Battleforge

[Wazzz]

Battleforge is an RTS mod inspired by many sources with gameplay stylized with Starcraft Brood War in mind. There are elements of Heroes of Might and Magic, Warlords Battlecry and Age of Wonders to name but a few.

For each faction, a great deal of emphasis in the individual unit design is the cornerstone of this project's development. With the goal being to flesh out each unit as much as possible, each faction has this level of attention to detail applied to every component available, with the ideal of filling each faction with a great deal of content to enjoy.

The goal is to include many races, although, for now, there are two playable factions with two more on the way. The playable factions so far are the Knights (a faction of chivalrous human knights in shining armor) and the Wood Elves (vigilant defenders of the woodlands).

Knights

Resilient defenders of the weak, the Knights field a variety of human combatants, cavalry and war machines. With no inherent racial traits, the Knights have had to compensate to equip themselves with the necessary tools to oppose larger threats. Some of their roster includes the Pikeman, a humble anti-cavalry combatant that can be called upon in moderate numbers as the City Watch and may enter Castles to man the defense weaponry, the Champion, a formidable shock cavalry adept it dealing burst damage against larger foes, and the Siege Tower, a powerful war machine of human ingenuity designed to threaten bases, support armies against hordes and transport units to higher ground.

Wood Elves

The Wood Elf armies field agile Elven warriors alongside powerful beasts and imposing Treemen. As defenders of the woodlands, the Wood Elves do not destroy trees to procure lumber, and, similarly, they do not have access to a Lumber Drop-off Zone beyond their Town Hall. Rather, the Wood Elves make their homes in the trees, supplying their army by creating Treetop Abodes along the out perimeters of their base. Some of their roster includes the Ranger, a versatile Elven archer capable of entering Treetop Abodes to ward off attackers and hiding near tree-lines, the Dryad, an agile light cavalry ranged attacker capable of setting up ambushes with Entangling Roots traps and providing vision from trees using Watchers, and the Ancient Treant, a lumbering goliath capable of holding its own in melee combat or taking root to become a formidable ranged attacker.

Some of the core gameplay mechanics include:

• A total rework of the damage and armor system, taking inspiration from Starcraft 2's approach to units doing bonus damage against specific unit types.
• A re-imagining of the unit classification system to illustrate exactly what unit tags are associated with each individual unit.
• A gentle reworking of the in-game resource mechanics which incorporates lumber to a role similar to Vespene Gas, designating it as a valuable resource which dictates tech.

From these core mechanics, each faction is designed to be as individual as I can be bothered to think of, the scope of which may prove to be maddening given there is the intention of including many playable factions. However, I am committed and so will strive to see this through. For the time being, come and check it out, have a play with us on our discord server and check it out for yourself.

@SgtWinter is a very valuable asset in facilitating this project and has been very helpful and so will be doing a lot of the things on this thread thank you.

 

[AMarkov]

Maybe it's easier to play the above games than a parody inspired by them?
And is BattleForge somehow related to MMORTS?

BattleForge - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Bawbz]

Snake faction when?

 

[Wareditor]

A quite interesting project with already two rich factions, join the discord and try it out with us!

 

[SgtWinter]

Maybe it's easier to play the above games than a parody inspired by them?
And is BattleForge somehow related to MMORTS?

BattleForge - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I'm not sure if you've realized, but games and mods are usually inspired by ideas and concepts from other projects. By taking inspiration from other things and twisting them, they are creating something new entirely. Quite frankly, that mindset of 'just play the original thing' is pretty backwards for modders. It's like refusing to play a fun HALO map in Warcraft because that's already an existing game. Not to mentionn that Battleforge plays almost nothing like the games listed above, and so should be considered it's own thing and is definitely not what you'd consider a 'parody' of the listed works.
And no, it is not related in any way to that discontinued video game by EA.

Anyway! Figured I should show some a few screenshots of a match played on Desert Storm. More to come soon!

 

[Wazzz]

Snake faction when?

Soon™

Maybe it's easier to play the above games than a parody inspired by them?
And is BattleForge somehow related to MMORTS?

BattleForge - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I dunno, I think it might be easier to play one game than many games
No it's not related, they stole this project's name retroactively by coming up with it first

A quite interesting project with already two rich factions, join the discord and try it out with us!

Thank you very much, glad you had fun and hopefully you will continue to have fun <3

 

[AMarkov]

Wow, there are non-standard models here, this definitely pulls on 8/25
Creativity is very lame, again human people, again elven elves. Originality 0/25.
Knights definitely need Faith, and so 0/25.
I won’t appreciate the balance, because I’m too lazy to follow dubious links, publish at least something on the site... but for now 0/25
Hello Wazz! =)

 

[Daffa]

Is the invite even active?
I cannot join via the invite link.

Anyway, it sort of Battle of Wesnoth. No, not the game mechanic, but the race description seems to remind me of that game.

Curious, but I am not an online person so unless AI is implemented, I might not get full experience

 

[Wazzz]

Is the invite even active?
I cannot join via the invite link.

Anyway, it sort of Battle of Wesnoth. No, not the game mechanic, but the race description seems to remind me of that game.

Curious, but I am not an online person so unless AI is implemented, I might not get full experience

Oh it should be, it's a recent link but I don't know how long they last before they expire. I might have to keep it updated.

I am hoping to implement AI, however, as I feel it is important for people to be able to enjoy a single player experience with such a project
(Unfortunately that may take a bit of time due to the complexity involved, but seeing as a lot of what is involved can get pretty complex, I still want to tackle it)

EDIT: I believe I found the issue with the Discord Server link, so hopefully that should be all fixed now

 

[Wazzz]

UPDATE: Attached to the main post of this thread is a "Battleforge Play Pack". Within it, there are four maps where you can play Battleforge, including AI for one of the two playable races. These also have balance adjustments based off of play tests done within our discord server, so if you want to join in the fun, feel free to join us!

 

[Daffa]

Umm sorry, where?

 

[Wazzz]

Umm sorry, where?

Sorry, apparently I had difficulties attempting to upload a .rar pack containing the maps. They should be uploaded now, although as individual maps rather than a pack.

 

[SgtWinter]

Incoming screenshots of a Wood Elf vs Wood Elf game played on Battleforge.

 

[Wazzz]

Incoming screenshots of a Wood Elf vs Wood Elf game played on Battleforge.

Me VS my stupid idea of making Ancient Treants able to attack air units without any adjustment to their attack range

 

[Kyrbi0]

Very cool. Good luck on continued development!

Trolls when? ; )

 

[Ralle]

Sesame, open!

 

[Wazzz]

Hey everyone, it has been a while since I've updated this thread, but I have been steadily making progress on this project and am on the cusp of being ready to deliver four playable factions!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

So, first off, the Knights and the Wood Elves have seen a lot of adjustments while keeping to the spirit of what was originally intended in their design. The Knights are still very much the underdogs, but have much greater survivability with cheaper Barracks units and the addition of a "Paladin" unit (this will likely need to see balance adjustments over time, but for now the design is at least as intended). The Wood Elves, on the other hand, are still formidable opponents, but take longer to realise some of their full potential to afford more counter attack opportunities against them.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

And now we can take a look at the new factions, starting with the Orcs. A while ago, the Orcs were announced somewhat publicly on the Discord server, and these were designed with the intent of presenting a very aggressive playstyle with an emphasis on "might makes right". As a consequence, technology progression for them is a little stunted in contrast to other factions, but they more than make up for this with early game pressure.

From the Stronghold (the Orc's "Town Hall" structure), they are able to get access to the Chieftain, a unique unit that the faction can only ever have up to one of. This unit provides potent buffs to friendly units around it and can benefit from multiple researches which are also available from the Stronghold. While the Chieftain is a potent unit in its own right, some may question the value of getting the researches that are unique to it. What players will find, however, is that for each additional Stronghold the player owns after their first Stronghold, they can get access to an additional Warlord. These Warlords share similar (but incomplete) leadership potential in comparison to the Chieftain, with a greater emphasis on individual power. Bear in mind that if in playtesting these researches are still found to not be worth getting, balance adjustments may be incorporated to find a nice area where these do become valuable.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Finally, the unannounced but perhaps no less expected fourth faction - the Undead. This faction has presented a unique challenge across its development (and still presents some even as I apply the finishing touches for playtesting), but for the most part I am happy with its presentation. One of the biggest difficulties that I have encountered with developing an Undead faction is, thematically, there is a lot you can do with them. On the surface, this might seem like a good thing, but when you get into trying to make everything within the faction coherent, relatively easy to access for the player and fun, some ideas end up becoming overly ambitious.

Unique to the Undead, instead of beginning the game with 7 workers, they begin the game with 5 workers and a Necromancer. Despite its frail physique, the Necromancer fills the role of a mobile "Barracks" for the faction. It is through the Necromancer that you are able to raise corpses to become your basic worker unit - the Drudge. Tech progression follows a more expected trend - the Graveyard is similar to the sort of "Barracks" structure you would find in the Knights, for example, and this unlocks the ability to raise Zombies from corpses. Both the Graveyard and the Dark Citadel (the latter being the "Town Hall" structure) produce corpses periodically, with a Necropolis research being available for increasing the rate these corpses are produced. The Necromancer can also raise the Ghost and the Wraith units, two units who are unique for their inability to benefit from traditional armor upgrades - instead, they get the unique "Incorporeal" research, a passive effect which allows them to reduce damage taken from attacks by 20%. It is here that I should note that I will not go into detail about every research I have put into these factions - there are a lot, and I mostly want to outline the ones that I feel are more prudent to mention at the moment.

The tech progression diverges a bit after unlocking all of the Necromancer units - you are able to make a choice between the Crypt or the Abattoir. While you are able to go for both at your own leisure, this is similar to how the Protoss will often choose between the Robotics Bay and the Stargate at first - while they can easily get both, usually they go for one first depending on their plan. From the Crypt you can, with the right supporting structures, unlock the Gargoyle, Vampire and Death Knight, while the Abattoir provides access to the Butcher, Corpse Wagon and Flesh Dragon. Both paths, however, do provide access to the Sacrifical Altar, which allows players to convert one of their Necromancers into the Lich. This unit is a powerful caster which players may only get one of at any given time - however, due to the nature of their Phylactery, they can be very tough to kill permanently. Any instance of the Lich that is killed will respawn at the Phylactery after a short duration, ready to wreak havoc once again. As such, the only true way to kill the Lich is to destroy its Phylactery.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

At present, finishing touches are being applied before further playtesting may commence. One of the difficulties encountered at the moment is use of an ability similar to "Tiny Farm", as when that is used for a unit's ability, selecting more than one unit that has the ability causes the icon to disappear. This is becoming very tedious for wanting to adjust how the Undead get access to their structures. I have heard there may be a solution, but at present do not know what that solution may be.

Beyond that, I hope that if you have an interest in this sort of project that you stay tuned, and I welcome you to come and join our Discord server if you haven't done so already. I'll probably see about more screenshots being provided sooner than later, but at present, I felt more like writing out a lot of content to get us up to speed. I will be looking at providing more screenshots when visuals are more 'final' - there's a few little niggles here and there that I want to nip in the bud first.