- Joined
- Feb 1, 2008
- Messages
- 128
IMPORTANT
I'm sorry to announce that I don't work anymore on the map. StarCraft II is now my principal game occupation, and if you want to know more, I'm very interested in the new Galaxy Editor and began a map 
. But Animal Life II isn't dead anyway, thanks to WherewolfTherewolf, the project is still living and will (we all hope so) be release someday. If you want to help or tell somthing about the map, don't hesitate !Hello people of the HiveWorkShop, let me introduce you a project I began in july 2009. This map is the second version of my first ORPG map, Animals' Life. It had a little success when I released it, and it's still played sometimes at the moment on Battle.Net.
For more informations about Animals' Life I, you can go on the topic of the map, or on the map download page.
₪ • Animal Life II - The Reborn • ₪
BETA Version...
₪ - History
Everybody in the world, with enough of consciousness on the world, imagined at once one time what could be the life of the creatures which share the same world as our one, what could be their thoughts, their true way of life, their most hidden secrets. Although humans could imagine many things, this community doesn't share a lot of things, and the only real link we will never forge with animals is living together. There is though one easy solution to get closer of an animal life, which consists in getting under the skin of them in a role playing game. And that's what made me realize this project.
I present to you Animal Life II, a project which seems to be a very original mod in the universe of Warcraft III. You'll incarnate a real animal, in a real environment, and you'll have to pass trough all the dangers the nature can give to survive, explore the local world, and constitute your own family. Fight the various animals that inhabit these earths, create alliances with the other players, and hunt your enemies. Or live a more peaceful life, in horde with the animals of your species, but you'll always need to fight to get resources and useful items.
₪ - Animals
They are the creatures you will control, so the most important in the game. Here is a description of every animal.
₪ - Bear
For the moment, no description available, I will do it later, probably when the beta will be released...
₪ - Boar
For the moment, no description available, I will do it later, probably when the beta will be released...
₪ - Scorpion
For the moment, no description available, I will do it later, probably when the beta will be released...
₪ - Spider
For the moment, no description available, I will do it later, probably when the beta will be released...
₪ - Stag
For the moment, no description available, I will do it later, probably when the beta will be released...
₪ - Turtle
For the moment, no description available, I will do it later, probably when the beta will be released...
₪ - Wolf
For the moment, no description available, I will do it later, probably when the beta will be released...
₪ - Features
The map isn't finished yet, and I did not release a Beta for the moment, but I'll tell you some features I made for the map.
₪ - Animal selection system
I made my own selection system, which works with trackables. This system allows you to :
- Select an animal ;
- Select its sex ;
- See its model and hear its voice ;
- See its stats ;
- Have informations about its abilities ;
- Select the language for the game.
Here is a little video I made, the system wasn't finished yet, but you can see the most of its features.
₪ - Couple system
This is the same system as in Animals' Life 1 ; you can couple with the animals of the same species as your one, to get sex (yeah, everyone wants to !) and babies. Children will be able to fight with you, so you can more easily go against enemies. But care, if they die, they won't revive.
There are two sorts of couple : mammal and oviparous. The mammal will have to wait after the couple act, that the female gets laid of her babies. If she dies during she's waiting for children, the children will disappear. When the female is ready to get laid, she'll have to do it as soon as possible, because if she waits too long, she'll lose hp very quickly. To get laid, the female should not be attacked for a little moment (~10 seconds) ; so a female won't be able to get laid during a combat. The oviparous will lay eggs just after the couple act. Eggs can't be moved, and they are vulnerable, so the parents have to couple in a hidden place, or they have to protect the eggs against creeps and enemies. The time before the eggs hatch is the same as the mammal to get laid.
Of course, a mammal female can't have sex when she is pregnant, and oviparous female can't lay other eggs when they already have.
Video of the system (same as the selection system, I reworked on it so this video doesn't show the final system).
₪ - Artificial Intelligence system
I decided to create an IA system because in Animals' Life 1 it was boring to fight against "static" creeps. So I made a system allowing to create groups of creeps, and allocate a patrol path for it. So when you create a group, you add animals, then you add some patrol locations, and finally you create paths between some of the location. Then the group will patrol randomly between the locations, but they'll respect the paths. Notice that a group won't go back to the previous location it was, unless there is no other path for the location it is. When a unit of the group dies, it'll be revived when all the other units will be at a checkpoint and not attacked. Let see how it works with an example :
Let's say I create a group of 3 wolves at the location A, this is their start location. Then I create four other patrol location : B, C, D and E. But now I need to allocate paths between these locations. In the example, I created paths between A-B, B-C, B-D, C-E, D-E. So first, the group will go on the location B, because it has no choice. Then, location B has three paths : A, C, D. It won't be able to go on A because it was the last one, so it will go on C or D. Here, wherever it is between C and D, it will go on E. The, if his last one was C, he will go on D, and inversely. Etc. I think you understood.
A little example video :
₪ - Eat system
As in Animals' Life 1, every animal will be able to eat. What can be eaten depends of the animal, and there are three types of food : insects, plants and corpses. Insects are eaten by little animals like spiders and scorpions ; plants are for herbivores like turtle and stag ; corpses are the food for carnivorous like bears and wolves. You will find food everywhere. Insects and plants are present all on the map, and corpses appear when you an animal is killed.
Why is it useful to eat ? Because when you eat something, you'll get back some hit points, and also energy. Energy is the mana, and is very important, because it shows how is your animal. When energy reaches zero, you'll have some "problems".
The amount of hp healed will depend on several factors. First, for insects and plants, more the insect/plant has hp, more hp you will get back. But it also depends on one of your animal's three stats. About corpses, it's different, when you begin to eat a corpse, a little bar will appear, then more long you'll eat on the corpse, more it will lose hp, and more your bar will progress. If the bar reaches the maximal, or if the corpse doesn't have hp anymore, your animal stops eating, and he will begin to get hp and energy back, and the amount depends on how many meat quantity has been eaten.
Like previous systems, I made a video to see how it looks in game :
₪ - Chat system
This is one of the biggest change for the second version of the map, I totally remade Warcraft III players chat system, to make it better for a ORPG map, and more user-friendly. The messages are not displayed normally, they are displayed by in-game text messages, so it allowed me to add more options. Here is a list of all the commands I currently added :
- Whisp : the same as the normal one, but in game. You can whisp every player in the game by using the command .w {player name} {message} ;
- Smilies : I imported a custom font, so I've been able to create smilies. Some examples of smilies you can use :
- → ☻ ;
- <3 → ♥ ;
- :male: → ♂ ;
- :female: → ♀ ;
- And others...
- Smilies color : you can change the color of your smilies : .sc {color} or .sc !{%red} {%green} {%blue} ;
- Me : the same as Battle.Net channels : .me {message}, the text will appear in grey ;
- Ally : the entered message will be displayed only to allies : .ally {message} ;
- All : the entered message will be displayed to all players : .all {message} ;
- To ally : the next messages will be displayed only to allies : .toally ;
- To all : the next messages will be displayed to all players : .toall ;
- Ignore : allows you to ignore a player's messages and notifications : .ignore {player name} ;
- Unignore : will allow a player's messages and notifications to be displayed : .unignore {player name} ;
- Wizz : will wizz a player's screen : .wizz {player name}
- Clear : clears the screen messages : .cl.
The system is very easy to modify, so I can easily add other commands on the future, and smilies too. A little video :
₪ - Alliance system
This system is very similar as the one in Animals' Life 1, but I entirely remade it, with vJass this time, so it has been really easier to create something not as buged as it could be.
In what does it consist of ? Every player can create alliances with the other players, so he can be ally or enemy with them as he wants to. The system is made like the clan system on Battle.Net, every player can create is own clan, and then invite the other players with no clan. The chieftain of a clan is the only one who can manage it, meaning he can invite players in his clan, kick them when he wants to, or just dissolve the clan. Players with no clan can anyway send to a chieftain a request to enter his clan, and when they are in the clan they can leave it whenever they want to.
An option allows you to lock your alliance parameters. When you locked it, players are not able to send you text box, like when they invite you in the clan, or if you are a chieftain the others can't send you any request. It is here to counter all the kikoololmao-players who can really find it very funny to spam another player's screen with many requests.
I also added a "auto-refresh" system. It means that, for example, if you are on the page where you can send a request to a chieftain, and when you are just ready to click on the button the player dissolves his clan : your page will automatically be refreshed so that the clan doesn't appear anymore. Another common example is when you are in a clan, and you look the main-menu page, and during this time the clan is dissolved : the page is refreshed, so you now see a page like if you were not in a clan.
This system is really more pleasant than the one in the first version of the ORPG, and I invite you to see this little example video :
₪ - Languages
As in Animals' Life 1, it was important for me to create the map with several languages, so more people are able to play it with less difficulties. For the moment, only English and French are available, but if I can in the future I'll try to implement German and maybe other.
You can easily change your language in game : at your revive point the will be a unit which will propose to you every language.
I tried to translate as much things as I could. So the following translations are done : the text-messages, the abilities, the help log (F12), the items. But it is always possible to see something that is not in your default language, for example if you look at the items of another player which doesn't have the same language as you, the description will be different. Anyway, I think it is really better to change almost everything in a language you choose, so although there can be some "bugs", players will have to play with.
₪ - Energy
For the moment I've not worked a lot on this system, but the energy will be your mana, and you will have to keep it as high as possible all the time. You will lose some energy every second, depending on what items you wear, what is the weather, and maybe some other factors. Using abilities will also take you some energy.
If your energy reaches zero, your animal will have some problems. I think that I won't kill it, I'll make it lose all its hp except one, then it will begin to sleep for sometime, to recover about 5-10% of its energy, then he will wake up.
It will force the players to be care to their energy, because if they don't, their animal will become very vulnerable, and if they meet an enemy, they will not get many chances to avoid the attacks.
You will be able to recover energy by eating something, or by sleeping somewhere. I did not add the sleep ability for the moment, but I described the eat system, so you know how it works.
₪ - Screenshots
Not available for the moment
₪ - Progress
For the moment, I worked a lot on the big systems I told you on this topic. I've not worked on the terrain, on the spells and some other things like creeps. The quest system will be a library from a framework realized by a friend, so I won't have to create my own. For now, I'll try to release the first beta as soon as possible, so it won't be complete at all, many things will be missing, but people will be allowed to tell me their first feed backs, idea and bug-reports.
When will the first beta be released ? I don't know, and I prefer not to give a date, because I am not sure to be able to finish it for given times. I am a student, I'm at school, and I have a life, so I can't work on it all the time. But I will do all my possible !
₪ - Recruitment [!]
To work faster on the map, I would appreciate some help if people are motivated. I'm searching for :
₪ - An English translator / corrector
The work consists in helping me to have a perfect translation of all texts written in English, in the map but also on this site (and this topic for example
). So if someone knows that he has a (really !) good English level, and wants to help me, please contact me with a private message.₪ - A terrain designer [OK : WherewolfTherewolf is the terrainer]
Terrain is a big part of work I guess, and I'm not a good terrain designer at all. So I really need help from someone to make a good terrain for at least the first creep area, which is in a forest. Please, if you know how to make good quality terrains and have nothing to do for the moment, contact me !
If you contact me, please attach some screenshots or/and maps to show me what you are able to do. I don't want a perfect terrain, but I don't want to give this task to someone who mapped 2 hours in his life too... So, if you think you have the level, contact me (and don't forget screenshots/maps !) and I will tell you if I think you are able to do what I want, or not.
₪ - Beta testers
I think I don't really need to tell it, but I will need testers when the beta will be released. Being a tester doesn't mean only to play the map with friends, it also mean to report me everything you can tell about the map : feedbacks, bugs, suggestions, ideas, etc. It is something I really need, because my own tests don't show me all the bugs there can be, so please don't forget to notice it when you see a bug : write it on a paper or somewhere else, if you can take a screenshot, and if you don't forget save the LastReplay file (in Warcraft 3 -> Replays directory), then send me all here or by private message.
Maybe I did not thank enough all people who helped me by this way in Animals' Life 1, but I will do it here : thanks to every tester, and everyone who reports me things, you maybe don't know how important reports can be, but they are !
Working for me doesn't mean that you have to do something very fast, I'll give you all the time you need. Just don't take 3 months to do your work if you can do it in 2 days, that's better for me and the map. And if you are too long, I will probably prefer asking someone else to do the task, so don't come and say "I NEED TO DO THIS !!11" if you know you won't do it, thanks.
To be continued...
Last edited:
