duration from 2 to 2.5s.
  • Player ship kills now indicates who received assist gold.
  • Minor bug fixed wherein end-game sound plays just as game ends.

0.14.6 26 Aug 2019:
  • Added tier-4 overpriced crewmembers.
  • Added another defense ability for the smuggler ship.
  • Fixed a leak where sound handles were not set to kill-on-done.
  • Single-player help text is no longer shown in multiplayer.
  • Reduced the attack speed of some crewmembers to improve perf.

0.14.5 11 Aug 2019:
  • Fixed a bug where Flight Mode was not disruptible.
  • Adjusted how gold is distributed if a player dies to creeps.
  • Added more turrets and shields; adjusted base terrain.
  • Fixed a cosmetic bug related to mortar team missile art.

0.14.4 5 Aug 2019:
  • Hopefully fixed a leak that can cause an OOM exception.
  • Fixed a bug where EMP did a pause instead of a stun.
  • Fixed a bug where EMP could hit invulnerable targets.
  • Add vote for next ship.

0.14.3 30 Jul 2019:
  • Minor adjustments to improve performance.
  • Fixed a Flight Mode bug which occurred when turned off.
  • Minor adjustments to Fire ship's Flight Mode responsiveness.

0.14.2 27 Jul 2019:
  • We've rebranded! The map is now called Battle Planes.
  • Wurst inlining has been re-enabled for performance.

0.14.1 27 Jul 2019:
  • Adjusted Shroud generator effect and appearance to reduce lag.
  • Adjusted the handling of creeps to reduce lag.
  • Increased tier-2 ship cost to 400.
  • Fixed a bug where the Disruptor Beam was not working at all.
  • Reduced starting gold to 150.
  • Increased turret hit points from 2000 to 3000.

0.14.0 26 Jul 2019:
  • New frigate, new battleship, and new interceptor.
  • Fixed a bug where shields would cause you to kill yourself.
  • Adjusted base layout and increased repair-port repair rate.
  • Selected pages in keep/utility ports are now saved/reselected.
  • Minor performance improvement and auditing capability.
  • [balance] improved the utility of Monsoon Mk. 1.

0.13.1 20 Jul 2019:
  • Made changes to crewmembers to clarify stats and sell value.
  • All long-range crew are now incapable of hitting structures.
  • Significant rework to crewmember balance, improves synergy.

0.13.0 16 Jul 2019:
  • Reworked vision/pathing to behave more like classic Battleships.
  • Disabled global trading and added a send-gold ability to trader.
  • [trading] fixed the broken spider venom job.
  • Reworked crewmembers slightly to reduce the learning curve.
  • Top weapon stats are now displayed at the end of the match.

0.12.4 22 Jun 2019:
  • minor improvements related to the use of DamageEvent (wurst).
  • fixed a minor cosmetic bug that made creeps appear to be healing.

0.12.3 19 Jun 2019:
  • regression: scoreboard fixed, when more than 5 players present.
  • fixed a minor desync at end-of-game.
  • very minor code tidying.

0.12.2 18 Jun 2019:
  • Fixed an error related to a 1.31.1 regression (DD wurst NPE).
  • Fixed a bug where selling or dropping hull never reset reduction.
  • Minor refactoring to use WurstCommand and DamageEvent libraries.
  • Minor new singleplayer commands added.

0.12.1 9 Jun 2019:
  • Fixed a fatal problem related to a 1.31 regression (map crash).
  • Fixed a bug where a player gets bounty when a team-kill occurs.
  • Improved messages for when a team-kill occurs.
  • Fixed a potential damage-detection problem.
  • Wurst optimiser and local optimiser are now enabled.
  • Fixed a cosmetic bug that made healing effects on dead units.
  • Enchanted frost wyrms now appear more blue.

0.12.0 14 Apr 2019:
  • Fixed a bug where next-page buttons don't work if your inventory is full.
  • The interceptor now has a crowd control (damage) ability.
  • The frigate now has a sustain (healing) ability.
  • The battleship now has a sustain (healing) ability.
  • Fixed a bug where the singleplayer -fast command wouldn't work if you changed ship.
  • Minor tooltip fixes.

0.11.2 7 Apr 2019:
  • Fixed a desync when a player uses the -music command.

0.11.1 7 Apr 2019:
  • Fixed a major bug where players get gold if they destroy themselves.
  • Music can now be disabled with the `-music` command.
  • Fixed a minor bug that allowed players to select other pages of keep and utility port.
  • Minor increase to DTS-12 projectile height to aid with aiming.
  • Reduced the cooldown time on the Sell Crewmember ability.
  • Replaced singleplayer chat commands from backslash to hyphen.

0.11.0 31 Mar 2019:
  • Player ships are now heroes, and the F2 hotkey can be used!
  • This map now uses an up-to-date wurst standard library.
  • Adjusted spawn behavior so that creeps would stack up less.
  • Maybe bug fix: a minor change in enchanting stones.
  • Many object-defined units are now defined in wurst.

0.10.1 27 Mar 2019:
  • Fixed a major bug related to recently respawned ships not losing invulnerability.
  • Fixed a minor tooltip bug.
  • Fixed a couple minor cosmetic blemishes.

0.10.0 (blacklisted) 18 Mar 2019:
  • This map is now written entirely in wurst!
  • Added 3 new movespeed items and 3 new hitpoint regen items.
  • Improved behavior when a player leaves the game.
  • Ships are now invulnerable for 6 seconds on respawn.
  • Added further ownership indicators for the enchanting stones.
  • Added further repair indicators for the repair ports.

0.9.1 24 Feb 2017:
  • This map is now written entirely in Jurst, the jass-friendly Wurst dialect!
  • Revamped the behavior and apperance of central outposts
  • Sky Barge new ability: Reactive Shields.
  • Zeppelin new ability: Helium Overdrive.
  • Improved the user-friendliness of repair ports.
  • Added a third trading route
  • Improved tooltip consistency.
  • General balance adjustments
  • General fixes and tidying.

0.1.0c 16 May 2014:
  • Additional terrain improvements by Kino.
  • More bug fixes and improvements.
  • Some undocumented/unknown improvements.

0.0.8c 01 Feb 2014:
  • The map has received a large terrain makeover thanks to Kino! Kino has done more work
    in two days on the terrain than I could do in two weeks. Do check it out!
  • Your farm of neutral monsters is now displayed in the multiboard
  • A second trade-related job has been added
  • Three new tier-3 cannons have been added
  • Paracopter now has a unique ability: SL-15 Shroud Generator
  • The music has been extended slightly
  • Various small bug fixes and improvements

0.0.7? 21 Jan 2014:
  • Helicopter now has a unique ability
  • Created multiboard and some basic stat tracking
  • Added bounties for pvp
  • Dying no longer drops your items
  • Repair port should be fixed in multiplayer (?)
  • Can no longer drop and pick up items to abuse item sale trigger
  • Added two new ships: Skybarge (basic battleship with 10 crew slots) and Zeppelin
    (basic interceptor)
  • Extended music slightly
  • Marginal terrain improvements
  • Made third tier of weapons (mostly structural change)
  • Many more small changes and improvements

0.0.6? 16 Jan 2014?:
  • Initial release.

Credits

Special thanks to Sked, author of the original Battleships map. peq and Frotty for
extensive work on the wurst language and tooling. Vexorian, MindWorX, and Pitzermike
(among others) who developed many classic snippets and tools like JassHelper, JNGP, Table,
SimError, and more. looking_for_help for discovering a new method in 2013 for recognizing
spells and physical damage independantly in damage detectors. kr0mat1k for the artwork
used in the map preview. Cage the Elephant for writing the song played in the background.
Zwiebelchen for writing TabReader, which inspired me to build Muscii. bowser499 for
creading myBoard, a multiboard framework. Kino for doing extensive Terrain work for Battle
Planes. NatDis for the Dwarven Air Force fighter. MiniMage for the GoblinAirDrone model.
HamHam for the Space Undead Fighter model.

Contributing

I will merge atomic, well-formed pull-requests if they are consistent with my design
policies and issue tracker.

Contents

Battle Planes 0.15.0 (Map)

Reviews
deepstrasz
An interesting mech AoS with a multitude of weapons and aircrafts to battle with. It has combat (based on units as a crew + items) and shop systems, the latter being based on pages. It comes with a scoreboard too. The pathways are unsure because of...

deepstrasz

Map Reviewer
Level 68
Joined
Jun 4, 2009
Messages
18,706
An interesting mech AoS with a multitude of weapons and aircrafts to battle with. It has combat (based on units as a crew + items) and shop systems, the latter being based on pages.
It comes with a scoreboard too.
The pathways are unsure because of the terrain as some units fly very close to the ground.

There could also be a restart option.

This should be tested in multiplayer too.
Approved.
---------------------------------------------------
Always check/recheck the Map Submission Rules! (Map Submission Rules)

Screenshots could attract more players to download your work. More (diversity) would be advised.

If you want more reviews, come here:
The Grand Review Exchange!
 

Cokemonkey11

Code Reviewer
Level 29
Joined
May 9, 2006
Messages
3,516
Today's update brings the following:
  • Fixed a major bug where players get gold if they destroy themselves.
  • Music can now be disabled with the `-music` command.
  • Fixed a minor bug that allowed players to select other pages of keep and utility port.
  • Minor increase to DTS-12 projectile height to aid with aiming.
  • Reduced the cooldown time on the Sell Crewmember ability.
  • Replaced singleplayer chat commands from backslash to hyphen.
 
Level 24
Joined
Nov 9, 2006
Messages
2,558
I remember playing it on Bnet.
It looked nice, played decently.
I guess it just needs more content.
Not sure why anyone would want play it over Bships or Btanks at the moment though.
You need to add something exlusive over those maps if you want people to play it.

I would recommend a name change, because if you're not a native english speaker you probably don't know what "Gorge" means.
If you had called the map "Battleplanes", people would try it out just for the sake of it and you would actually get players.

I think the weapon system is needlessly complex.
Just use items like every other battle- map, because thats what people are used to and when they play your map they can pick it up instantly and play it.
Theres nothing that grinds my gear more than when i have 1 or 2 minutes trying to figure out recipe systems or complex systems in a map, while simaltenously losing the game because i'm not present at the battlefield.
(Recipe systems should die in a coal fire, its the worst thing you can add to a map.)

I don't remember how the weapons worked.
Please don't use Phoenix Fire for attacks, that ability is so dumb.
Instead make dummy units with attack, that you hide and periodically update their position to your hero through SetUnitX(loc)SetUnitY(loc).
This opens the possibility of mini-stun attacks, crits., maybe even spells thrown out at a periodic rate.
The thing about Phoenix Fire is that it hits randomly, so if you can make your map have attacks target only your closest foe then it would be an incredible improvement.

Oh yeah and i rememember the jazz music.
Just remove it please.
Nobody wants music.
Especially not in the sound channel.
Most people have music off in order to listen to their own music.
 
Last edited:

Cokemonkey11

Code Reviewer
Level 29
Joined
May 9, 2006
Messages
3,516
> I remember playing it on Bnet.
> It looked nice, played decently.
> I guess it just needs more content.

Thanks for the feedback!

I've bumped up the priority of these issues, based on your feedback:

* Cokemonkey11 / the-gorge / issues / #19 - Create frigate sustain ability — Bitbucket
* Cokemonkey11 / the-gorge / issues / #23 - Create second tier of ships — Bitbucket
* Cokemonkey11 / the-gorge / issues / #24 - Create second tier of items — Bitbucket
* Cokemonkey11 / the-gorge / issues / #21 - Create interceptor attack ability — Bitbucket
* Cokemonkey11 / the-gorge / issues / #20 - Create battleship sustain ability — Bitbucket

Feel free to also use the "vote" feature in issues, if you have a bitbucket account.

> Not sure why anyone would want play it over Bships or Btanks at the moment though.

I think it's pretty early days to compare this basic map to those, but here are some design decisions which I hope will drive its success in future. Feel free to comment:

* Game time should be ~25 minutes, compared to ~45 for battleships pro.
* Bias for action (big damage and low sustain is a big part of the game to encourage action and decision making)
* More MOBA themes (more action, less grind, more skillshots, more of a focus on modern game design ideals)
* Fresh (everything is new, and open to change)

> You need to add something exlusive over those maps if you want people to play it.

I think the addition of more ships and abilities is going to be a driving factor for players to play more The Gorge.

> I would recommend a name change, because if you're not a native english speaker you probably don't know what "Gorge" means.
> If you had called the map "Battleplanes", people would try it out just for the sake of it and you would actually get players.

I think it's a shame for players not to join based on the name. Nonetheless, I've made Cokemonkey11 / the-gorge / issues / #64 - Consider renaming the map to "Battle planes" or similar — Bitbucket to track this.

> I think the weapon system is needlessly complex.

What is complex about it? Do you mean "complicated"?

> Just use items like every other battle- map, because thats what people are used to and when they play your map they can pick it up instantly and play it.

I think that attracting battleships and battle tanks players are not the *only* intended audience.

And I think if we can do better, we should. For now, let's focus on making the existing system easier to onboard. I've bumped up the priority for Cokemonkey11 / the-gorge / issues / #47 - Figuring out crewmembers is not noob friendly enough — Bitbucket based on your feedback.

> Theres nothing that grinds my gear more than when i have 1 or 2 minutes trying to figure out recipe systems or complex systems in a map, while simaltenously losing the game because i'm not present at the battlefield.

Great feedback - noted.

> (Recipe systems should die in a coal fire, its the worst thing you can add to a map.)

I think recipes can be made elegantly. The item upgrades in battle tanks are pretty noob friendly, for example - no?

I agree that dota and Battleships Crossfire recipes are pretty awful.

> I don't remember how the weapons worked.

Feedback noted!

> Please don't use Phoenix Fire for attacks, that ability is so dumb.

That's a cornerstone for the map, and it won't change. Frankly, it's the only driving factor for making aiming interesting in battleships style maps.

> Instead make dummy units with attack, that you hide and periodically update their position to your hero through SetUnitX(loc)SetUnitY(loc).

Have you tried Naval Combat? Naval Combat v1.05e - Warcraft 3 Maps - Epic War.com That game might be more suitable for your interests.

> This opens the possibility of mini-stun attacks, crits., maybe even spells thrown out at a periodic rate.

Why do you think that phoenix fire doesn't permit us to do this? We already have slow-attack, bonus damage on execute, etc.

> The thing about Phoenix Fire is that it hits randomly, so if you can make your map have attacks target only your closest foe then it would be an incredible improvement.

That would be an incredible change to the fundamentals of the gameplay. Don't forget that Battleships Pro had an active competitive scene for real pro gamers for years.

> Oh yeah and i rememember the jazz music.
> Just remove it please.
> Nobody wants music.
> Especially not in the sound channel.

You can disable with -music command.

Feedback noted, though. Cokemonkey11 / the-gorge / issues / #37 - Music/muscii gets repetitive — Bitbucket
 

Cokemonkey11

Code Reviewer
Level 29
Joined
May 9, 2006
Messages
3,516

Cokemonkey11

Code Reviewer
Level 29
Joined
May 9, 2006
Messages
3,516
Today's update provides two relatively major changes:

- Reworked vision/pathing to behave more like classic Battleships.
- Disabled global trading and added a send-gold ability to trader.

The result is a massive balance and gameplay change that should open the door for more defensive play, make more weapons more practical, and raise the skill ceiling.
 

Cokemonkey11

Code Reviewer
Level 29
Joined
May 9, 2006
Messages
3,516
Today's update pays quite a lot of tech debt for object data.

The point of this refactoring is to clean up the crewmembers - they now fit into either short, medium, long-range, or special category.

This update also adds a tier 2 hull and tier 2 shield-generator.

---

I'm starting to get burned out working on this without much ability to playtest since battle.net seems to be dying down. I'll probably take a break.
 

Cokemonkey11

Code Reviewer
Level 29
Joined
May 9, 2006
Messages
3,516
Major update!

See the changelog for all the details, but the summary is:

New frigate, new battleship, and new interceptor. The new ships form a new "tier 2" range at 400 gold.

The new frigate (Gunship) has a huge damage single-target ability, and the only hard CC (stun) in the game.

The new battleship (Flying Fortress) has a low-cooldown, soft crowd-control ability; and the only silence in the game.

The new interceptor (Fire Ship) can move at over 1000 units/per second and has an execute ability that deals bonus damage when moving at greater speed.

In addition, this update includes some major performance improvements!

As always, I'm looking for feedback.
 

Cokemonkey11

Code Reviewer
Level 29
Joined
May 9, 2006
Messages
3,516
We've rebranded! The map is now called "Battle Planes"!

I've bundled up 3 releases today as there was a fair bit of progress in the last couple weeks. So this is a jump from 0.14.0 to 0.14.3:

- reduced performance cost of a number of abilities and systems
- increased tier-2 ship cost
- fixed a bug in disruptor beam
- reduced starting gold
- increased turret hit points
- fixed a bug in flight mode and adjusted responsiveness

Special thanks to @Frotty who made the new map preview image!
 
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