[Arena] Gladiator Map for Warcraft III - by Barbafire

[Barbafire]

Hi everybody! My name is Fabiano Silva, also known as Barbafire, and I'm here for some feedbacks. I'm studying Game Design, and I decided to create a mod (map) for Warcraft III to improve my skills, because it is the game that I most played all my life (I played at the golden age of mods in Garena haha!). I would like to say that I'm working on this idea, not for fame or glory, just to leave my mark on a game that I loved to play. I'm working at World Editor (as some of you could see me asking some questions at Hive), but I didn't create a full document (Game Design Document, or GDD). but I have one. Under this message, we have my idea:

I want to create a map, strongly inspirated in Orc Gladiators, and Legendary Gladiators. I want to pick the balance and teamplay that we have in Orc Gladiators, and mix with the custom way we play Legendary Gladiators.

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For those who don't know Orc Gladiators, we play as slaves, and we need to survive waves of enemies that enters the arena to kill us. It has a very strong teamplay, because it is difficult!

For those who don't know Legendary Gladiators, we play as gladiators, and we have a slot in team 2 named "Imperial Director". We have a bunch of heroes to choose, and we need to survive the waves of enemies that the Imperial Director sends. The Imperial Director has the mission to choose the challenge that the other players will face, and he has a bunch of "Monster Shops", where he chooses which enemies he will send. This map doesn't have a play time limit defined, because it doesn't have an AI to do that. The game ends when gladiators lose all their lives, or if the Imperial Director (An enemy called like this) dies.

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I want to fix most of the errors and bugs that I think Legendary Gladiators has (And I think it has A LOT, but the map is still funny to play), and mix with the strong teamplay of Orc Gladiators.

Some of resources that my map will have:

1. Gladiators Mode, where all players are slaves, and they need to survive inside the arena (similarly as Orc Gladiators);

2. Director's Mode (not sure about this name), where one player will own the arena, and need to send enemies to other players (similarly to Legendary Gladiators);

3. Four types of heroes (Tank, Hard Suport, Soft Suport and Carrier);

4. Difficulty set at the start of the game that affects everyone, except slaves and its minions;

5. Solo play in both modes (Basic AI when playing as Director; Balanced AI when playing as slaves);

6. Heroes with rank. When you have enough level, you can rank up your hero, receiving a stronger version of that hero, and a new ability (Up to Tier 3);

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Playing as slaves, players must teamplay to achieve victory. They need to pick heroes to balance the whole team, choose wisely which items need to be bought, and try not to die often inside the arena, even using ankhs (because they cost, and you will lose money buying again).

Playing as Director, the player must send balanced waves of creatures, and he can mix up to create diferent kinds of enemies waves. He will have available, tons of creatures to challenge slaves; items shop to reward players and equip bosses; a secret vault with unique items, to use with bosses or reward players; a secret prison, where unique and huge bosses are trapped (to give more emotion during a play =D).

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What I expect to achieve with this idea? Well, personally speaking:

1. First, I want to prove that I'm capable to create a good mod, that is enjoyable.
2. Second, I want to create something that, in past, I wasn't able to make, and I still desire it.

Now talking about the mod, I want a map that:

1. Have no broken heroes, with unbalanced abilities;
2. Have no broken gameplay, like overpowering defeating one or tons of enemies easily;
3. Have an option to play solo (first, because today we don't have a lot of players that play warcraft; second, some good maps simply don't let you play if you don't have another player playing with you, or to suceed, you need a full room [like Twilight's Eve ORPG or Resident Evil Nightmares]);

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What I have done until I wrote this post?

Today, I have 13 heroes done inside the project, and 7 waiting to be ready (totalizing 20 heroes at a first step), and a draft of the terrain (for now, just to test what I have done).

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For last, but not least, I would like some tips and feedback about this idea, about what it looks like, if you would play this map.

Sorry about this huge post! Thanks if you read until here!

 

[cleavinghammer]

Does the director control the monsters, or do they belong to an allied AI?

 

[Barbafire]

Does the director control the monsters, or do they belong to an allied AI?

On Legendary Gladiadors, Monsters belong to Director. I think this choice was made, so Director can choose use Monsters abilities or not, or Control which slave attack First. Your question made me think about it.

 

[A]mun]

Actually a fun idea with the Director Mode.
Regarding aesthetics, why don't you create some different arenas, some with traps etc.
You could play around with octagonal, square, circular shapes, or advanced, multi-levelled ones.

I recently watched something that might inspire you:

 

[Barbafire]

Actually a fun idea with the Director Mode.
Regarding aesthetics, why don't you create some different arenas, some with traps etc.
You could play around with octagonal, square, circular shapes, or advanced, multi-levelled ones.

I recently watched something that might inspire you:

At first idea, a all in one arena with all ambients inside (snow, desert, forest), and every region has it's bonuses and penalties.

Thinking about your idea, I can create some small arenas, every with a single ambient, with it's bonus and penalty, and using random events (that can be turned off by the director, or trigger one especifically).

By the way, I saw your video (not all), and I liked.

EDIT: I can use only one room to keep spawned enemies from director, then teleport via spell (like a controller in game). One icon, one arena, and one random (picks randomly and automatic teleport both enemies and players).

 

[Pyrogasm]

a all in one arena with all ambients inside (snow, desert, forest)

Tileset limitations are still a thing, even though the limit is higher now.

 

[Barbafire]

Tileset limitations are still a thing, even though the limit is higher now.

I already have a solution for this problem, and it involves the arena lore. If I find any problem, I can use triggers and models to counter it.

 

[nchp1903]

I personally think that this project has potential, and I have a few questions:

• Are the Heroes splitted into different sub-archetypes in terms of gameplay? For example, Tank can have Pure Tank (sustain through armor), Drain Tank (sustain through lifesteal) or Heal Tank (sustain through health regen/healing spells) or in the most extreme case, Evade Tank, which is self-explanatory.
• Does the Director have access to all monsters at the start and can spawn it with gold, or must he unlock a monster type with a currency type (gold, lumber...) first? Can he control the monsters directly, or can he only give basic orders (move, attack-move)?
• You mentioned a secret vault. I assume that if the Director finds it first, he'll gain access to stronger monster, and if a Gladiator finds it first, they'll gain bonus items/experience/gold?

 

[Barbafire]

I personally think that this project has potential, and I have a few questions:

• Are the Heroes splitted into different sub-archetypes in terms of gameplay? For example, Tank can have Pure Tank (sustain through armor), Drain Tank (sustain through lifesteal) or Heal Tank (sustain through health regen/healing spells) or in the most extreme case, Evade Tank, which is self-explanatory.
• Does the Director have access to all monsters at the start and can spawn it with gold, or must he unlock a monster type with a currency type (gold, lumber...) first? Can he control the monsters directly, or can he only give basic orders (move, attack-move)?
• You mentioned a secret vault. I assume that if the Director finds it first, he'll gain access to stronger monster, and if a Gladiator finds it first, they'll gain bonus items/experience/gold?

Hi nchp1903! Your questions made me think more about the project. Here is my asnwers:

1. Initially, no. I didn't thought about sub-achetypes, but I looked up about what I already done, and indirectly did what you said. With this information in mind, I can create more balanced heroes, or create only a Pure Tank for example (using only one archetype).

2. a) At first moment, I will use the same system as Legendary Gladiators. All enemies are open for use, and Director has a "region of death" (to kill units that he summons, that are too weak or too powerful). All of them are free, but use 1 food (limitating 300 units per wave). He can fully control units, moving, ordering attacks and casting spells.

b) Yesterday I was lucky enough to play Legendary Gladiators with some players that I found on Battlenet. Playing as a Director, I saw some problems (in my opinion):

• Difficulty in killing units with the circle of power;
• Lagging creatures when there are 150 or more units receiving the same order via trigger (they - almost don't walk, keep stoping);
• Bad descriptions about creatures, needing me to summon the creature to see its stats and abilities;
• Some bugs about auto-control units via trigger (enemies summoned are ordered to attack a specific region inside the arena, and there they remains);
• We just can't balance our waves, because the map has a lack of information, and it gives us total freedom to do whatever we want.

Personally, I think this system need some changes, but I don't know what to do yet. Maybe limit the number of creatures per wave, or putting diferent food costs (this one has a problem with strong creatures that get weak later the game). Maybe creating a monetary system, so Director can buy creatures. For now, I think I need to define what kind of map will be created (First one, Director in fact will be enemy of the gladiators, like in Orc Gladiators. A monetary system for the director will fit very good here. Second, the director is a kind of Dungeon Master, like in a Tabletop RPG). For this one, a food system will do better than a monetary one.

3. About the secret vault, you took a totally diferent idea that what I tried to explain XD. Using my reflection about the last topic:

With a Dungeon Master Director (friendly), I could use a vault owned by the director, and inside it, he chooses what to use (unique bosses trapped inside), and what to reward players (unique items).

Now with an Enemy Director (Hostile), I could use Summoning Portals, that regenerate mana overtime, and when it's done, Director can summon unique bosses (destroying the portal after summon); For gladiators, I can use a secret and invisible shop, that shows up after some waves, and sells or give away unique items (like someone from outside the arena that helps gladiators).