Ability Brainstorming

[Ardnived]

I am not 100% sure this is the right forum.

Anyways, I am working on a map called Squadron Arena/Tactics (Working Title). Which is what this topic is for, the Project Exposition can be found here; I suggest you read it, it may look long, but the content is light.
Squadron Tactics (Working Title)

Most of the information here is clarification to help you understand what sort of abilities I need. If you don't want to read it you can skip straight to Classes, and see what abilities I need.

1. Overview
2. Abilities
3. Categories
4. Classes
5. Links

Overview
For this map I am eventually going to need quite a few, hopefully, unique abilities, and furthermore they need to help gear the game towards teamwork.

Possible Abilities per Class: 18
Classes per Race: 5
Races: 3
Total Abilities Needed: 270

Which as you can see is quite a large task. No worries though, I plan to start off with a few abilities and work my way up to that over time.



Abilities
To start with I think 6 abilities per class is a reasonable amount. 2 Offensive, 2 Defensive, and 2 Support Abilities.

What I am trying to do with this map is create a very team intensive gameplay, where you will work together with 3 other players in your squad, hopefully even to the point where people develop set teams that could be ranked together. Read the Project Exposition for more info on that, but my point is that the abilities need to work towards that goal.



Categories
There are 3 categories of abilities that each class can choose from, as can bee seen in this screenshot; Squad Creation Screen

Offensive
Offensive abilities are obviously geared towards dealing damage. However, in the interest or teamwork, they could be dependant on allies casting certain abilities, or do bonuses when you have certain buffs, or perhaps leave you vulnerable and in need of healing, or something else.

Defensive
Defensive abilities would buff yourself or provide a shield. Generally speaking defensive abilities would probably help you, but perhaps a shield could extend beyond you like the Sentry Shield, or as with offensive they could be influenced by buffs

Support
These would generally deal with buffing and healing allies. For example one idea I have for a Queen ability, makes her spread creep around here (Much faster than in melee of course), which will give healing and perhaps movement or other bonuses to your allied zerg squad members.


These are mainly suggestions to keep people from going way off with there suggestions, but the interests of teamwork overrule any of this, so if you have an ability that doesn't work in a way I have suggested thats even better!



Classes
I wont neccesarily need all the classes to be available from the start, if I did that would still be 90 abilities needed. So lets start as small as is reasonable; These are the classes, and the ones that need abilities, I will update this as people come up with abilities

Although ultimately each class will be able to be played in a variety of ways, for the time being since there are so few classes I am going to try and gear them towards certain roles, and that is reflected in the ability types I am asking for.

Terran

• Marine [Needs 3 Offensive, 3 Defensive]
• Marauder [Needs 1 Offensive, 4 Defensive, 1 Support]
• Reaper
• SCV [Needs 2 Defensive, 4 Support]
• Ghost

Protoss

• Zealot [Needs 2 Offensive, 3 Defensive, 1 Support]
• Shadow Templar (Lenassa) [Needs 4 Offensive, 1 Defensive, 1 Support]
• Dark Templar (Zera'tai)
• High Templar [Needs 2 Offensive, 4 Support]
• Archon

Zerg

• Zergling [Needs 4 Offensive, 2 Defensive]
• Roach
• Hydralisk [Needs 2 Offensive, 3 Defensive, 1 Support]
• Infested Marine
• Queen [Needs 1 Offensive, 2 Defensive, 3 Support]

If you have an idea for a class feel free to suggest it even if I don't need one there, you might replace an old one, or yours might be held for a later release.



Links
Sc2Mapster - Project Section
Sc2Mapster - Project Exposition
Sc2Mapster - Ability Brainstorming
The Hive Workshop - Project Exposition
The Hive Workshop - Ability Brainstorming
MapCraft - Ability Brainstorming

 

[Ardnived]

Well a mod can move it to where it should be

Hmm, certainly something like that could probably work, seems like it needs a little something more though. :/

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Psionic Cloak

Shadow Templar - Defensive
Activated

The Shadow Templar weaves a cloak of psionic energy around himself, shielding his presence from the eyes of his enemies. Attacking or using abilities breaks the Templar's concentration and thus dissipates the cloak.

- - - -

Phase Shift

Zealot - Defensive
Activated

The Zealot shifts out of phase for a maximum of [Psionics x 1.0] seconds, avoiding incoming damage. While phased out the zealot:
Cannot use any physical attacks
Can move through obstacles
Takes double effects from Psionic abilities (Healing or Damaging)

- - - -

Generate Creep

Queen - Support
Active/Passive

The queen will constantly generate a medium-sized trail of creep as she walks. When used, this ability causes the creep to grow rapidly to a large radius around her current location. The creep provides bonuses to zerg units.

- - - -

Accelerate Metabolism

Queen - Support
Active

The queen accelerates the metabolism of a target unit, causing their regeneration to increase by [Control x 10]%. However this causes the unit to lose some energy. There is still a regular energy cost for the queen.

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These abilities are kind of just to get a few of the obvious ones out there. They don't quite help the teamwork so much (Which is why I made this topic).

But please feel free to comment on other peoples ability suggestions, especially mine, to help improve them.

 

[Sephalo]

I see you're using the SCV as a class for terran.
I don't want to tell you what to do or anything, but I find the Viking (Assault mode) a much better unit. You might want to think of making him playable? Which would work out with a nice ability aswel to make him go flight form for X sec or something.

 

[Ardnived]

Well yeah I thought about the SCV not being the best unit, but I don't really want to use people... if you know what I mean... units as opposed to vehicles.

I just don't think a viking or a tank, immortal, etc. would really fit in very well :/


However, I have thought about giving the SCV some abilities to perhaps construct or spawn with a vehicle, which could then be operated by the SCV or by teammates.
Essentially you could in fact select all skills that give bonuses to vehicles, and then just get into one at the start.

I was thinking about making a tank available, but perhaps a viking as well.

And to improve the teamwork aspect, you could make the vehicles have multiple operators, like one person drives the tank and the other controls the main cannon, or the like.

 

[1)arkdemon]

I believe the Infested Marine should be replaced with the Infestor seeing as how it isnt really all that big, it could be the spell caster for the Zerg like how the High Templar is for the Protoss. I guess he could have a bit buffed abilities of his melee counterpart and be capable of spawning weak infested marine summons for distraction/defense of the Infestor.

 

[Ardnived]

I don't really have a problem with that, but I like having the Infested Marine in there because it gives a bit more variety to the zerg units in my opinion. Additionally I can give it some of the abilities that normally only terran players would get through the marine.

The Queen is kind of filling that support caster role. I'm not really sure what sort of abilities I would give to the Infestor though; I don't really like the idea of an Infested Marine summon.

 

[doombringer]

I have a couple of ideas but I just want a bit of clarification on some things

Do you want any units to have detection normally or as an ability

Is the zergling supposed to be a fast attacker that takes out hero's that are alone

You dont have any ability suggestions eg 2 offensive etc for the reaper does that mean you already have abilities for him or that you havent decided what types of abilities he should have?

 

[Ardnived]

Detection as an ability.

Yes the zergling is supposed to be a fast attacker, to harass people I suppose, but yes it could be good for taking out isolated heroes.

If they don't have any suggestions that just means I didn't plan to have them in the first release. Ultimately every single class should have 6 Offensive, 6 Defensive, and 6 Support. But that would mean 270 abilities! So I am just starting with a few abilities for a few classes.

However if you have ideas for those classes, or additional ideas for the ones that do have suggestions, you are more than welcome to post them! I will use them later, or if I get enough for one of the classes I will include them in the first release.



Also, if you would like to post icons with the abilities, like I did above (Since it can help to give an idea of the ability) I have uploaded all of the Starcraft 2 Icons in .png format to a Photobucket Album, feel free to use them whenever you need to.

 

[doombringer]

Ok here are some suggestions
obviously the numbers are just placeholders

Blinding Bile

Zergling - Offensive
Activated

The Zergling Produces a thick bile that is spewed over an enemy when bitten. The bile reduces the sight range of the enemy to 2 and removes any detection that the enemy has for 7 seconds.


Burrow

Zergling - Defensive
Activated

The Zergling Burrows underground to allow itself to heal and recover. Restores 2% of maximun health per second while underground but takes double damage from any attacks. Takes 2 seconds to burrow or unburrow


Jump Pack

Reaper - Offensive
Activated

The reaper flies into the air using its powerful jump pack. This allows the reaper to be unable to be targeted by ground attacks. While the reaper is in the air it's attack speed is reduced by 30% due to the difficulty of aiming while flying.


Sludge Spores

Infested Marines - Offensive
Activated

The Infested Marine releases a cloud of sticky spores from within its own body that cling to all nearby enemies causing them to be unable to move and to have their attack speed crippled by 50%. Lasts 3 seconds.


Lambent Field

Archon - Support
Passive

The Archon constantly Emmits a glowing field around itself that feeds on nearby matter via bolts of lightning that are only sated temporarily by the casting of abilites. Every second an enemy unit within the field will be struck by lighting that emmits from the Archon dealing 50 damage. However if a enemy unit casts a ability in the field the field will not emmit lightning for 3 seconds.


Suppression

Archon - Offensive
Active

The Archon creates a blast of energy that causes all enemies in the field to take 10 damage to their energy per second and if they cast an ability they use twice as much energy. Lasts 10 seconds

Hope they are useful

 

[Ardnived]

Blinding Bite
For an Activated ability they has to be some downside or it's basically a passive (Activated, means that you can turn it on/off)

Burrow
Sounds good, I was thinking about allowing all zerg units to choose a burrow ability. Although I have decided thats what they will do when they "jump". Probalby not double damage though, maybe x1.5

Jump Pack
So he hovers in the air, and attacks normally? I think perhaps reducing accuracy might be better (Since you click to fire, I would just make it hit a random spot in a radius around your click)

Sludge Spores
Too simple in my opinion. Many of these abilities aren't really incorporating the teamwork aspect that I am striving for.

Lambent Field
I don't really want to use Passive abilities, plus it seems way too powerful for passive. It could work as an Activated ability though. Perhaps it might have an effect on allies too though. Either they can't cast abilities, or their abilities also interfere with it.



Thanks for the ideas

Incase you haven't noticed in my descriptions a bunch of times I use [Psionics] or [Control] in place of numbers. These are attributes. Each race has 3 attributes that all their classes use, you can choose the numbers for these attributes (Between 5 and 20) when you create your character.

Terran

• Stamina
• Accuracy
• Power

Protoss

• Vitality
• Dexterity
• Psionics

Zerg

• Strength
• Agility
• Control

 

[doombringer]

Hiya maybe some small changes and explanations are needed

Blinding bile maybe sould be changed to a passive that activates once every # times he is bitten

maybe make the blinding bite cover the oppenent's screen in bile instead of reducing vision?

The zergling burrow is supposed to synergize with blinding bile because of the suppression of detection and to allow harrasment because of regen.

I had the attack speed reduction for jump pack rather than accuracy coz I dislike randomness.

Your right that sludge spores is to boring. Maybe something like adding a parasite effect to it?

Lambent field would actully be better as an activated now that I think about it and is supposed to synergize with Suppression while still allowing it to be useful again enemies that mainly use physical attacks.

Obviosly the numbers are tweakable.

 

[Ardnived]

|Well as I said I don't really want any passive abilities, but I think it would work fine as an Active ability. Passive abilities will be covered by upgrades (Each player will be able to choose 2 out of 4 different upgrades for their hero).

|I do really like the idea of having it actually have a graphic over the screen instead of reducing vision Especially since I never planned to have any vision int he first place, all will be revealed, though your camera will be locked to your hero.

|Didn't notice the anti detection the first time But all in all it's not so much about synergy, it's about teamwork I am looking for.

|I am not quite sure what you mean by a parasite effect, but actually I already got an ability like that (I think), someone suggest it on Sc2mapster, which I then edited up a bit

Corruption

Queen - Offensive
Active

The Queen infects an enemy unit with a parasite. It eats away at the unit dealing [Control x 0.2] damage per second. If the unit dies while under the effects of this ability, it spawns a swarm of broodlings relative to the unit's size. The broodlings will then escort the Queen until death. Whenever the Queen has broodlings escorting her she gains an ability that allows here to send some of them to escort an allied unit instead. Can only target organic units.

 

[Dr Super Good]

It would not be SC2 without a good old nuke.

Deals damage in a large area (I mean very large like almost a screen but not all of it receives the full damage) by firing a nuke at the target area. Damage hurts firends and foes with a possible 25% reduction to the caster. Buildings take different damage ratings (more if buildings are extreemly tough and less if buildings are very important, up to you). Bascily, attributes are used to improve the aiming time of the missle and reduce the impact time, it can also move once the missle is aimed and so does not need to stand there helplessly. Additionally one attribute (closest to intelligence your map will have) will boost the cooldown rate of the spell slightly. The nukes come in multiple different levels of power. Firing as soon as cooldown is finished will only lauch a mini nuke which is still powerful for a damaging spell but with smallis area. Waiting for an extended period of time after the nuke has cooled down will upgrade the nukes potency and speed (less time till it impacts). You can also enhance the nuke with money (maximum ammount based on some attribute) but will have to make an additional rush penalty unless missle stage 2 is reached. The nuke effect is clearly visible to all players and is moderatly easy to avoid if you react to it as soon as you can. Damage of the nuke drops off with area (you can still be nearish the nuke but take only some damage with the centre being only very strong).

Basically it serves only a few specific purposes.
1. Busting stationary positions.
2. Hearding enemies (as they will have to move).
3. Softening/mopping up enemies.

No one's hero should ever receive the full damage from the nuke due to it being very noticable and a longish delay between impact and warning.

As for a marine's hero ability.
RPG attachment
Adds a rocket attack to the marine which hits air, large or mechanical units and can be fired while he attacks normally and while moving. Each shot however costs a sum of energy. The missles are moderatly powerful dealing bonous damage to large units. They have splash which only damages organic units for very little damage. Attributes give a chance to refund some energy with each use (so cost goes down towards 0 which probably should be impossible to obtain). The ability is an on/off toggleable.

This abilitiy turns the marine from a gun wielding nut into a power house capable of applying pressure to dangerous units for as long as his energy permits it.
Its strengths are...
Grealy increases damage output on air, mechanical or large units.
The marine can freely move or attack other targets while still using the missles.
Devestating to organic armies which are not spread out.

Its weaknesses are...
Costly, chews a lot of energy leaving you without energy for other abilities.
Usless against small organic units unless there is something big nearby.
AoE damages self if target is too close.

Hope these help.

 

[Ardnived]

Nuke sounds like a nice idea, my only concern is balance, which is an important aspect to this map. But I think I will certainly try it and see if it works. If not it may be used not as a standard ability but as some sort of objective ability in the Story Mode.


The RPG Attachment, just wouldn't really make sense though For a couple reason;
There will be no air enemies
The map uses a point-and-click system for attacking
The Marine's secondary weapon are grenades, which kind of already fulfill that role


Thanks for the suggestions though
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These abilities go in conjunction with these ones; http://forums.sc2mapster.com/development/map-development/2640-ability-brainstorming/?page=2#p21
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Heavy Weapons

SCV - Offensive
Active

Grants an offensive gunner ability to SCV's vehicle.
Siege Tank: Siege Mode
Helion: Light Mortar
Viking: MT50 Lanzer Torpedoes

- - - -

Support Attachment

SCV - Support
Active

Grants a support pilot ability to SCV's vehicle.
Siege Tank:
Helion:
Viking: Radar Scan (Detector)

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Couldn't think of support abilities for the tank and hellion.

 

[Dr Super Good]

Artillery support.
Basically what is meant to happen is an orbiting battle cruiser fires Artillery from space. Would be great for ghost like units.
Fires Artillery shells randomly within a huge area. Artillery damage improves with attributes. Artillery radius is small but will hurt allies (possibility of small reduction if needed). Artillery damage is pretty powerful but the randomness of it means there is a chance to completly miss most shots.

Use:
Damage against large groups of enemies.
Pushing by damage threat (people will retreat to avoid damage).

Weakness:
Near usless against single targets due to chance of more than 1 shell hitting is low.
Will hurt allies in the area if a shell hits near them.

 

[Ardnived]

I rewrote, added an icon and made some changes for easier personal reference I do appreciate the Uses/Weaknesses though, thanks.

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Orbital Bombardment

Ghost - Offensive
Active

The Ghost calls in a support strike from an orbiting Battlecruiser. The Battlecruiser randomly bombards the target area with an extremely powerful laser strikes.
Friendly-fire is possible.

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Sound Good?