Dark Planet 1.06a

[Veronnis]

Patch 1.06 is available. While working on my RPG I learned of a leak I had previously been unaware of. As it turns out that leak was prevalent in this map, I have since fixed it. Any issues caused by it should now be resolved.

adjusted psychic shriek to yield 1/3 of its damage up front.

Resolved Solar Flare Bug, adjusted rocket ease of targetability.

Added a few loyal players I keep running into on bnet to the credits.

 

[maddeem]

Ambient nature noises were added to the game, I don't know how to remove them.

• Sound - Set Ambient Sounds to 0.00%

I would give this a try. Anywho the video is a nice touch, game play looks fun and fresh; definitely going to give this a try. I love the gray tiles and dark ambiance.

Also you can significantly reduce file size of sounds by opening them in audacity, increase the speed x2, save the quality around 96 kbps or more and import it. Then when you play the sound you can set the pitch to 0.5 and it sounds nearly identical. This can take a 5 mb sound file and make it roughly 1mb. Food for thought if you are open to it.

 

[Lt_Hawkeye]

This looks like something could potentially replace metastasis for me as the core whos the killer game.

 

[Veronnis]

• Sound - Set Ambient Sounds to 0.00%

I would give this a try. Anywho the video is a nice touch, game play looks fun and fresh; definitely going to give this a try. I love the gray tiles and dark ambiance.

Also you can significantly reduce file size of sounds by opening them in audacity, increase the speed x2, save the quality around 96 kbps or more and import it. Then when you play the sound you can set the pitch to 0.5 and it sounds nearly identical. This can take a 5 mb sound file and make it roughly 1mb. Food for thought if you are open to it.

Thank you, your suggestion worked perfectly and I tested the sound idea. I probably won't use it in this map because it's a short repeatable game and I'd like to leave it at a very high repeatable quality. However, I am working on a Co-op RPG (which I may delay till reforged now) for which this file size reduction (it's fully voiced) could prove invaluable! Thanks again, I'll add you to the credits with the new patch tomorrow!

 

[maddeem]

Thank you, your suggestion worked perfectly and I tested the sound idea. I probably won't use it in this map because it's a short repeatable game and I'd like to leave it at a very high repeatable quality. However, I am working on a Co-op RPG (which I may delay till reforged now) for which this file size reduction (it's fully voiced) could prove invaluable! Thanks again, I'll add you to the credits with the new patch tomorrow!

Don't worry about credits, I can see you put in a lot of effort into this map. I always like to share knowledge about the editor when I can.

 

[deepstrasz]

This is not Strategy/Risk. That is for maps where you control points, troops and such. Template/Terrain is for unplayable maps, those which are supposed to be used as a terrain foundation. It's pretty much also a tree-tag/vampirism map.

1. Maybe a better name than Force 1 and Force 2?
2. Psychic Barrage seems pretty useless especially when you cannot stop it and it dealing such low damage. Maybe Psychic Shriek should be the one which immobilizes you since it deals more damage.
   
3. Are creatures supposed to be sleeping at night? (thunder lizards).
4. Tivexium Claws should have a passive looking icons. You can make it so with this: Button Manager v1.8.2 Also, it should not have the hotkey written after you learn it because it's passive.

The atmosphere is great. There's replayability value.

Awaiting Update (Strategy and Template tags).

 

[Veronnis]

Thank you Deepstrasz,

1. I'll take a look at some good options.
2. I agree with you, this is likely the weakest ability but I was unable to think of a good change before my deadline. It will be reworked very soon, also I noticed the sound effect disappeared (also correcting soon).
3. Yes, Thunderlizards do sleep at night as a large and dangerous zone for the humans it provides a useful dynamic to periodically have that be a safe travel path for a perceptive player.
4. Excellent, I'll get that going

Other:
Strategy Risk - Okay, I thought it was; but I will remove it. When I add Alien Swarmqueen (Alternate ult that allows base and unit construction for alien) should I put the tag back on?
Template/Terrain - Wasn't sure, since it had good assets for making a space map and is unprotected. Will remove.
Tree-tag - Not too familiar with this, but I might add it.

 

[deepstrasz]

3. Yes, Thunderlizards do sleep at night as a large and dangerous zone for the humans it provides a useful dynamic to periodically have that be a safe travel path for a perceptive player.

Once you make the black hydra an enemy it's pretty hard not to die as a human since it has a huge range and towers don't reach it. I don't know if all humans will become its target once one of them attacks it but the for the one who does, it does not become neutral again after some time.

Strategy Risk - Okay, I thought it was; but I will remove it. When I add Alien Swarmqueen (Alternate ult that allows base and unit construction for alien) should I put the tag back on?

Yeah, OK.

Tree-tag - Not too familiar with this, but I might add it.

About vampirism/tree-tag-like, you should not add it if you intend to have the alien also have troops. Usually, vampirism/tree-tag maps are those where you go somewhere on the map and build a base to defend against players who only play with a strong hero unit.

 

[Veronnis]

Deepstrasz, while I am thoroughly amused with the Hydra's performance I will consider adding a pre-attack warning to it, or limiting its hostility to the individual player. Presently, once attacked it will be hostile to all humans for 25 seconds. The game has a handful of little, but logical secrets like the hydra, that fueling rockets will explode for damage relative to their fuel amount if destroyed, launch pads become heavily damaged after use and that all units in the vicinity of a rocket lift-off will be blinded, miss their attacks and suffer light damage. Additionally reading the lore will reveal more secrets, like why it's not a bad idea to hang out around the Hydra even if it is not tamed.

Edit: I do see that I added auto attack on right click to the Hydra, I will adjust this to require force-attack.

I also removed those tags real quick while specifying that the opening game takes place in the NA region. I'll have a real patch out later today and more to come after.

 

[deepstrasz]

I also removed those tags real quick

changes made,
Approved.

(previous review: Dark Planet 1.00 (PvP Survival))

 

[Veronnis]

Update 1.02 is up. Sorry for being a day late. If any problems occur due to this update please inform me soon! Also if you see any bugs in general I'd love to know. I'm also accepting suggestions to improve the game ranging from small to rework. Thanks!

 

[Veronnis]

Patch 1.05a is uploaded now.

Spoiler: Patch Notes

Updated to work with new W3 patches.
All game crashing bugs resolved
Alien given bonus upgrades per human killed (still reviewing balance)
Solar flares begin sooner and are more intense
Some extra Krysalite has been added to the map
Adjusted krysalite costs of radar tower, service robot, tera shield and more
Added tutorial
Fixed drill bug
Alien now spawns 20 seconds after humans at an announced location
Added donate feature to rocket
Fixed drill tooltip display

 

[Veronnis]

Expected updates: Changes to Alien abilities, particularly psychic barrage and overall alien design. New focus will include more opportunities for skill play utilizing skill shot type abilities and some other minor design changes.

Alternate updates: I have had enough ideas lately that I might rather create a Dark Planet 2, which I would likely release around the turn of the year if I do. Changes to Dark Planet 2 would include:

Spoiler

Multiple Classes of Alien with some class specific abilities.

Multiple Classes of Human (Humans presented with random 2/8 class options at start)

Human Classes would not be significant enough to irk a player who didn't get what he wanted, but will encourage minor role-fulfillment in cooperative interaction.

Unlockable areas, that do not start open for exploration at the very beginning of the game.

More Alien Life

Map Styles (Certain aspects of the map will change every time i.e. Design Theme, Environmental Hazard Theme, Alien Lifeforms, Initially open areas (Maybe))

Multiple Alien Mode (Map may be designed to support two weaker aliens in place of one strong one.)

More structures available through human class types.

 

[Veronnis]

Making new updates for reforged including all new terrain and redoing the skin for some units (just finished alien ) See below! (Edit: For some reason it isn't letting me upload them in this post) So here's just one, enjoy.

 

[Veronnis]

Here is that picture!

 

[Veronnis]

Good news! The first Reforged game of Dark Planet has finished with no disconnects and hardly any bugs! Also they added the new marine model to the game Cheers to fun times ahead. It will likely be a bit before I upload the official reforged map as I am adding new abilities and features and removing a couple abilities (The psychic ones never really lived up to their ambition and didn't fit the flow of the game.)

 

[Veronnis]

Due to Reforged and the new ability of activision to steal creative copyrights Dark Planet 2 has a low chance of ever releasing. Sorry guys.

 

[Veronnis]

While much more difficult to use than Warcraft 3, I've been making reasonable progress moving Dark Planet to Unity! Hopefully I'll be able to get a result we can all play together