[Aeon of Strife] Heart of the Night

[bhusta]

Cool bhusta! So how's is it going now? I'm pleased to see your dedication to this project!

It's going
We are focused on getting a stable universal playable map. If we reached this point, we can easily test further features and concepts.
But I can say that we are continuously working and also getting great results.

A considerable news is that jopi started helping us with writing lore and terraining. I am curious about the outcome

 

[Heinvers]

A considerable news is that jopi started helping us with writing lore and terraining. I am curious about the outcome

Storyline too?
Looking better as ever

 

[jopi]

Hi,

so after talking to bhusta it will be like this:
Now that i have some more free time i'm gonna start terraining more systematically. My goal is to at least work on the map 1-2 hours a day.

As a motivation for myself and to make you see the progress on the map i want to try to post some screens of the new terrain parts every 3-4 days.

 

[bhusta]

Storyline too?
Looking better as ever

Yes, a real story with Sex and Drugs and Rock & Roll.

Due to some nice progress screenshots from jopi, he is now an official member

 

[Heinvers]

Glad to hear you have a dedicated team! Good luck

 

[jopi]

So here is the first overview of the terraining progress. I've worked on the eastern part of the base. Bigger and closer screens will follow in a few days.

Overview

DONE:
A: first half of the spawn area reworked
B: reworked/rearranged houses
C: added a 'storage" house to fill the different heights of the levels
D: reworked/finished wall, added 'guard's house/tower'
E: added stairs

TO DO:
A: finish remaining houses
B: widen gate
C: finish this area, here I will add another house or something else to fill the different heights of the levels, --> C
D: rework this area

OPTIONAL/IDEAS:
A: add water canal, coming out of the wall like a waterfall
B: add bridge
C: add open part of the canal going through the base
D: add the 'end' of the canal to the cliffs so the water flows into the sea

I hope you got, what I've done, and what will (maybe) come in the next days.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

jopi

 

[Binsu]

Nice terrain there jopi but sadly, I do think those house and building doodads does not seem to fit or blend on the overall look of the environment. I dont know but maybe because the buildings seems to be HQ or either the color tone of the buildings to the forest look environment does not seem to fit or match.

But overall, nice job with it. If you could find a better buildings then you should change those buildings to something that will fit and blend with the environment well.

 

[Heinvers]

dont know but maybe because the buildings seems to be HQ or either the color tone of the buildings to the forest look environment does not seem to fit or match.

Agree! Anyway he will change that; he has plenty of time!

 

[bhusta]

What you perceive as not matching is that he turned off the lights, shadows and fog.
So the colors have a bright contrast. This is for presentation only,

The Buildings are no HQ imports, it's selfmade with single parts.
Remember this is a multiplayer map.

I'm actually quite impressed that he brought new architectures into the terrain
without the use of new imports.
He realy is an unfairly unnoticed talent.


Merry Christmas to you all!

 

[Binsu]

What you perceive as not matching is that he turned off the lights, shadows and fog.
So the colors have a bright contrast. This is for presentation only,

The Buildings are no HQ imports, it's selfmade with single parts.
Remember this is a multiplayer map.

I'm actually quite impressed that he brought new architectures into the terrain
without the use of new imports.
He realy is an unfairly unnoticed talent.


Merry Christmas to you all!

Yup, I do agree, your terrainer has some great talents in him and merry christmas to you and your team members also!

 

[Heinvers]

I hear what you say! anyway he's a real talent

 

[jopi]

So, here are the first big screens, yay!
They are taken with the ingame camera and light settings (but without fog as i noticed it to late -.-, shame on me but the difference is hard to notice in my opinion ^^), the camera is a bit higher than the classic Wc3 camera.

You will notice that they are not entirely done, its manily details that are missing or bigger parts, where i don't know what to put there yet, so i leave them empty until i know.

Screens

Also I've decided to use the classic Wc3 water. I know that many don't like it, i did it with the WaterPlane.mdx first. The outcome was promising but the ingame tests showed that it did not work well with fog of war so i changed it to the classic water. In my opinion it even fits better to the style of the map.

The next step will be a makeover of the central part. I will do the details when the 'big' work is done. And as always: cliffs, cliffs, cliffs! ( damn .... )

jopi

 

[Heinvers]

Well it looks amazing, but yes i don't like the water! Anyway great improvements you did

 

[bhusta]

Happy new year to you all!
2014 is the year where Heart of the Night shall be released (at least as a beta).

Because of the positiv feedback and experience we had over the past year and I
like you as community to have certain influence. I will post some kind of monthly
news batch where I gather information about the development. This will include
what we are currently doing, which direction we want to go and what specific
challenges we have to solve.


News 2014 January Team news

Due to Nazes' personal life changes in case of getting a job and studying at the
same time we had a lack of terrainers. I was able to continue the work but it
stopped me from working on other important points and it got a little bit calm
between me and Crigges during December.
Luckily, jopi decided to join the team as a writer at first, but then it came out
that he is also a brilliant terrainer who even knows some tricks I didn't know
before.
The latest addition to the team is J.PuNkD. He seems to be good at WurstScript
and I hope the team will benefit from his work. How it turns out will be seen in
the February News.

All in all the teamwork is better then ever.


Concept

It is time we share a little bit of the mechanics we want to implement starting
with one of the most important features: The control points.

(Might not be the final design)

They ...

• generate victory points every second
• have healing effects towards allied heroes
• have damage effects towards enemy units

They replace the common known tower mechanic and add new tactical purposes.
First of all, one can not select a capture point by left clicking.
Only right clicks will be detected.

If one wants to capture a control point, one has to be in a specific range and
trigger the process by right clicking on the control point model.

The process of capturing is visualised by two fighting power beams. One from the
tower and one from the hero. During this process the hero channels his power
beam, which gains strength over time and overpowers the power beam from the
control point. Any action which effects the channeling hero will stop the
channeling which leads to greater power balance on the control points' side. If
the clashing center of the power beams reaches the hero, he will receive a great
damage. If the heros' channeling was succesful, the control point will switch
alliance sides.
If the hero was stopped by any action from channeling he can continuing the
channeling just be right clicking on the control point again or he can just
leave the control point range to stop taking damage.

Once captured a control point, it has two different phases which switch if an
enemy unit enters or leaves the range of the control point. The first phase is a
protective one which heals all friendly units in range. The second phase which
is an aggressive one gets activated if an enemy units enters the range. In the
second phase the control point damages all enemy units in range and stops
healing friendly ones.

Minion/creep unit interaction with control points is special as well but will
be further explained in the news that has the concept of creeps in it.

Misc News

Have a look at Crigges' cool side project:
Play Videos in Warcraft: mp4 to w3x converter

A great update for WurstScript is coming this month!
You should subscribe to this thread .

The next inWarcraft Funmap Evening is announced for the 4th of January .
If you want to play funmaps or want your map to be tested from active modders
known for their great projects, you should be there. (It could be fun as well.)

 

[Heinvers]

SO this would be my next favorite AoS map! I love it

 

[jopi]

Hi,

so here are some screens again. They are still a little bit WIP but i want to share them with you.
Also the last one shows a hint to something we might implement in the map,
let's see if someone knows what it is... (it's kinda obvious )

Screens

Again they are taken in the editor, but with ingame light, fog and view settings (but without fog of war).

I hope i can finish the base within the next week, or at least do the main parts.

jopi

 

[Binsu]

Great screenschots, jopi. I pretty much liked the terrains for the City and everything great in there but for the Forest (?) part, I think it needs more doodads/decoration in it but not too much just a little bit. You could also try this for the grass if you want because no offense but the grass you are using is quite cartoonish and it doesn't blend well at the environment: http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/models-530/grassanimated-224313/?prev=search=Grass&d=list&r=20

 

[jopi]

Thanks!

Yes your arguments about the grass are valid. I tested the one you linked, but it looked quite bad with the camera settings that are used in this map (you just see dark and green bars shaking...). I still tinted the grass i used before darker. Also i really like the model itself, as the grass is pretty thick and looks well from nearly every angle (unless you look at it exactly from above).
I will still be looking for alternatives. If you find something I'd like to konw about it, just pm me, it's not important that the model is animated btw.

PS: And yes, the forest part is not done i think, I've just added some rocks on the cliffs and trees, everything else was made by bhusta and Naze, before i started to work on this project so i still have to work on this.

PPS: I did some work on the environment, as i got a bit bored by the city... everything still WIP. Important to notice is, that ingame cliffs/trees will block sight, so you won't be able to look up/down the cliff (in most cases).
In the second one i wanted to add some color variation, so i changed the colors of the shrooms... turned quite well in my opinion.

Screens

Screens (01-06-2014)

 

[bhusta]

News 2014 February

A new month, a new batch about what is happening.
We decided to take a major step towards fairness and balance in case of the
design of the terrain. The point which was internally mentioned from time to
time was the alignment of the map.

The old design was made vertical which means the top team always had a
disadvantage to fight against the bottom team in case of view. Because of the
mass of trouble which would cause flipping the terrain about 90° if one wants
to do this manually always hindered this change.

But lately Crigges developed a script for us to solve this problem
automatically. Now we are able to rotate doodads and tiles freely and we even
could work parallel on the terrain because the script allows merging terrains.

Now where the terrain is horizontally aligned, jopis' burden is to elimitate the
new challenges of the terrain. Because of the landmarks being designed for a
different perspective, they have to be re-organized to fit the new perspective.
One example is the mine which can not be seen from the front anymore. To overcome
this misery he had the good idea to make it an open-cast mining.

[td] [/td]
[td] [/td]
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I am currently not working on HotN directly, but I am working for it.
Another hive-project gives us the oppotunety to get a model of our actual heart
in exchange for me working on the other projects' terrain.

 

[Naze]

Hey, pretty nice development! I'm happy everything's working at a good pace. And I also like jopi's touches in the terrain. I would only suggest to make the tall grass patches less squared (with few grasses of the same kind spread around the hiding region).

 

[Heinvers]

Wow. Nice. I hope to see more from it

 

[jopi]

Hi,

as I'm quite busy with learning and studying right now, there is no big progess on the terrain at the moment ( at least from my side ).
Still I'm testing some small things that i might use in the terrain. And you will see the current capture point design.

First, glow effects in the terrain. What do you think about it? ( especially on the mushrooms, do you think it will look better if the colors are not mixed that much? )

Screens

And second, paths. I tested something that i first made for one of my maps, but it fits also here.

Screen

Thats all for now, from march on i will have more time again.

jopi

 

[Heinvers]

WoW. That's awesome I like how u managed to make that path. The arena is great, and those crystals are nicely used Good job!

 

[Binsu]

Oh my god, I always love seeing and commenting on your works, jopi! Those glows really did some magic into your terrain and it's much better. Not to be off topic but how'd you did that? For the path, I really don't like how that man-made tile clash somehow with the natural tile. It makes it quite weird.

This is a short comment from me and best of luck!

 

[jopi]

So,

exams are over and I'm back again^^.

I hadn't much time yet, still i want to show you some progress on the city.
It will undergo the biggest changes, as nearly every building was to high for the new camera direction and was covering up to much of the walkable space behind it.

The following screens are early WIP, and at the moment I'm mostly working on the terrain height and paths, as well as testing different buildings (mainly just frames with roofs on top).

City WIP Screens

jopi

 

[Heinvers]

That looks great. I love how you made the stairs using only the tileset and some doodads. The details are nice. Keep working

 

[jopi]

So after tinkering around with the light effects, i want so show some more progress on the city and some day/night comparison.

Screen1 Day/NIght

Screen2 Day/Night

Screen3 Day/Night

jopi

 

[bhusta]

Whoa, nice progress.
Somehow your influence on the terrain makes it look like Cloudwolfs StarCraft 2 project Fields of Glory, just better
We have even the statues with the round pedestals now.

I'll provide this thread with different content very soon. MiniMage showed me some sweet WIPs for our "Heart"-model lately.
Brace yourselves! Sexy stuff is coming

 

[Heinvers]

And this looks great. I see that you use windows from Talavaj. Greatly done once again.
And good luck to you too bhusta.

 

[jopi]

Hm... it's really funny to see CloudWolf's stuff for the first time^^ It looks so familliar. Yes and those windows are Talavaj, their light effect ist just epic.

 

[Heinvers]

Yes and those windows are Talavaj, their light effect ist just epic.

Yes. I use them too. Anyway you inspired a bit from CloudWolf, but it's different. U created a totally different environment; it's awesome bte.

 

[bhusta]

Yes and those windows are Talavaj, their light effect ist just epic.

I thought about implementing them as well, but they did not fit to the window model we already use with the custom texture fitting to the modified cityStructure texture.
But you get it to blend in nicely.

 

[Heinvers]

I'll provide this thread with different content very soon. MiniMage showed me some sweet WIPs for our "Heart"-model lately.

I already saw the heart. It's awesome the least to say
As for blending those windows, well they fit perfectly here. Great job both of you

 

[Binsu]

Great terrain lighting, jopi but maybe sone more of the light sources could be placed into the terrain. But overall, as I've said, great lighting. Did you the default lighting anyway or you did set a night model? +rep for the work anyway.

 

[jopi]

@Hell_Master: I used the default Noon/Midnight Wc3 settings for the screens.

My plan for now is to finish the City so its playable, and then finally rework the upper lane, as i started it but then the map was rotated.

In my opinion the city has a lot of light sources with the windows and lanterns, already. On the lanes there will be mostly lanterns or these glowing mushrooms i posted once before.

PS: and of course thanks for all the +rep i got from you^^

 

[bhusta]

News 2014 March

Dear boys and girls,
it's news time again. February was branded by most of the members having exams
which slowly cease now. While jopi has shown some great WIPs of the re-arranged
terrain lately, Crigges and I were not able show anything, but be sure the
progress did not stop.

Team News

Crigges is busy working on finishing the tons of systems which shall make the
gameplay unique whereby he supports some other coders who are currently making
systems we will also benefit from.

During the last months jopi has proven to be one great addition to the team.
Mostly working on the terrain he also helps on other parts as modifacating
models and lately working on our new banner which will be posted below.

Some of you already know that I am still working on the terrain of MiniMages'
Goblin Dominator Squad in exchange for one of our most important models. Soon
we will be able to show some eyecandy.

Concept News

For this month we want to present our skill idea, which is fully working but
needs to be discussed seriously.

Heart of the Night does not use Blizzards' original hero ability skill system.
The overall thought about the following explanation is certain free development
of heroes and therefore breaking apart from the fixed endgame skillset.

Every hero has a set of 6 abilities and one can upgrade abilities at any time.
That is nothing too special but the tricky part comes now. Abilites does not
just cost one skill point. Abilities are not seperated into normal and ultimate
once. The diversification comes with the costs for buying and upgrading an
ability. Skill points are mainly earned by leveling up, but not on every level up.
There will be certain break points (example level 3, 5, 8, etc.), where one will
get a number of skill points.
In the late game when the hero reached the maximum level one won't be able to max
all abilities due to the limited amount of skillpoints. So one has to choose
wisely.

The reason why we think this should be discussed is, that we are not sure about
the dimensions. As for example the maximum level, the break points for skill point
interest and the costs for single abilities.

Miscellaneous News

As mentioned above, jopi has made our first official support banners. If you want
to support us you can choose between the 307px × 128px version for normal
signatures or the 240px × 100px version if you use tabs in your signature.

[url=http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/map-development-202/heart-night-225166/][img]http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/members/144287-albums4222-picture80772.png[/img][/url]

[url=http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/map-development-202/heart-night-225166/][img]http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/members/144287-albums4222-picture80771.png[/img][/url]

Also don't forget to come to the inWarcraft.de Funmap Evening which is today.

 

[jopi]

So here are also, some updates from my side. Did some more work on the city but I'm still struggling with some areas. In addition I've made some changes to the control points and to the bottom lane. I'm gonna focus on the bottom half of the map first, until it's more or less finished and then transition to finally do the complete rework of the top lane.

[td] [/td][td] [/td][td] [/td][td] [/td][td] [/td][td] [/td]

[td] [/td][td] [/td][td] [/td][td] [/td][td] [/td][td] [/td]

jopi

 

[Heinvers]

Good to hear bhusta. Nice signatures btw. Also jopi, you did a marvelous work. I like how you made those broken paths, the glowing mushrooms and post lanterns using the glow model to define them. Also the two arenas are gorgeous (even if you name them sith arenas) )
The city is great looking so far. Good job jopi, and bhusta, best of luck to you

 

[CloudWolf]

bhusta just linked me to this thread, looks epic!

Definitely going to keep track of this one

 

[jopi]

thanks, I'm actually kinda proud to hear this from you CloudWolf^^

 

[Chen]

I love those signatures! The screenies are great! Keep it up! Good Luck! Don't let the Heart of the Night Bite! Oops...what's that?

 

[K_I_R_I_L]

Great project you have there) Keep the good work.

 

[bhusta]

I love those signatures! The screenies are great! Keep it up! Good Luck! Don't let the Heart of the Night Bite! Oops...what's that?

Great project you have there) Keep the good work.

Thank you guys. We keep it up! Message received

Edit: btw the skill concept presented is already fully re-worked. We still exchange single components very fast, but still getting progress done

 

[Heinvers]

WoW. Good news indeed. I like the progress done so far. Have you thought of a release date(it can be approximate too)? I'm sorry if I'm asking too much.

 

[bhusta]

WoW. Good news indeed. I like the progress done so far. Have you thought of a release date(it can be approximate too)? I'm sorry if I'm asking too much.

I don't want to lie. Everything is pretty raw, but I hope we can make a playable version this year

 

[Binsu]

Looks like everything is going so well for this project, bhusta. You indeed have great members and you as a leader which makes your project successful in my view. Good luck and I also like the idea of releasing a playable version this year. Strive for that!

 

[jopi]

so here are some small updates from me, mostly WIP.

(Comments are above every screen)

Screen - 1

This one is mostly done, the major thing missing is pathing and sight blocking. The graveyard is just decoration and is not ment to have any gameplay effect.

Screen - 2

Also quite done, pathing and sightblocking, mushrooms and ground under the trees isn't done yet.

Screen - 3

Very WIP, just to show the windmill^^, btw it's animated.

Screen - 4

Pathing and cliff on the water-side is missing.

After having no good idea for the area around the bottom left control point, I decided to first do the top lane so its at the same state as the bottom lane. You might notice on the screens that the cliffs are mirrored from the bottom right control point. My goal is to make both lanes balanced by mirroring them (not exaclty but in terms of pathing/walkable area/hiding spots).

 

[Binsu]

Great terrain works from you, jopi. It's pretty much detailed and all. Wisely placed doodads/destructibles. The grasses in the first screenshot might be a little spammed in my own view though and are those meant as hiding spots for heroes like in LoL? If not, it would be great if you'll do something like that of a game mechanics. The third screenshot looks great and those buildings are indeed awesome.

Though I wish that there would be a change of environment for each forces like in most AoS. In that forces, the terrain is a forest but for the other forces, the land of darkness (DotA).

Good luck and more powers to you and the creator, bhusta.

 

[andreariona]

cool! I really like the tower that you make on the 3rd pic. really detailed.
may I ask how much current doodads placed at the moment? ^^

 

[Heinvers]

WOW. Cool details you made jopi. I'll keep an eye constantly on your terrains