In the following pages, I’ll describe an idea I made up that could possibly make appearance in Warcraft 4, or a similar game. The suggestion on this page would be useful for map makers and would also enrich the possibilities in melee games or custom maps like altered melee, hero areas, or anything people can think of. There will be probably more pages of my ideas, and while they might look complicated or not good, they are really not final and might be subject to changes from my behalf. Have fun reading.
Support and feedback is always welcome.
Interactive Cooldown System (ICD)
ICD stands separated from normal ability cooldown.
Abilities can have ICD, CD or both.
Addonational options:
1. [_] Can be used or activated/deactivated by player
2. [_] Can be only used when ICD is 0%*
Having 1. off means that the skill is always on whenever ICD is under 100%. Having 1. off and 2. on means that the skill automatically activates when the ability ICD reaches 0.
Abilities can share ICDs. ICDs have their own section in the editor.
ICD options:
1. Maximum number
2. Increase type
3. Increase rate
ICD Name : Sample_1
Maximum number : [100] (value for every ICD, it’s 100 for Sample_1.)
Decrease type : removes [1 for <x points of attack damage dealt>] from ICD
Decrease rate : [x=2]
Increase type : [y <on use>]
Increase rate : [y=100] (ICD instantly becomes full, making you need to deal 200 magic damage again after you have used the ability) **
This means that once the unit with the ability deals 200 points of damage, his ICD decreases to 0%, making his ability usable, if the ability’s ICD options allow him the manual activation of the ability. The increase rate number defines the amount time the spell can be channeled or how many times it can be cast before the ICD would become 100% again. Of course, the Increase/decrease type can be many things, such as [amount] of [type] of damage dealt, HP value bigger, equal, etc. of [value], or instant (such as an ability that can be only used after the unit has killed a “Soldier” unit, for example.
In the following, I make up a unit and its abilities in a manner similar to the one of Warcraft 3 to make it easier to understand.
For now, I’ll call this unit a Battlemage.
The Battlemage is more of a hybrid unit than a caster. His basic attack is a ranged missile fired from his staff, dealing average damage. Also has average mana pool. His abilities, however, rely both on Mana and ICD.
Shocking Blow - 70 mana, 8 seconds cooldown
Blows the target in melee range with the staff, dealing 50 physical damage and applies a curse on them, which increases every magic damage on the target with 20% for 10 seconds, or 5 seconds for heroes.
Fiery air - 125 mana, 10 seconds cooldown
Fires a ray of burning-hot air onto a target in medium range, dealing 100 magic damage and slowing it down by 30% for 6 seconds, 3 seconds for heroes. Also decreases attack speed by 20% for that duration.
Let me state again that these abilities are for presentation pur-
poses only, and are by no means balanced or useful in a normal
melee game.
As you can see, the abilities above are mainly focused around
fighting individuals at close range rather than doing long-range
damage. I’ll use the third spell to explain the method of how ICD
would work for a unit with the abilities above and the one below.
Take note that the Battlemage’s shocking bowl deals physical da-
mage, while the fiery air and normal attacks deal magic damage.
Energy break - 100 mana, 30 seconds CD,
ICD : Sample_1
This ability’s ICD options are:
1. [x] Can be used or activated/deactivated by player
2. [x] Can be only used when ICD is 0%
As said before, Sample_1 (ICD group) decreases as the unit deals magic damage. He can only activate this skill once he has dealt ICD’s maxnumber*x magic damage, which in this case, is 10*20=200. Once he has reached it, he can use the ability, which instantly increases Sample_1 ICD (for that specific unit only) by increase rate (since increase type is “y increase on use”), essencially resetting the cooldown to 100%.
For now, let’s say that Energy break deals 25+[yourhp/3] damage to units around you, and 75 damage to you, if your hp is > 75. Else, it deals 25+<yourhp/2> damage to everybody around you, and kills you.
Note: At most abilities with ICD, normal CD would be highly unneeded. However, it can be still displayed with a vertical red ICD display over the icon, if needed - normal CD still stays visible.
Of course, abilities could use multiple ICDs; this means that you could make an ability that you can only use once slaying 3 “grunt” units and having a hp value of 200 or more. After that, let’s say that you get an instant +10 damage increase for 15 seconds. Let’s write an example for this.
The basic ability is a passive +10 damage ability with Sample_2 and Sample_3 ICD. The ability’s ICD options are:
1. [_] Can be used or activated/deactivated by player
2. [x] Can be only used when ICD is 0%
The 1. makes this ability automatically turn on when ICD is 0%.
ICD name : Sample_2
Maximum number : [150] (value for every ICD, chosen for simplicity)
Decrease type : removes [1 for <x grunt units killed>]
Decrease rate : [x=0.02] (50/grunt kill)
Increase type : [y <every second>]
Increase rate : [y=10] (ICD becomes 150 after the (passive, in this case) ability became active and was active for 15 seconds.
ICD name : Sample_3
Maximum number : [1]
Decrease type : removes [1 for <health over or equal to 200>]
Decrease rate : [x=1] (when health is more than 199, Sample_3 will not block the player from using the ability)
Increase type : [y <when health is less than 200>]
Increase rate : [y=1] (ICD becomes 1 after the units health becomes less than 200, blocking the user from casting until he gets healed.
Note : Although it could be possible to use 2 or more ICDs for one ability, it would seriously hurt the simiplicity of a melee game. 2 or more ICDs for an ability are not even recommended for heroes.
Mixing health/mana costs with ICDs can, however, lead to entertaining gameplay while making some unit abilities more special, since abilities won’t be only about a simple time cooldown or mana. Again, of course, I wouldn’t support making most of the abilities need one, but some higher tier skills or more special unit abilities could certainly match with some sort of ICD - and I didn’t even talk about map makers.
These could also work well for items (item abilities), which could share the same ICD.
Last of all, thank you for reading this. I’ll probably write more about my ideas later - I know that this might sound complicated, but it is not. Also, I know that it might not be perfect, this is just a mere way of myself showing of what some of us would like to see in an upcoming Warcraft-like game.
ADDONATIONAL NOTES:
*A third option might be needed called “Ability cannot change it’s own ICD”, a fourth one called “ICD doesn’t change while ability is active” a fifth one called “Global ICD”, which would make an ICD Global - any player on any unit would have to fulfill the requirements of the ICD before they could use the ability again.
**Addonational options for the increase rate and decrease rate would include item use, ability use (etc.) and timer; let’s say someone makes a flying unit that can devour. He wants the unit to be only able to spend 1 minute in the air, and otherwise regain his ICD fully in 120 seconds when he fully used it. This ability will use “Sample_flying” ICD.
ICD Name : Sample_FLYING
Maximum number : [60] (makes it easier to calculate)
Decrease type : removes [1 for <x seconds of time>] from ICD
Decrease rate : [x=2] --> Removes 1 each 2 seconds, making ICD become 0% at maximum 120 seconds.
Increase type : [y <for each second while active>]
Increase rate : [y=1] (ICD slowly increases before it becomes 60, deactivating the flying ability)
(We will add a second decrease type here to make devour increase the flying time by 20 (this is done by decreasing the cooldown meter))
Decrease type : [y <on successful use of ability |Devour|>]
Decrease rate : [y=20] (Sample_Flying ICD group for unit will decrease by 20, which, in this case, means that the flight time increases by 20)
The flying ability’s ICD options would be the following:
1. [x] Can be used or activated/deactivated by player
2. [_] Can be only used when ICD is 0%
3. [_] Ability cannot change it’s own ICD
4. [x] ICD doesn’t change while ability is active
5. [_] Global Cooldown
Here, the fourth option deactivates the increase while the ability is used/is active, this way, making the ability ICD increase by 1 every two seconds without decreasing it by 1 every second - making it only last for 120 seconds, unless the player decides to use devour.
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Making an ability refill the others ICD (items could use ICDs, too) would make it much more clear and easy to make custom maps with weapons, reloading and ammo count.
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The fifth, Global Cooldown option could be mostly used by custom mapmakers, in case they’d make a map where players would fight to gain control over a powerful artifact or building that has a big cooldown on its abilities. WIth a “decreases by time, increases to 100% on use”, the player who controls the building/artifact in that time can take advantage of the ability.
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Some abilities might use more ICDs (not recommended); In that case, all of their Conditions must be fulfilled before the unit can activate them.
