Boss fight ideas :)

[NecroVirus]

Hey guys attached is a multiplayer boss fight I'm working on. It will have 4 players fighting the boss and 4 players aiding the boss. My current ideas are:

-Have Necromancer teleport around and cast a slow moving but far traveling version of carrion swarm.
-Enemy players can use a target ground ability that makes the dragon cast a medium speed frost shockwave there
-Dragon explodes at 1/3rd hp, causing souls to rain everywhere
-Dragon reassembles and does it again :0

So far my experiments with the frost shockwave isn't going so well since it's tethered to the ground and this has sharp cliffs. I'm looking for more ideas to improve this boss concept (visually or gameplay wise). I like RNG in my boss battles but I also prefer attacks to be somewhat dodge-able. Any thoughts/ideas?

 

[cleavinghammer]

Maybe have the necromancer enter a channeling state where he's pretty much defenseless (forcing his heroes to defend him), but as long as he channels he also summons skeletons around the map.

Also you might want to move this to Idea Factory.

 

[Lake]

Let just first say I really like the visuals! Looks cool using those Altars, and that green light effect. Sort of reminds me of Titan Quest

I can see why that shockwave is a problem (visually). Usually refrain using it, but instead use the Carrion Swarm or Crushing Wave (same spell, just different effect) That's of course if you haven't custom coded it yourself.

I'm not quite sure, if the primary boss is the Necromancer or the dragon?

PS: I absolutely love boss battle maps, so would love to help you play test this at some point!

 

[NecroVirus]

PS: I absolutely love boss battle maps, so would love to help you play test this at some point!

That would be great! I plan to make a spectator seat so I can watch players and adjust balancing, still have a ton of work before I'm ready for live testing. Estimated 25%-ish complete. I'm intentionally not using imported resources because the map is meant for reforged release

 

[Nowow]

You can use this tutorial as reference Creating a Bossfight

 

[Lake]

That would be great! I plan to make a spectator seat so I can watch players and adjust balancing, still have a ton of work before I'm ready for live testing. Estimated 25%-ish complete.

The spectator seat is a really good idea! But yeah, just hit me up when you need some playtesting!

I'm intentionally not using imported resources because the map is meant for reforged release

Whaa- You haven't used any custom models in this? How did you make the green light effect thingy?

 

[cleavinghammer]

I think that's the fissure doodad set to zero color.

 

[Lake]

I think that's the fissure doodad set to zero color.

Yes of course! Can see that now you mention it "Clever use of game mechanics"

 

[Leods]

A human interaction spell
"Running souls"
Three quick souls appear on 3 of the dark pedestals, at the edges of the battlefield. They begin to move quickly to other pedestals in a random way, harming anyone who gets too close. This constantly divides the map into several parts, requiring coordination to avoid unnecessary damage
Each soul should take two seconds to cross the battlefield, and move from one pedestal to the other one on their right or left, and 5 seconds to reach the one on the other side. You can use random numbers to do this spell, and choose one of the very useful spell models of blizzard, if you don't see nothing in the Hive

 

[cleavinghammer]

Debuffs:

Curse of Undeath: Target unit is now Undead (prevents Holy Light and associated spells from working).

Leprosy: Target unit's damage drops by X every time it attacks.

Osteoporosis: Target unit has reduced armor, damage, movement and attack speed.

 

[NecroVirus]

ohh cleaving you just gave me an idea with that Osteoporosis. Since one of the heroes uses the paladin/uther skin I could have a spell "Ravages of Time" that changes his model to the one with white hair!

 

[NecroVirus]

A human interaction spell
"Running souls"
Three quick souls appear on 3 of the dark pedestals, at the edges of the battlefield. They begin to move quickly to other pedestals in a random way, harming anyone who gets too close. This constantly divides the map into several parts, requiring coordination to avoid unnecessary damage
Each soul should take two seconds to cross the battlefield, and move from one pedestal to the other one on their right or left, and 5 seconds to reach the one on the other side. You can use random numbers to do this spell, and choose one of the very useful spell models of blizzard, if you don't see nothing in the Hive

I like it! Especially since I already have a mechanic that causes enemies hit by the dragon to spawn breakable ice crystals, making the battle a randomized obstacle course as it goes on!

 

[Leods]

As in the great Asomath tutorial, both skills together will make the player say "and now what am I supposed to do?" so that's excellent!

 

[NecroVirus]

Here's a screenshot of a mini-boss in a sunken temple area I been workin on. I wanted it to look like people were sacrificed to the serpent by the cult and the skulls get caught in the water ways. Also that the floor collapsed.

 

[cleavinghammer]

The serpent should be lower in the water so the vase part isn't visible (yes, obviously every player will know what structure it is).

Waterways should be wider and the skulls should be piled up against something to look like the current put them there.

The floor collapsing would need more rubble and rocks, it's hard to make it look that way with perfectly square walls.

Necromancer idea: If one of the PCs dies (heroes or necromancer's allies), the necromancer brings him back as an undead, but the hero escapes his control and is now hostile to both forces.

 

[Leods]

Mmmm...I feel that, to be sacrificial cadavers, the piles of skulls is something too ... clean. I think that to that, you should add a couple of burned bodies (or whatever the version in English is said) and maybe up to one or two fresh bodies of acolyte (really simple trigger), to give the feeling of newly sacrificed. Because, really, I do not imagine that in a sacrifice the sacrificers cleaned the corpse.
The serpent need a fairly high attack range, so as not to see the size and the attack animation wasted, and a strangulation spell

 

[NecroVirus]

I can def add more rubble and gorier corpses. What’s the easiest way to lower a unit into the ground? I have another unit that needs to be raised from the floor but ctrl-pgup/down doesn’t work on units like it does doodads

 

[Veritas 117]

You have to set their Movement-Height to a negative number (hold shift to put a negative number) make sure you make the Movement-minimum height to the same number though

 

[NecroVirus]

Hmmm I just did that to the serpents and they went down in the editor but in game they were normal height? Not sure why

 

[NecroVirus]

I also had this problem with a unit that is suppose to look like a spider web. It's stuck in the ground and I can't raise it in game (even if it looks right live on the editor)

 

[Veritas 117]

There are some strange issues with flying height. its not an exact science im afraid.
Another thing you could do is lower the model into the ground using the model editor and then import it into your map. If you are using War3 Model Editor Magos' model editor all you have to do is select the whole model, go to translation, and set z to a negative number. Probably around -100, but you will have to experiment to get it right. If you go too low you can just set z to a positive number to move it back up.

 

[Leods]

That is really strange. But besides that, this would only get down to the snake ALWAYS, so you should take strange measures. It seems to me that to make it rise or fall in the water or on the ground, you must create two identical snakes. One of earth (you can use the writings of "only visible in the editor") and another one of water, with its height differences. If the snake enters the water, you eliminate it and put the water, using variables to match the statistics, and vice versa. I know it's very complicated for something so simple, but that would also allow you to add different skills in different areas

 

[NecroVirus]

I really hope a lot of these constant leaks, desyncs, and complex workarounds we have to deal with get addressed in reforged :\

Gonna be neat seeing our maps get a 17 year graphics leap tho

 

[cleavinghammer]

Serpent fight idea (once the whole hide-the-pot issue is resolved, maybe uncheck Is A Building): it's only vulnerable when above the surface, but surfaces at random points (including the central one in the shallows), most of them in deep water where it can't be reached, and attacks with dodgeable projectiles.

To beat it, the players have to block the distant surfacing points (such as triggering a rockfall or freezing the water there into ice, via spells or items). Once it has nowhere else left to go but the central area, it stays above the water and uses more attacks including autohits. It can be stunned by electrocuting the central shallows (also stunning any allied units in the shallows).

 

[cleavinghammer]

Necromancer fight mechanic: anytime a unit uses a slam spell (Thunder Clap, Pulverize...), it creates a neutral gas-leaking fissure in the ground (fissure doodad) shortly after. Anytime a fire spell is used within a small radius of the fissure (Flame Strike, Firebolt targeting a unit next to the fissure or the fissure itself...) it causes a massive explosion that deals tremendous damage to units around the fissure (and collapsing the fissure in the process).

 

[NecroVirus]

That would work great in a more earthy ground setting! Right now my biggest question with this fight is what the defending players will do. I’m thinking give the players slow moving gargoyles with low damage attacks that can slam into the ground. The frost dragons breath creates an ice crystal wherever it attacks, creating a random obstacle course and making the necro’s abilities harder to avoid. The gargoyles slam will cause a slight stun upon impact but will also cause all crystals hit to explode, damaging and slowing anyone nearby.

My goal is to make every boss fight different and the defending players must utilize the bosses themselves and their abilities to damage the attacking heroes. So far this is going great! Working on a Corpse Tree boss in the center of a graveyard right now. The Lich put part of his soul into a seed and planted it in the family graveyard, now its corrupted roots are spreading to all graves. Boss will look like just a crazy decoration in the center of the graveyard until they get the boss key, then it will surprise and trap them into the fight with a wall of roots

 

[cleavinghammer]

Sounds promising. What model are you using for the tree?

Does the serpent fight also have defending players?

Corpse Tree: Defending players can spawn as slightly tougher undead minions that can direct the lesser zombies (summoned by the tree) to attack a particular hero.

 

[cleavinghammer]

Serpent defenders:
Two kinds of wave spells: one that deals knockback (emanating from a mobile caster to the target point), and Crushing Wave with a long cooldown (to and from fixed points). Defending players use both to push the attackers into position where the Crushing Wave will do the most damage, but give sufficient warning so the heroes have a chance to dodge.