[Miscellanous / Other] Caethros - Treasure Hunt

[Alpun]

Ok, I want to present my map I've been making during the last holidays. It'sstill not finished, but at least it should be playable, if your desire for perfection isn't too high. It's currently uploaded on MMH as "Caethros - Treasure Hunt 0.8", but the MMH version is an older version, because I have added stuff afterwise (still, I'll have the MMH version as an attachment to this post for people, who want to have a look at it).

My map is about a group of adventurers, who get the task to retrieve a scepter from a dead king out of his tomb, but in order to do so, they first need to get the key (and it's also suggested for them to level up, because otherwise they won't be able to fight the tomb guards.

Hence, the first stadium of the map is relatively open. You can go anywhere and do quests, buy items etc.

What I wanted to create was a text-based, story-telling, hard RPG, which also includes a melee fight between two special players. In the lobby, the players can either become mercenaries (which will give them a certain hero at start of the game) or choose to become one of the guild, who fight against the public order in this region. For the mercenaries, the game is like a normal rpg. Run around, do quests, level up etc., buit if they die, they don't revive.

The guilds each get two camps at start: One in the north of the map and one in the south. The south is separated from the north by a fortress of the guardsmen of the region, which is nearly untakable. The southern base is needed to fight with other guild over the gold mines in the desert. Controlling these gold mines will allow you to produce units at your northern base. These units will be a valiant help in performing the main quest (the retrieval of the scepter to your guild), in competition with the other guild and the mercenaries.

In my current version, the basic stuffis pretty much done. Lots of quests work as intended (some don't work though), music is working, you can buy items etc., but the fight in the south has never been tested to the present day and also the balance of the various units and heroes has never been tested. The map is openly avaible for playing at MMH as well as for having a look into it in your editor.

 

[Alpun]

I updated the map again, fixing lotsa bugs and adding new quests

 

[Chaosy]

You really need some structure, compare your thread to some other map presentation threads so you see what I mean.

 

[chilla_killa]

I do like the short presentation. It tells me the most important points. I will test and review this map when I get back from my holidays.

 

[Alpun]

Thank you very much. As for the structure, ye, I'm working on it.

 

[chilla_killa]

Okay I played the beginning, so I didn't test everything. But I can give you a short review what I found so far.

The most important thing I want to tell you is, that the dialoques and texts all in white and in a giant bulk of text is very annoying and hard to read. Especially at the beginning.

I suggest reducing the amount of text, use different colors for the name of the speaker.
Even better would be a Cinematic Scene, maybe even with cameras. I will link tutorials at the end.

Also, why is there no revival? I died so often and I needed to restart the game again everytime. I would add revival.

For the beginning town, you should add Pathing Blockers at these big buildings so you can't walk into them.

For the quests: White text is hard to read. If you step into the region again it shows the message again. It's a bit annoying if you walk in there very fast again so you get spammed with messages.

Suggestion: Add ! signs over the persons who have quests. You do that with trigger Special Effect - Add special effect on unit.

For the aesthetic you should improve the tooltips of your items and abilities with colored text.

All in all you should use more tile variation for a more natural ground.

Tutorials:

http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/general-mapping-tutorials-278/aesthetics-33717/

http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/general-mapping-tutorials-278/cinematics-7216/

Use Magos Model Editor for the colored text:

http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/tools-560/war3-model-editor-62876/

It's under Extras -> Colored Text

 

[Alpun]

Thank you for the response. Its a great help. Yea, the text is massive, I know. You don't get this impression, if you just write it in the trigger, because there it looks likea very tiny amount of text. The idea with markers for the speakers is certainly a good one. I have thought about Cinematics, but didn't had the time to create some.

There is no revival on purpose, because it should feel realistic. But I have thought about adding a version, where you can choose either to play without revival or use ankhs.

Different colours are a good idea, that coud also add more personality to the different questgivers.

Items improving is lotsa timework^^. Well ye, when I got time.

The buildings in the city already have lotsa pathing blockers^^, but there might be leaks, where you can just walkthrough.

 

[chilla_killa]

The map has much potential, you seem to have a talent in thinking of interesting stories and quests. But the way it is presented, I mean in the massive blocks of one colored texts, it's very difficult to read them. Try to change and improve that a bit.