[Hero Castle Defense] Defend Wintercastle

[WaterKnight]

Defend Wintercastle - alpha
By WaterKnight

Story:

Hidden Information:

About one month ago, two peculiarly luminescent orbs draught across the sky. While one featured a blue color and immediately vanished again behind the far horizont, the red one bolted right into us, our great town, which was meant to be peaceful home to all of the known species. The shock wave easily tore buildings and roads apart and cloaked every nook in gray dust. As many died from the impact, with us survivors facing the poor remains, nothing was left but utter chaos and despair. Whereas some took it for the coup de grâce, I perceived it as divine mockery that shortly thereafter the sky darkened and a bittercold early winter set in.

Only the of a strange material consisting glowing meteorite we lifted from under the debris seemed to spend some even weirder soothing warmth. Though the sky cleared a bit within time, the cold persisted and a growing restlessness of our environment became noticeable. So we set out to seek shelter in the adjacent shire of count Drakul, owner of Wintercastle, right at the foot of the Crystal Mountains. Along our journey did we bring that life-shattering rock whose still thermal energies emitting nature easily mesmerized us.

Since that time we try to get by with the small rations here and hope that the sun will return to us someday. Yet, the problems keep piling up: Besides the lack of food and the ongoing frost which we call the "Dark Winter", the surrounding forest's inhabitants are getting very anxious and have begun to engage us. Most of us refugees do not dare to leave the castle anymore. And how long will the strange stone provide us with strength and hope?

Facts:

Hidden Information:

Difficulty: medium to very hard
Language: English (I'm not native to english, but I try)
Max players: 7
Original thread: Defend Wintercastle - inWarcraft Forum (german)
Size: 128x128 (Medium)
Tileset: Icecrown
Type: Hero Castle Defense PVE

Features:

Hidden Information:

The task is to protect the castle or more precisely the meteorite from all attacking invaders. If the meteorite's hitpoints drop to zero, your team loses. Everyone damaging the meteorite is killed. Therefore you may give some lifepoints away to reduce the attackers' strength but this way you will lose their loot too (gold+exp+items maybe). After you have successfully finished the last boss, it's your victory.

The meteorite has another functionality to be kind of like a commander tower the first player or host can control in order to cast some useful skills.

The game is divided into six chapters, displaying the various invading forces Wintercastle encounters. Each chapter consists of six levels featuring different sets of monsters. The first five levels each come consecutively with only a timer window separating them. The chapter's boss follows then, when all previous spawns are gone.

Every player controls a unique hero of the listed ones below. These heroes come with two custom spells + one (of two) ultimate(s) and can buy additional spells from the local store (you must think of the gold loot as general goods the castle can offer and acquires from the corpses (among others)). The additional abilities are addressed by charged items. Nevertheless, there are still other permanent and chargeable items they have to share a limited inventory with. While the custom spells are buffs and other unique skills that fit to the characters, the buyable spells mostly interpret warmth and frost variants of damage spells and are therefore better replaceable among each other. However, all spells are levelable via skill points you receive from hero levelup. So, there is specialization you might only reset with a book of retraining.

I am currently reconsidering whether I include optional quests that I had originally planned. The normal system should be completed first. Even without these quests there are some features that should make defending more complex if my concepts work out. I strive for a defense game of "go and stop" (especially on higher difficulties), you have to kite the enemies away and reorganize the battle positions among your party to not take too much focused damage and maximize your own. So, for example, you have to estimate where and when to use channeling spells and although the heroes have different roles, they will overlap a bit. The tank won't be able to absorb every damage and the ranged damage dealer cannot safely stay in the third line forever. The spells and effects are also laid out that way that some get advantage from a near-standing party/enemies and others from the opposite.

Rough overview, terrain is under development

There are three passages you may enter Wintercastle by. Next to the main entrance, two invulnerable towers shoot AoE rocks at the incoming spawns. This portal also receives more spawns than the other sides. Then, there are the equal side entrances that each possess a healing fountain. These and the towers should stretch the game and hinder from simply concentrating all players in the central place in front of the meteorite. It's also more convenient to show new players how they have to play. Outside of the castle, in front of each doorway, you may kill snowmen (I hope you haven't watched Snow Blood before) to temporarily gain possession of them. They grant sight and if you have all three of them under your control at the same time, you will get an extra bonus. The sight is to foresee looming spawns because there are some extra pushes from random directions and to reveal invisible units.

Among the spawns some champions flavor the gameplay and use items and spells to enforce the group. Items have the advantage that they may be charged and therefore having more spawns and champions won't accumulate too much.

Hero Experience

Heroes can gain exp, thereby level up at some point, learn/improve spells and get stronger in general.

The current exp gathering system looks like this:

Exp is mainly obtained by finishing off enemy units. Each unit is assigned a certain amount to drop on death. The hero of the player that owns the killing unit gets a percentage out of this, the remainder is shared among near-standing heroes taking into account that the killer can be repicked.

The killer bonus depends on the amount of the picked heroes:

heroes amount: killer bonus --> remaining / heroes amount
0: everything goes to killer
1: 35% --> 65% remaining / 1 = 65%, so killer max. receives 35% + 65% = 100%
2: 30% --> 70% remaining / 2 = 35%, so killer max. receives 30% + 35% = 65%
3: 25% --> 75% remaining / 3 = 25%, so killer max. receives 25% + 25% = 50%
4: 20% --> 80% remaining / 4 = 20%, so killer max. receives 20% + 20% = 40%
5: 15% --> 85% remaining / 5 = 17%, so killer max. receives 15% + 17% = 32%
6: 10% --> 90% remaining / 6 = 15%, so killer max. receives 10% + 15% = 25%
7: 5% --> 95% remaining / 7 = 13.57%, so killer max. receives 5% + 13.57% = 18.57%
there are not more heroes

This system should allow a somewhat flexible exp distribution and avoid that potential resources can be lost from different team lineups (if you go solo or with whole team). When being in range, the player doing the last hit on an exp dropping enemy gets the greatest share, which seems intuitive. However, the same one is also rewarded by gold loot, gaining double bonus. This advantage is counteracted by the fact that higher levels require more exp, therefore the divergence in strength won't be too large, the lasthitting/damage applying hero will less likely stay the same, not snowball.
The killer percentages flatten with more heroes in range since the remaining exp is divided by a bigger number then. The other ones would not get much out of it else. Additionally, it seems unequally more difficult to control last hits in group fights, so I decided to disperse the killer bonus to a borderline with more heroes around.

Neutral Structures

Fountains

Two Fountains found at the side branches are said to have regenerative properties. Scattered throughout the castle, some Reservoirs save the water for quick use and emergencies.

Shops

The Garbage Collector offers substantial equipment. Its range of goods changes with game progress. There is one next to the Meteorite and another at the corner of a side branch.

The Pharmacy has effective charged items in stock that are expedient even later on. There is one next to the Meteorite and another at the corner of a side branch.

The Library holds wisdom and various runic papers that can be dissolved in order to unleash the magic powers sealed inside them. These spell scrolls have a limited amount of use. The Library is situated in the heart of the courtyard.

The Taverns are outside of Wintercastle across the jungles. They currently only sell a special drink that temporarily boosts one's stats. Useful for junglers.

Snow Figures

When Count Drakul entered the Crystal Mountains, a strange visitor approached him and gave him three seeds, which Drakul planted on the mountain and soon ermerged into splendid flowers. Despite of the harsh winters of this place, they would not wither for about 40 years. However, they finally began to shed their glance as the Big Winter set in. Sebastian was instructed to cast a barrier around them but it did not help, so only the wards remained.

Each entry of Wintercastle has one Snow Figure in front. They can be activated for 30 seconds in order to trigger a global armor and gold loot buff.

The Defenders

Hero Kit Table

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/59549334/dwc/Ultimate3.txt

Ct. Weynard "Drakul" Dreadmoore (The Count)
He is the owner of Wintercastle. Even before the Big Winter he had been living here secludedly from society, although nobody exactly knows why. However, he did not hesitate to share his residence with the refugees. This and his always accurate and self-controlled appearance make him pretty popular.

The Count is a close combat user, even if he does not come with the most of hitpoints. In return, he is able to suck life from his enemies and is granted another chance with 'Rigor Mortis'.

Emphatic Bite: Slips to the target, steeping teeth deep into its neck and healing Drakul by sucking blood from it. The effects thereafter depend on the target's disposition.
on ally: Heals the target and boosts its attack damage.
on enemy: Causes damage (physical, triggers damage events), bleeding and silences the target.

Infection: When this spell is activated, Drakul obtains a boost in spell power. Normal attacks infect the target, poisoning it, reducing armor and spawning a descendant of with the shape of Drakul upon death. Furthermore, attacks go through the primary target to hit those behind it in a cone for some minor damage.

Bat Swarm (artifact): Summons bats from the ceiling of Wintercastle to engulf the target unit.
on ally: Creates a spell shield to deflect a single negative spell.
on enemy: The target will be rendered in an eclipse.
From there, the bats fly to the next nearby enemy targets to cause damage (physical) on them and restore lifepoints each to the target of the spell.

Chilly Breath (elemental): Drakul ascends into the air to eject a wave of freezing madness. Aside from magic damage, which becomes stronger as the spell is channeled, targets incur coldness and madness.

Rigor Mortis (ultimate): Puts Drakul in a near-death state only to be resurrected again after a short delay. As an after effect, part of his life and mana are restored and he gains greater invisibility and ghost.

Fountain of Life and Death (ultimate ex): Summons a fountain that possesses two abilities.
Decay Aura: A destructive aura dealing damage per second to nearby enemy units and lowering their resistance.
Palingenesis: Temporarily revives any organic unit and passes its control to the owner of the fountain.

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Sir Kimrad "Smokealot" Eyestroke (The Stormpike)
is an old friend of Drakul. Since his parents died early and nobody provided him, he went to the bad and committed some unpleasant crimes wherefore people hated and repelled him. One day, he tried to steal from the count and was caught by him and morally confronted. Finally, Drakul invited him to live at Wintercastle. Later on, against the will of his master, Smokealot left the castle in order to participate in the far-eastern war of humans, dwarves and fairies against the might-driven elves. Only when the cold shock applied, he decided to return. He never could get rid of his old addiction, smoking.

The title 'The Stormpike', this hero maintains, is not for show. Using his horse he can reach high speeds and his swordsmanship skills are considerable. Other than that, only average attributes.

Tempest Strike: Slices through a short distance to dash in the target direction. Encountering units will be damaged (physical, proccs damage event) and if at least one unit is hit, Smokealot will gain an attack speed bonus.
'Tempest Strike' lifts the cooldown of 'Sapphireblue Dagger'.

Depriving Shock: Channels a lightning on an enemy target unit, suppressing it (not on heroes), burning its mana and dealing damage over time. Part of the mana is absorbed by the caster. If the target dies under the effect of 'Depriving Shock', it gets reanimated on the caster's side for a duration time.
Smokealot receives a swiftness token for casting this ability.

Sapphireblue Dagger (artifact): The mystical dagger instantly teleports the caster to the target location and freezes every foe in the space between. Subsequently, Smokealot's blade is charged with extra magical damage.
Smokealot also gains a Swiftness token.

Inner Force (elemental): Smokealot heats up to briefly jet waves of spiritual power. Each wave picks units around the caster, deals damage to foes and knocks them away but is gentle to friends and heals them. During the duration of effect, Smokealot experiences a bonus to critical value.

Relentless Shiver (ultimate): Smokealot enters a mode where he covers himself inside a gelid sensation that makes him more robust, persistent and even involves his environment. Increases the stamina regeneration and resistance. Periodically emits missiles that target nearby enemies, deal damage (magical) to them and apply the coldness debuff.
This ability draws mana per second from the caster and is defeatable at any time.

Sanguine Eyes (ultimate ex): Intimidates a single enemy unit by an immense charisma, up to the point that it cannot act any longer, even physically starts to bleed and is put under such pressure that it explodes on death. Any damage the target takes is converted into life for Smokealot. The ability is refreshed as soon as the buff vanishes.

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Gen. Reginald "Rocketeye" Grylls (The General)
This fighter of dwarvish origin was present in the war, too. They say he had rivalled with half a dozen of elfish officers on his own. He is a peaceful fellow who yet always needs some action. The tavern is a place he likes to go to sometimes. This ties him to the next person.

He is the meter-tall bulwark with a heavy punch. Forming a team with his Polar Bear chum, together, boosting the fighting spirit is their aim. Unfortunately, the dwarf is short on legs and hardly experienced in magics.

Warcry: Enforces the battle strength by buffing the attack damage of all nearby allied units (depending on vigor). Enemies in the same area will be disarmed for a short amount of time and lose a percentage of their remaining life (depending on the distance to the caster).

Polar Pal: Calls for Rocketeye's thick-skinned buddy, a strong bear summon, who pounces at the target unit to taunt adversaries away from dear friends.
on ally: Renders the target invulnerable for a moment.
on enemy: Grants the bear the ability 'ArcticBlink' (level 1).

While the summon resides on the map, this ability is substituted by 'Callback', which can be used to release the bond, unsummon the bear and grant Rocketeye part of its remaining life force.
The bear grows stronger with each level.

Stone Shield (artifact): Raises an enchanted stone to rotate around the target unit, protecting it and boosting its armor.
The stone shrinks weaker over the duration as it explodes within intervals, dealing damage (physical, focus dependent) to nearby enemies each time.

Monolith (elemental): Thrusts a magical rock into the target direction that shoves all units away and deals some damage to enemies. Afterwards, the rock becomes an immovable structure that emits a mystic aura called 'SacredAura'.
Sacred Aura: An aura that increases the mana regeneration of nearby units.

Mountain King (ultimate): Rocketeye grows in size and transcends into avatar shape, greatly boosting all his hero attributes and equipping himself with the 'Thunderbringer' ability. Also adds a life leech effect (spell power dependent), magic immunity and ghost.

Boulder Crash (ultimate ex): Channels a devastating ability, which steadily pulls all the nearby enemy units towards Rocketeye and hurts them over time. The damage dealt gets higher as a target gets closer.

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Pakon "Stormy" Stormbrewer (The Barkeeper)
is the publican of his own little tavern which is situated near to Wintercastle. He is a really drunkard what is signalized by the keg he always carries around. He sees a friend in Rocketeye, who pays a visit occasionally, and is a likewise halcyon, tamed panda. Well, if you decry his beer, you might get to know his bodyslam.

This lively bear originates from the northern polar regions. About five years ago, he moved here alone because the climate up there never appealed to him. Also, there, he comes badly by beer. He is perhaps the most average in the group except his blood alcohol level. Yet, he can produce mana potions for the rest and alcoholize the enemies.

Sleeping Draft: Hurls a bottle filled with the strongest soporifics at the target unit. Itself and other nearby enemies will be put to sleep for some time but Stormy is incited, regenerates stamina, benefits from a higher attack speed and his punches apply coldness.

Sake Bomb: Throws an alcoholic mixture on the ground and sparks the fuse. On impact, enemy units become intoxicated. The construct blows up after a few seconds, empoisoning nearby foes once more. Enemy units will take slight damage (magical, as well as become coated with poison. Already intoxicated units take greater initial damage.

Magical Bottle (artifact): A stimulating shake is thrown to a target unit, its effect depending on the target's disposition.
on ally: Restores mana, adds a spell power buff.
on enemy: Dispels buffs, restores mana if at least one buff is dispelled and whirls up the target.

Severance (elemental): Throws a missile on the targeted unit, which from there bounces to further potential targets nearby. Each unit struck falls into madness, loses armor and movement speed and receives minor damage (decreases with each bounce).
Units can be hit multiple times

Panda Paw (ultimate): Stormy furiously brandishes his paws into all directions while rushing to the target point (and becomes untouchable while doing so). On arrival, enemies will be shoved away by the accrued vortex, getting knocked up and landing hard on ground or other obstacles, subsequently being stunned. The dealt damage (magical) benefits from the caster's attack damage and triggers damage events.
Passively grants Stormy a life leech effect.

Sober Up (ultimate ex): After a short delay, this spell affects all nearby units.
allies: Are dispelled from negative buffs.
enemies: Receive damage (magical, depending on the negative buffs they carry) and get banished.

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Lady "Aruruw" de Sarafin (The Huntress)
Lady Aruruw is an excellent huntress and archeress. Effortless, she hits an apple off a tree from a range of 50 meters (approximately 2000 units in the world of warcraft). Her white tiger Mukkuru has 3 hp and needs a lot of run.

Fast, strong, graceful and a superior handling with the bow adorn the reputation of this young defender. In contrast, she cannot keep pace in melee and owns a minor mana pool. If it should become tight, she will call animal spirits for support.

Ebony Shot: Fires black bolts spread across a cone, the cone being thinner if you pick a farther target. Each missile deals initial damage (physical, benefits from attack damage, triggers damage events) and additional grazing damage while it's still in the unit's collision range.

Hop'n'Drop: Executes a mighty pounce directed at the target location while dropping explosives underneath. These traps activate after a short delay and deal explosion damage as well as stun nearby foes.

Hawk Eye (artifact): A sensory skill that reveals nearby enemy units. The affected targets lose resistance and begin to bleed when attacked. If a unit dies under the effect of the debuff, the killing player's hero regains some mana.

Twin Wolves (elemental): Summons a pair of wolves in front of Aruruw to assist her in combat. Those possess the abilities 'Carnivore', which grants an additional critical value and a life leech effect, and 'Brotherhood:name', which links both wolves to share part of their pain. Aruruw uses her friends to keep enemies on distance, so she can effectively show her archery skills.
The wolves grow stronger with each level.

Enchanted Arrow (ultimate): Inflates a huge magical arrow over a short channel time, which then launches off into the target direction. Any enemy unit it encounters is snared and dragged along the path. The missile only stops for terrain obstacles, where it explodes, causes heavy damage (magical) on the targets and stuns them.

Zodiac (ultimate ex): Buffs an allied unit with an immense aura that steadily heals nearby friends (benefits from animus) and boosts their movement speed. The spell target itself becomes immortal for the whole duration.

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Keralda "Kera" Zeron (The Steel Rose)

Covered in metal, Kera is the Sarafin family's bodyguard and mentor of Aruruw. Underneath her cloak, she holds a whole armory of devastating weapons which she knows well to effectively make use of in combat.

Razor Blade: Throws a big shuriken into the target direction, damaging (physical) and pushing back enemies. When reaching the destination point, it splits up into smaller blades that return to the caster and slice up every foe (physical damage) along the way.
Passively grants Kera spell vamp.

Wan Shroud: A veiling gas is released at the target location. It harms enemy units (magical damage), degrades their hit chance and armor (percentual).
Attacking the affected units restores life and mana to the hero.

Silent Boots (artifact): Kera turns into stealth mode, turning her invisible. During this state, her movement speed is increased but the bonus steadily weakens over the duration. When attacking while 'Silent Boots' is on, the target will receive extra damage and be disarmed and silenced for a moment.

Ghost Sword (elemental): Summons a set of spectral blades that circle around the target unit, which may be any organic unit. The swords attack nearby enemy units, burn mana for extra damage and purge them when hitting critically. Furthermore, the target unit emits an attack speed and critical chance amplifying aura.

Doppelganger (ultimate): Kera creates an illusion of herself by phase shifting perpendicularly to the target direction. The movement length equals the casting distance. The illusion has only a percentage of the original's power but possesses an icy attack. Furthermore, it can blow itself up via its own ability 'Big Boom'. The original Kera meanwhile obtains a fiery (splash damage) attack.

Steel Impalement (ultimate ex): Executes an artistic slow-motion jump while sending tons of weapons through the ground and air in nova waves, which impale any hostile unit in an immense range. Hit targets take damage, get snared and bleed.
Kera becomes immortal and uninterruptable until the casting ends.

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Than'duin "Tajran" Leaog (The Shaman)
The last in the round is an orc. Hm, how does he fit? He pretends to be a shaman that has left his warlike tribe because he refused to execute one of their enemies. Ever since then, he seeks for protection from the Big Winter as well as from his own tribe he is being chased by. Count Drakul bestows admission upon him. Time will tell whether he does not abuse his faith.

The greenskin is an apprentice of Shamanism. This allows him to heal the other group members and to summon the energies of nature. Maybe, thereby, he can gain the others' trust by doing so. He is seated on the back of a black timber wolf.

Khaki Recovery: Enwraps a couple of allied units in a greenish light, instantly recovering their hitpoints whereas each new target receives less than the previous one. The first target will also be dispelled from negative buffs. All targets receive a move speed boost.
Passive properties: Tajran's affinity to nature enables him to regain life and mana from killing foes.

Nurturing Grounds: Sows grass at the target position, which quickly spreads in a circle shape. The new texture poisons enemies on touch and yields green seeds in intervals. Those seeds can be transformed into moving treants by receiving a healing effect.

Tainted Leaf (artifact): Tajran uses the leaf's power to cast on a targeted unit.
on allied units: Heals a percentage of the target's life (less if the target is the caster) and bestows a buff that heals more (absolute) hitpoints over time and grants a bonus to max life and magic immunity for a short duration.
on enemy units: Deals damage around the target and puts hostile units to sleep.

Thunderstrike (elemental): A spark rises above Tajran's head up into the sky, only to strike down in a flash once it reaches the climax. Deals moderate damage and stuns hostile units in an area.

Shamanic Bubble (ultimate): Migrates the caster to the target position after a short delay. There, all nearby allies get engulfed in a protective aura (except for Tajran), rendering them invulnerable. As the ability is channeled, 'Thunderstrike' is replaced by a ranged variant and Tajran's heal ability is increased.

Cyclone (ultimate ex): Calls upon the mighty winds to meet up as a coherent entity. While doing so, Tajran makes them gush into a target direction, hurting all enemy units in a line (physical damage) and whirling them up. What manifests in the end is a steady shape of rotating air, bound together by the spell, which the caster can move around. The summon has the ability 'Wind Dance', which deals damage to hostile units per second and makes them gyrate around it.

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"Lizzy" Liz (The Fairy)
This mignon creature is a fairy from the East. When her home was completely wiped out, Sir Smokealot rescued here and she followed him out of admiration and homelessness. She is not able to fly anymore since her wings were torn out.

This little cheeky fairy has a fragile body, which does not permit her open battles. Since here wings were pulled out, she is not able to fly anymore. Still, she has got a lavish magical potential and is a master of theurgic curses, which could become well handy.

Purging Rain: Consecutive clusters of shooting stars crackle down on earth in order to smite Lizzy's foes. The magical damage increases with each wave. Hit targets are purged for a couple of seconds. The caster needs to channel this ability.

Arcane Attractor: Summons a fairy dragon above the target point that immediately starts to channel this ability. All nearby enemy units who do not possess the 'Crippled' debuff yet, are charged with it, receive damage (absolute + percentage of the remaining life) and are strongly pulled towards the fairy dragon for an instant.
The debuff reduces a target's attack speed and attack damage and is lifted after a few seconds, so it can be attracted again.

Violet Earring (artifact): When this dapper trinket is activated, it emits a fairy light that is able to swap the position of the caster and any non-structure target unit. It also instantly restores a portion of mana and refreshes the cooldowns of 'PurgingRain' and 'ArcaneAttractor'.
Passive properties: Amplifies Lizzy's attack in intervals and charges it with a banishing effect.

Fireburst (elemental): A fairy dragon is summoned in order to launch an array of fireballs onto the target unit but they explode on the first enemy they collide with. Each fireball deals area damage and ignites the targets.

Fairy Shape (ultimate): Transforms Lizzy into her native fairy shape, banishing herself and gaining the ability to walk through units. Periodically shoots lightning bolts on nearby enemy units that suck off mana, heal Lizzy for it (depending on the burned mana) and put the target into an eclipse. Also improves other abilities:
PurgingRain: No longer has to be channeled.
ArcaneAttractor: Additionally applies a stun to targets.
Fireburst: Jumps to a secondary target, dealing part of the original damage to it.

Mana Colossus (ultimate ex): Creates a magical sphere that slowly pulls enemy units to its center. These adversaries that soujorn in the zone are caught in an eclipse and lose mana over time, which is transfered to the caster. This mana sucking effect also applies to allied units but their mana simply vanishes.

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Jota "Jota" Temoinas (The Magician)
An elven acquaintance of Count Drakul. There is not much known about this character either but he seems to be into a variety of magics like arcane conjuring, shape shifting and elemental weaponry.

Water Bindings: Summons a water elemental with moderate hitpoints and damage but slow movement speed. Jota gains bonus animus for each elemental on the map.
Water elementals have the 'SoakingAttack' ability, which additively slows down the attack and movement of engaged targets.

Conflagration (replaces Water Bindings in Salamander shape): Spews a cone of smouldering in front of the caster in order to enshroud enemy ground units with the ignition and eclipse debuffs. Deals additional initial damage.

Garments of the Salamander: Takes on the Salamander shape with its attributes. Jota obtains another attack with shorter range and normal damage type and additonal armor, too. The Salamander features an increased life regeneration per nearby allied unit but does not refill mana. The ability 'Water Bindings' gets replaced by 'Conflagration' (cone damage + ignition and eclipse), 'Vomit' (line damage + poison) takes the place of 'White Staff'. Jota can switch back at any time but 'Garment of the Salamander' has a short cooldown.

White Staff (artifact): Channels a spell on an allied entity in order to replenish the caster's mana over time. The target unit also benefits from this link by gaining an enhanced evasion against attacks.
Jota can use this ability to blow up summons and make them burst.

Vomit (artifact, replaces White Staff in Salamander shape): Spits a slimy ball in the target direction at a medium distance, affecting all enemies it passes through. Causes damage (physical) over time and applies the poison debuff.
The missile disintegrates on impact, dealing additional damage (physical) in a small area.

Ice Shock (elemental): Instantly freezes the primary target, damaging it (magic) and chills down nearby secondary enemy units, damaging them as well (magic).

Negation Wave (ultimate): Fires a chain of lightning bolts at hostile targets. Each unit takes damage, gets silenced and Jota steals positive buffs from the primary target.

Mass Mimesis (ultimate ex): Opens up a portal at the target position. Casting any ability on any unit (excluding illusions, structures, wards, enemy heroes) makes a copy of this unit and spawns it under the portal. The thereby created (untouchable) illusion runs to its original's position. While the spell effect proceeds, this ability is replaced by 'Charm'.|nCharm: Teleports a non-hero unit to the portal of 'MassMimesis'.

Team:

Hidden Information:

Well, only me actually. I have searched for assistants but these came sparely online and did not participate actively (and lacked knowledge). So, actually nothing was made by them.

Progress:

Hidden Information:

The idea to Wintercastle dates back to christmas 2007 I believe. Its creation was started in spring 2009 but was then recently afterwards put on ice because these that originally wanted to help needed a timeout and I wanted to take the opportunity to upgrade my other map. This year, I have started again in april and reworked the whole trigger system (there was not that much before anyway) as I'd gotten some new techniques and made it cleaner.

Up until now, most of the basic system is finished, basic spawn, defeat condition, infoboard, unit behaviors, hero selection, hero revival, all hero spells, a set of the buyable skills, some other. I had an introduction dialog between the defenders but this one was too long. Some items are ready, I have started to program a bit of computer intelligence because the spawns also have abilities and some shall have special behavior.

I hope to release a demo version within the next month, featuring the first two arcs. To do so, I still need more items, to select the right buyable skills, some system work, maybe to improve the existing skills a bit, the spells for the meteorite, to enhance the terrain, the arcs' bosses, to extend the spawn's ai, to balance and to write tooltips.

Misc:

Hidden Information:

• I became a gummibear of too many imports. Well, at least I thoroughly compose and modify them to match the whole.
• The icons above the hidden information boxes in this post:
  Story --> from the game Magic and Mayhem
  Facts --> http://www.guidetoliteraryagents.com/blog/content/binary/numbers.jpg
  Features --> http://www.stevenbrown.ca/blog/files/2007/11/bug_no_400.png
  Team --> http://www.leusmann.de/uploads/pics/team.jpg
  Progress --> http://a124.e.akamai.net/f/124/5462...pimages/P300180274/BIG/NetProgressBarLogo.JPG
  Misc --> http://albums.mouseplanet.com/AdrienneVincentPhoenix/WinterCastleNight3_111307_Disney.jpg
  
  I'm not the owner of these graphics but did a little rework on them to make them fitting.
  The other pictures were generated using Warcraft III and its expansion and same applies to them.
• There's still some more to the story I want to imply ingame with short dialogs (no cutscene)
  
  Screenshots:
  
  
  
  
  
  
  __________________________________
  
  

Changelogs:

[COLOR="white"]
[B][U]0.76g[/U][/B]
-new hero spell kits
-terrain slightly more spacious
-spawns go the diagonal way to the Meteorite instead of to center first
-Meteorite defense shifted to braziers
-hero selection remodeled
-bgm added
-lots of graphical updates, especially in conjunction with the hero kits

[B][U]0.76b[/U][/B]
-hostile spawns, when targeting a hero, get a buff boosting move speed, as a counter measure, the normal move speed is decreased
-terrain pathing is now painted via border tool
-new multiboard control per esc/arrow keys, allows a better handling and the maximize/minimize button can be used for its native role again
-also removed timer dialogs in order to improve screen visibility
-host appointment: on game start it's the topmost player, on leave it gets determined by fastest access, furthermore reflection on a voting dialog
-changes on specific waves and the general mechanics: 2-3 waves a time are merged to a set. Sets are in distinct sequence but the waves of a set are played in a random order.
-host has to type "-rdy" to start a new set of waves -> more time for breaks
-ui enhancements
-loading time decrements, object and script optimizations
-lots of other small stuff I failed to keep track of

[B][U]0.75[/U][/B]
- Lunar Restoration (Reincarnation of wolves) fixed: They were resurrected with full mana and the spell has no cooldown, thus they would always be reanimated when not deprived of mana; the availability of the effect now is visually displayed
- stamina now is a direct factor for movement speed, scaled to an efficiency value of 60% to 120% --> final speed = MIN + (speed - MIN) * ((120% - 60%) * (curSta / maxSta) + 60%) with MIN = 150, which represents the absolute lower bound
- stamina consumption doubled, stamina bonus per agility doubled
- channeling can be cancelled by right-click on point/widget target if the caster is the only selected unit
- fix: Purchasable abilities are again exchangable by left-click on the item in inventory
- fix: rounding errors minimized which occured on the constant modification of max life of the meteorite in wc3's standard display
- fix: removed thorn effects that were attached to the heroes
- exp curve flattened, initial value decreased
- terrain changes, global pathing map deactivated for now until it is adapted, added 2 reservoirs next to the meteorite
- heroes do not start with meat/ice tea anymore but get an "Eternal Vial" usable every 60 seconds to restore life, mana and stamina, also a teleport scroll as second starting item
- Lizzy: heightened base damage; her Violet Earring gains an additional effect: every 5 seconds her attack gets percentually amplified; further changes on her with next update
- Stormy: SakeBomb: less damage, less cooldown; further changes on him with next update
- Jota: fix: does not get kind of reset to human form on death anymore; Conflagration less initial damage, longer ignition; Vomit shorter cooldown, longer duration, higher mana costs
- Rocketeye: SummonPolarBear: higher invu duration; Warcry: less base damage
- Tajran: KhakiRecovery: longer-lasting stun; the restoration effect per kill was shifted from HandOfNature to this skill; TaintedLeaf: Now does some splash damage around the target
- Kera: RazorBlade: New effect: spell vampire --> life leech on spell damage; WanShroud: removed healing effect, more damage, armor debuff now absolute; Silent Boots: reduced cooldown, now passively improves attack speed and actively removes unit collision
- credits updated; each save will automatically insert a credits.txt in the map archive, it contains the imported resources of others
- henceforth, functions in jass codes are sorted to avoid indirect calls (trigger evaluates), e.g. JassHelper replaces some downcalls this way, which is not advantageous for performance

[B][U]0.74[/U][/B]
- values in tooltips now should all be replaced, no occurences of $var$ anymore.
- regeneration bonuses gained through hero attributes were multiplied by 5. Maybe I will add later that one regenerates faster when not in combat.
- cooldown groups of items fixed, in addition a bug with the IceTea items that made it activate using a false ability level.
- Sapphireblue Dagger (Smokealot) does some aoe damage again.
- Depriving Shock (Smokealot) now applies damage over channel time and stuns the target at the same time. The mana theft/burn/some extra stun effect is executed after a successful channel.
- lightnings now fade out
- AI reactivated
- sleep is not infinite and rendering the unit invulnerable anymore
- have started to reorganize the waves to 3+3+(2+1boss) as I have hinted before
- heroes revive with full hp (50% before). The ability channels for 2 seconds. Ghosts can no longer learn abilities.
- channeling is interrupted by stun
- bars (mana, stamina, channeling) are displayed again
- Garments of the Salamander (Jota) morphs the hero properly again

[/COLOR]

>> Version 0.76g_131 <<

 

[WaterKnight]

Well, it's narrow but I still try to get the demo done within August.

The last two weeks were about items, buffs, ai, the first two chapters with their bosses, the development of new trigger events like UnitMoves or UnitIdles which should help to prevent that units lose their order and stay still and for other purposes.

Meanwhile, one of the helpers that wanted to participate in the project appeared again and claimed he/she would take care of the terrain. I instructed him/her but will see how it works out.

Here you can see the dillentantish stub of an opening speech scene I had already made some months ago and of which I am not sure about yet whether to include (because of its length) but you may get a touch of the exposition.

 

[Svenski]

Hey WaterKnight,

...from your post in the help zone I checked out your link. Nice start to a game I see you have! For not speaking native English, you've done an excellent job writing up your descriptions and your storyline.

I too am working on a PVE Hero Defense map, called Defend the Basement. It's a stop-and-go type deal like you had suggested in your post, you might like it - check it out here:

Defend the Basement!

It might inspire you in some way... although it is not complete, I've been working on it for well over a year and most of my systems are well refined.

Good luck brother, and if you need a hand testing sometime, let me know-
~Svenski

 

[WaterKnight]

I will take a peek, thank you. The problem is that I am actually bored of these hero defenses where you stay at one position for half an hour, the enemies are not pushy, always do the same and you just improve your hero with items that have higher values. Buying temporary spells should help to actually communicate to your team and alter the play style as to occasionlier go to the shop.

My old clan had also started a hero defense with this "drawing the enemies"-method. And that's were I came to like it.

-----

As you see, I have not finished the demo yet although I wanted to release it within August. One of the associates showed up again and meant to take care of the terrain but eventually had no time again, so this task returned to me. The last couple of days I worked on a way for the player to level up his/her buyable skills. For several reasons, I decided to use the normal hero ability menu and abuse the engineering upgrade skill to exchange a predefined spell slot. Normally, there is a maximum of 5 slots per hero but I made an addition that lets you shift the displayed hero abilities and therefore you can have more. The unit does not lose its spells in its main command card meanwhile as these levelable spells are only dummies and not connected by Wc3 mechanics.

The hero revival was also changed to a more unique, controllable and hopefully pleasing variant. It's similar to that used in Obsidian Depths by Rising_Dusk.

Other things I still have to handle are some AI, items, purchasable spell selection for act2, triggering the bosses (not their abilities but entrance/outlet since they do not follow all rules of the normal spawning system), some dialog speeches, my favorite task: writing tooltips[/ironic] and terrain as said. I am not very good at terraining but am positive to have a good eye for colors and spacial composition and I think it already looks distinctive. My work is rather decent than massing.

 

[Svenski]

I know what you mean, one of the most important things I've kept in mind while making my hero D is the balance and difficulty, and making the enemy engaging and dynamic to keep things interesting. That amongst many other things of course...

I'm curious as to what you mean by 'Drawing the Enemy'? I haven't heard that phrase before.

 

[WaterKnight]

So still have not finished the demo but want to do some notifications.

More updates are posted in the original thread but that site has got some activity problems and maybe this will get a new perspective when I sum it up.

I have dealt with terrain a bit, also uploaded some pics (click).

Reorganized a lot of code (thought of new concepts) and implemented header support for several new things.

Sebastian and Rosa were hired as decorative personnel for the castle. First one supervises the library (ability shop) and the woman resurrects fallen soldiers by flooding the revival zones with magical energies.

The revival method was assembled, infocard (questlog) and three multiboards established. Yes, there are now 3 multiboards that can be toggled through by hitting the minimize button. The first board displays some general information like current chapter, level, meteorite's life, lists up players and shows their heroes' inventories to have a quick overview in fiery battles. It also slightly hints what the current and next spawn level is about. Another board specifically reveals detailed values and the status of a selected unit. Not all things can be shown in the normal unit UI, so this might be useful and it adds to style and uniqueness. The last one offers some options like camera distance, volume or the effect level that was built in. When setting a lower effect level, not all of the special effects are shown, these that are not of importance will be left out. I think this options board is a better alternative to plain chat input lines.

Abilities were and are reworked (+tooltips), as said, I reorganized a lot of code but also edited their gameplay functionality. The spawns got some completly new ones that are limited to higher difficulty.

Fixed many flawy things that also pop up when you redo the system. Meanwhile, I even had to change the Jass compiler as the normal one of JNGP could not get along with the size of my scriptings. This took me some days.

Creeps were introduced that temporarily or permanently buff the killing hero or the whole group and drop gold/xp. These can only be finished off in a timeframe and not simply be done in the dormant phases between the chapter. Well, the temporary buffs should be used to overcome the current level, anyway. The regular creeps are situated at the exteriors of Wintercastle, one or two heroes should hurry up and take care of them. To speed up things, they may use the invulnerable horse ride service that brings them to the taverns in front of the creep spots. These taverns sell a miraculous drink that even realizes a fast return by boosting the movement speed among other effects. These spots outside of the castle also get another meaning. I've made plans to grant each hero a unique, upgradable artifact and these upgrades can only be done there. So each hero will eventually (at least at higher difficulty) need to pay some visit at the pub. This can be combined with creeping.

Then, I had to deal with some balancing concepts, like what values the hero attributes should modify. Spell Power, as you might know from League of Legends, was included. This and Attack Damage enhance/regulate some ability effects. Furthermore, some unit condition states were collected that balance should revolve around to have some more central gameplay system and not totally individual spell effects. That are namely: Disarmed (cannot attack), Banished (cannot physically attack nor be physically attacked), Cold (takes more damage when being under 25% HP and non-heroes explode on death), Invisible, Invulnerable, Magic Immune, Poisoned (does not regenerate HP), Silenced (unable to cast), Sleeping (cannot interact and is ignored by AI but may be interrupted by taking damage), Stunned, Transported (temporarily vanished). Cold and Poisoned might get another AS/MS reduction because as a shared unit state, you would not be able to accumulate too many different slowing spells, that would exaggerate it.

That would roughly be it. As a last note some moonwells were set up at the castle's entrances. There are already the healing fountains but they are for slow nourishment, do not restore mana and I consider to even make them affect enemies. Moonwells allow a more creative gameplay and promote the defenders' movement.

@Svenski: I did not mean drawing like painting them but you pull/kite them all over the place, so you can regenerate your life/mana/ability cooldowns/etc., control the enemies' positions and hit a strategic blow. The spawns shall "flood" your defense so you have to reorganize/improvise your defensive line and it's harder to estimate.

 

[WaterKnight]

So yes, making progress. After having optimized several systems that I use to realize this map in the editor, coming closer to complete the features for the upcoming demo I had in mind and after having fixed tons of things, I am willing to start Sneaky Tests at the end of the week/weekend to check out balancing, if the concepts work out and to get to know just how laggy it is actually.

These who are interested in participating may send me a PM. I will try to get a full game as I want to have the map balanced for a full house but will add a simple player amount-depending difficulty adjustment just for testing.

I have added some screenshots in the first post under Misc

 

[WaterKnight]

Reworking the hero spells for another time. As I have not presented them here until yet, I shall do so now. Therefore, the The Defenders section from first post got equipped with the current information, assigning the spells to their related heroes. Summarizing it, most abilities contain 2-3 effects, which allows for a more flexible use. However, I have paid attention that it handles intuitively and that the heroes play differently. More damage components were included, so it's easier to replace other spells/dead heroes and it solidifyes standard situations/bring more value to combat without being too situational and teamwork dependent. I believe there is still enough of a variance enabling a complex gameplay. Another reason and content for the rework is the above-mentioned establishment of shared buffs, which were introduced to uniform the combat system, reducing percental bonuses (and to simplify the spell creation process for me).

The buff 'Banished' has been traded away for 'Eclipse', this one reduces relative armor and spell power, disables mana regeneration. 'Ignited' has been added, the affected unit cannot turn invisible and takes some percental damage over time.

Furthermore, a distinct line between magical spell damage and physical skill damage has been drawn. Magical spell damage can no longer crit. It benefits from the caster's spellpower and is reduced by the target's spellresistance (which is also spellpower at the moment). Physical skills are decreased by the target's armor but can crit. This is because there are only a few of them and these abilities are more spammable or feature less bursting damage, therefore would not be too polarizing if it critted or not. The fact that spellpower grants spellresistance means that tanks should buy some of it later on, they are not naturally protected against all kinds of attacks. Intelligence users have more spellpower but less life. This helps that they are not wasted in one blow and might support the tank in some special situations.

I have executed and am still doing technical optimizations. However, the map continues being very demanding/Wc3 is slow. Tests were not that pleasing.

The map's general pathing map has been drawn. I do this via Photoshop because this way I do not have to place mass blockers and it is safer and easier to avoid gaps.

 

[WaterKnight]

New concepts approaching: In order to further promote players staying on the lanes, the Snowmen in front of the portals were changed. When slain, they now grant a temporary global buff that heightens the amount of gold that spawns drop by 25%. This warrants long-time advantages without being too critical when enemies drive you back. Additionally, to make the exteriors more useful, you can find bundles of lumber at the forest's edge. These are applied to a team account and are able to charge up the meteorite, restoring its mana/life. This way, your group's leader takes care controlling the meteorite's spells while everybody may contribute by picking up these fagots. However, you may not necessarily be in need of these things, it is more like an alternative/if there is an oppurtunity. But maybe you should send someone when the meteorite is low.

It was decided that artifacts no longer need to be fetched from Victor the blacksmith. Instead, you already possess these skills at the beginning of the game and they are automatically upgraded each new chapter.

Currently, I am pondering whether to build shortcuts to the creep camps to improve their accessibility. This would affect the horse-ride service as well as the edge shops and maybe the taverns. It is also possible to swap the position of meteorite and library in order to change the focal point and movements around but maybe the castle should be stretched a bit then. I shall upload a new overview.

 

[WaterKnight]

Slowly getting the demo done. For some time, I have wanted to change the hero names but was indecisive. Now I am satisfied:

_______
Ct. Weynard "Drakul" Dreadmoore
_______
Sir Kimrad "Smokealot" Eyestroke
_______
Gen. Reginald "Rocketeye" Grylls
_______
Lady "Aruruw" de Sarafin
_______
Pakon "Stormy" Stormbrewer
_______
"Lizzy" Liz
_______
Than'duin "Tajran" Leaog

 

[Vengeancekael]

Those are some complicated names, alright.
Looking forward to the demo, I love defense maps :3

 

[WaterKnight]

Still no demo but further development.

• Upgradable towers were introduced. For this, I needed to implement unit morphing as well.
• Game messages were moved to the upper left corner and limited to 4 in order to increase important visibility. You can hardly read the opening descriptions in most maps because of common bot messages.
• New meteorite mechanics: When damaged, not only the current hitpoints vanish but also max hitpoints by a percentage, thus you are not able to restore its life completely. This has the advantage that I can fortify the meteorite at start, so you won't die as fast from minor mistakes, but there is some persisting damage perceptible later in the day. As a counteraction, each new chapter upgrades the meteorite's max hp, therefore allowing me to regulate it via system, at the same time taking it away from players.
• A lot of spell changes. In general, the abilities of spawns are more active and of disabling nature. Those of heroes gained some further components, maxing out dynamics. But do not worry, they are still very intuitive. Each hero has now some kind of special movement, which should turn the game highly swift. The spells were also adjusted in order to fit with flying units that particularly appear in later stages, so everyone has 2-3 possibilities to deal with them.
• System optimizations: New layout for spells, can now easily integrate changing values into tooltips like Blizzard's object editor tags but with custom content (and actually working), fixes in AI/EventCombinations, custom missiles reworked so they can be freely moved around and their parameters can be changed anytime.
• Spawns that were pulled too far away from their path now revert after some seconds. Before they do so, they are signalized by an exclamation mark. While retreating, they obtain a short temporary buff boosting movement speed and life regeneration and cannot attack meanwhile in order to prevent immediate repulling.
• New experience system that should be variable to play and non-lossy. See first post >>>Features >>Hero Experience for a detailed description.
• Currently expanding the jungle that is home to various creep camps. They feature chapter-specific artistic designs. The plan is that one player usually takes care of them while others defend but they may assist or exchange the job in time. Rewards are various: xp, gold, lumber, refreshing runes/as targets for life leech, a greater one grants a buff and there is a boss. I am just deciding whether this boss drops a charged item you can summon some creeps for your side with or if I add a permanent extra creep type to normal monster spawn that only stops when the chapter is over or when this boss is killed. The jungle also serves as an interface between the side branches, main gate and the circumventing paths around Wintercastle.

 

[Luffy]

why are there so many markets?

 

[WaterKnight]

The graphic is obsolete. I shall upload a new overview when the jungles are ready. The current situation is that these 4 markets were turned into Garbage Collectors and Pharmacys, one next to the Meteorite and one out on the wings for each type. This was meant to not completely mirror the side lanes, which is now further progressed by different jungle parts.

Some days ago, I added brief descriptions for the "new" shop types in first post >>>Features >>Neutral Structures >Shops.

Back in time, the Goblin Shop as model with their thatched roofs and flimsiness were seen as too tropical/ironic

Short add:
I just customized unit invulnerability. Temporary invulnerability no longer renders the unit untouchable in the meaning of the normal wc3 engine. It can still be attacked and be the target of any spell but the damage/effect is just nullified upon impact/when the effect would take place. Analogously, this applies to magic immunity. Advantages are that it's easier/cleaner for me to avoid this wc3 limit when coding the map and you can abuse the enemy's AI to waste their stuff. Of course, this also means that you have to pay attention to their protections but then you may time delayed effects as well.

edit: As a general rule, invulnerability protects from most damage but not from status modifiers like slow or stun. Magic immunity blocks magical ability damage and a lot of magical ability effects (that are negative). There is a difference between physical and magical abilities. Ultimates however work on magic immunes. Being said this would be the standard, I reserve the possibility for exceptions or I may see the 'Ignited' buff as a seperate physical/unblockable part of an ability for example.

Invulnerability is currently acquirable through 'Bubble' (Tajran's ultimate), 'Panda Paw' (Stormy's ultimate), 'Ice Block' (purchasable ability); magic immunity through 'Avatar' (Rocketeye's ultimate), 'Ice Block' and hero revival.

 

[cohadar]

The first five levels each come consecutively with only a timer window separating them. The chapter's boss follows then, when all previous spawns are gone.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE. DO NOT MAKE ANOTHER TIMER BASED HERO DEFENSE.

The proper way to do this is to do spawning in a 1 second periodic trigger using global constants and variables:

CREEPS_PER_LEVEL - constant, 300 for example
FOOD_CAP - constant, recommended value: 100

CurrentLevel - you current level, doh
CreepCounter - Number of spawns left. On every level start initialized with CREEPS_PER_LEVEL and decreased by one each time you spawn a creep, when it reaches zero you stop spawning and go to next level.

The purpose of FOOD_CAP is to make sure your game never lags.
To do this make all your creep units use 1 food, than before spawning any unit check if total food used by your creep player is bigger than FOOD_CAP.

Example trigger:

//===========================================================================
//  Spawn creeps periodically, keeps number under control by checking food limit.
//===========================================================================
library CreepSpawning initializer Init uses UID, Game, Message

globals
    // max 100 computer units inside dungeon
    private constant integer FOOD_CAP = 100 // for all undead players

    private constant integer CREEP_COUNT = 125 // per undead player
    private constant integer CHAMPION_COUNT = 5 // per undead player
    private constant integer CHAMPION_FREQUENCY = CREEP_COUNT/CHAMPION_COUNT
    
    private integer CurrentLevel = 0
    
    private integer CreepCount
    
    private boolean spawning = false
endglobals

//===========================================================================
public function Begin takes integer level returns nothing
    set CurrentLevel = level
    set CreepCount = CREEP_COUNT
    set spawning = true
endfunction

//===========================================================================
private function GetUndeadFoodUsed takes nothing returns integer
    local integer ret = 0
    set ret = ret + GetPlayerState(Player(0), PLAYER_STATE_RESOURCE_FOOD_USED)
    set ret = ret + GetPlayerState(Player(5), PLAYER_STATE_RESOURCE_FOOD_USED)
    set ret = ret + GetPlayerState(Player(6), PLAYER_STATE_RESOURCE_FOOD_USED)
    set ret = ret + GetPlayerState(Player(7), PLAYER_STATE_RESOURCE_FOOD_USED)
    set ret = ret + GetPlayerState(Player(8), PLAYER_STATE_RESOURCE_FOOD_USED)
    return ret
endfunction 

//===========================================================================
private function GetCreepId takes nothing returns integer
    return 'u0A0' + CurrentLevel
endfunction 

//===========================================================================
private function GetChampionId takes nothing returns integer
    return 'u0B0' + CurrentLevel
endfunction 

//===========================================================================
private function GetHeroId takes nothing returns integer
    return 'U000' + CurrentLevel
endfunction 

//===========================================================================
private function GetX takes integer id returns real
    return GetWidgetX(udg_Spawn[(CurrentLevel-1)*4+id-5])
endfunction

//===========================================================================
private function GetY takes integer id returns real
    return GetWidgetY(udg_Spawn[(CurrentLevel-1)*4+id-5])
endfunction

//===========================================================================
private function GetFace takes integer id returns real
    return 0.0
endfunction

//===========================================================================
private function CreateCreep takes integer id returns nothing
    set bj_lastCreatedUnit = CreateUnit(Player(id), GetCreepId(), GetX(id), GetY(id), GetFace(id))
endfunction

//===========================================================================
private function CreateChampion takes integer id returns nothing
    set bj_lastCreatedUnit = CreateUnit(Player(id), GetChampionId(), GetX(id), GetY(id), GetFace(id))
endfunction

//===========================================================================
private function CreateHero takes nothing returns nothing
    local integer id = GetRandomInt(5, 8)
    set bj_lastCreatedUnit = CreateUnit(Player(0), GetHeroId(), GetX(id), GetY(id), GetFace(id))
    call Message_ToAll(GetUnitName(bj_lastCreatedUnit)+" has arrived.")
endfunction

//===========================================================================
//  public so it can be called from testing trigger
//===========================================================================
public function Spawn takes nothing returns nothing
    if CreepCount>0 then
        set CreepCount = CreepCount - 1
        if ModuloInteger(CreepCount, CHAMPION_FREQUENCY) == 0 then
            call CreateChampion(5)
            call CreateChampion(6)
            call CreateChampion(7)
            call CreateChampion(8)
        else
            call CreateCreep(5)
            call CreateCreep(6)
            call CreateCreep(7)
            call CreateCreep(8)
        endif
    else
        set spawning = false
        call CreateHero()
    endif
endfunction

//===========================================================================
private function Actions takes nothing returns nothing
    if Game_Ended() then
        return
    endif
    if spawning then
        if GetUndeadFoodUsed() < FOOD_CAP then
            call Spawn()
        endif
    endif
 endfunction

//===========================================================================
private function Init takes nothing returns nothing
    call Trig_TimerOne(function Actions)
endfunction

endlibrary

PS: also make sure you have pauses between levels so people actually have time to shop for items...

 

[WaterKnight]

A chapter consists of six levels. The first five advance in sequence without the need to clear the enemies of one before the next starts. They are only separated by delay times, so spawns of different levels may overlap. Looking inside a level, single enemies or groups spawn in intervals and there can be multiple types of them. I am very well aware that everything can pile up until the last level, that is the plan. If I feel it's necessary, I might consider modifiers like "food cap". At this point, a common big level (normals+supporters+champions set) contains about 110 enemies, meaning a worst case of 550, which is however very unlikely because those of lower levels bite the dust much easier and even if you fail and they overwhelm you, all adversaries but champions that reach their goal (attacking the Meteorite) reduce themselves to ashes. The sixth level of a chapter, which features the boss, only appears after all enemies were slain. You can either take your time with a few remaining spawns that lack the strength to prevent you from shopping or do it while the boss's level is delaying or after you have put him/her to rest before the new chapter initiates or while being dead as you can wander around with your ghost and buy stuff.

 

[cohadar]

I am trying to help here, please pay attention.
Worst case is not 550, it is 200
http://www.wc3c.net/showpost.php?p=959733&postcount=15
Also slower machines get really laggy with even 150 units at the same time controled by computer player because of pathing and attacking AI.

A level of 110 enemies can last 3 minutes max, which means your game was designed to last 15 minutes? Or what is more probable you have not tested your spawning.
Make a test run of your game: pick a hero, type "whosyourdaddy" and see how long the game takes to finish.
Note you can do this even before balancing your creep stats. (and always should)

 

[WaterKnight]

My current worst case is 550. I made a more detailed clarification post because you had jumped to conclusions.

I did not say anything about spawn intervals, delays and the like but the game was thought to be 1,5 hours at max. So if all get the same share, a chapter has a max time window of 15min, just as you guessed, only that there are six of them (a normal level of a chapter is about 112 seconds but you still need to clean up the mess before the boss, the boss is not normal and another delay until next chapter). I have calculated this before and I do make tests, although only singleplayer at the moment.

I do not use GroupPointOrderById nor supply for spawning adversaries. Despite being thankful for your hints, you do not need to post me any code snippets.

 

[cohadar]

My current worst case is 550.

Your worst case is not the same as other peoples worst case.
Not everyone has the same machine as you, and multiplayer lag is not the same as singleplayer one.

Despite being thankful for your hints, you do not need to post me any code snippets.

No matter how good you are at jass you can always use other peoples snippets, I know I do.

People are always defensive about their maps even when they are not defense maps...

PS: you should post your map as early as possible, no matter how unfinished or full of bugs it is. This forum is about testing unfinished maps, and without a test map all our talk is abstract and prone to wrong assumptions.

 

[WaterKnight]

Your worst case is not the same as other peoples worst case.
Not everyone has the same machine as you, and multiplayer lag is not the same as singleplayer one.

Eh, the max amount of enemies on the field does not depend on the machine. Of course, it can lag more or less with a different specs.

No matter how good you are at jass you can always use other peoples snippets, I know I do.

They would not even work for me. Just saying that it's not a hindrance, the concept points are important.

People are always defensive about their maps even when they are not defense maps...

Well, you asked for it and that gives me the possibility to clarify things and present that it works out (or not). I indeed tend to alter my project when I see better solutions. For example, out of your first post, I extracted that a food cap might be possible or maybe I could split chapters up in two parts, so only three levels could overlap, which would reduce the max stress and give more free time while still being rather challenging and dynamic. But this would at least require the insertion of another level or a direct connection to the boss. So do not blame me if I do not decide this immediately.

PS: you should post your map as early as possible, no matter how unfinished or full of bugs it is. This forum is about testing unfinished maps, and without a test map all our talk is abstract and prone to wrong assumptions.

My mapmaking strategy is rather ineffective, changing a lot of conceptions over time and not first crystalizing out stubs of the basic gameplay but editing all ends. Anyway, I was prepared for a major project and as announced, want to release a demo featuring the first two chapters, others were not even started yet to be assembled. The demo should cover most global mechanics. I am ready to make a bet. If I do not finish it within New Year's Eve, I shall upload the then current state anyway.

 

[cohadar]

I am ready to make a bet. If I do not finish it within New Year's Eve, I shall upload the then current state anyway.

I found out that the best strategy is to make releases every 7 days.
Maybe it is because I do not do massive projects any more, just minimaps.

 

[hamsterpellet]

Hey WaterKnight, it looks like you are doing a pretty good job here! I am really interested in trying your map. I have a hero castle defense map too, take a look! Seriously, I would be very happy if you take a look on it. Download it here.

Keep the good work!

hamsterpellet

 

[WaterKnight]

Release Testversion 65 (Build 11775) Notes:

As accepted, I upload the current state. Up to now, I was unable to complete the demo that I desire. Despite having made some good progress in december, there are still lots of things to do. You may probably read some debug messages during runtime. Those that I have seen til now are not that crucial. I will track them later.

To-do:

• balancing
• bosses (you only get to level 5 atm, the first boss would appear after that but they will use special events that I have not written yet)
• some effect graphics are missing, the buff of Infection is faulty e.g.
• jungle is not complete
• onDeath-events of buffs (a lot of buffs won't vanish on a unit's death that should --> originally, this was default on true for all buffs but I changed this rule later on and have now to adjust everywhere)
• optimization (Widgetizer does not exactly what I want it to)
• pathing map has to be readjusted
• speeches and lore lack
• tooltips

Skip the long introduction by pressing esc. I will probably remove or shorten it later on.
Testversions should be run in Penguin (Test mode) difficulty.

-deleted old download

 

[Kino]

Since you very thoroughly tested one of my projects, I think it is only fair that I help test yours in return.

Tell me if you this version is ready for feedback, ro do you want to work on it somemore.

 

[WaterKnight]

I am open for any (halfway serious) feedback any time. The only problem is that you might load unnecessary work on yourself by criticizing things that were on my to-do-carta anyway.

The current uploaded version is a test version. That means it's not meant for actual stable playing like the demo version would be when I were finally to finish it. But you can view different features of the basic layout, most of which is thought to persist in later versions. Obviously, everything gets improved. At the moment, I am updating/rewriting the tooltips for example because a big part of the hero spells gained some changes in side effects. Smokealot's ultimate will probably also receive another boost because corpse-targeting is somewhat shitty and I hate it if you can completely miss an instant ability but am unsure to restrict casting either. This test version also includes a just recently joined hero that has only had done her artifact skill so far. More of what I named Kera at a later point.

As a counterpart to Sleep buff, all invisible melee units will land a critical blow now when they are attacking some target but only if they are really invisible and not revealed.

 

[Kino]

I am open for any (halfway serious) feedback any time. The only problem is that you might load unnecessary work on yourself by criticizing things that were on my to-do-carta anyway.

The current uploaded version is a test version. That means it's not meant for actual stable playing like the demo version would be when I were finally to finish it. But you can view different features of the basic layout, most of which is thought to persist in later versions. Obviously, everything gets improved. At the moment, I am updating/rewriting the tooltips for example because a big part of the hero spells gained some changes in side effects. Smokealot's ultimate will probably also receive another boost because corpse-targeting is somewhat shitty and I hate it if you can completely miss an instant ability but am unsure to restrict casting either. This test version also includes a just recently joined hero that has only had done her artifact skill so far. More of what I named Kera at a later point.

As a counterpart to Sleep buff, all invisible melee units will land a critical blow now when they are attacking some target but only if they are really invisible and not revealed.

I see.
In that case I think id rather wait until a stable version is released, currently not much can be said due to stuff thats clearly a work in progress.

 

[WaterKnight]

The new tooltip layout is decided.

That would be

(<hotkey>) <name> [<level>]
<manaCost>
<description>

<appliedSharedBuffs>

<lore>

<cooldown>

Inlined values are in gold.

Also fixed some issue with ability learning buttons (they keep their proper x/y position now and display the right level's tooltip).

New abilities' descriptions/lores should be ready somewhere next week.

 

[Kino]

Im going to rather nit picky sounding, but wouldnt it be better to place the cooldown right under the mana cost?

 

[WaterKnight]

Nitpick all the way you like to. As a gamer, I am aware that it can often be the simple details that decide whether a game annoys you or not and that one may see a straight better solution all the time.

I guess you mean to have basic properties of a spell at the same place.

There are some reasons why I have chosen to put Cooldown below:

• If I just listed those things up like
  • Mana Cost: 35
  • Cooldown: 5 seconds
  it would be easier to slip the line/mistake the number value, was not so sure anyway if I should include more stuff like Channel Time, Target Type, Area Range etc.
  To not slip the line, you would usually alternate the colors. Well, from a technical point, the standard Mana Cost display needs to be there anyway and that only consists of an icon and a number, which I appreciate as a stylish separator though.
• As the tooltip is displayed above the button of the spell, it's actually closer to it, so you are faster in seeing it.
• The theme is that of a RPG, stacking information is what I have done in my Footmen Wars map. But that contains a more mechnical feeling.
• To conclude the construct. Better to finish with a senceful information and the DWC-color, just looks good.

 

[The Wizard]

do you think you need to use naruto skills with original name?))
you should create own names for them))

 

[WaterKnight]

Have thought about this myself, some other spells are renamed at the moment while I change the tooltips. There is no specific decision concerning the ultimate ex spells yet though. They were not only chosen because it's so Naruto (map really does not have to do anything with Naruto) but for the symbolism. However, I doubt that so many here know japanese/can interprete the meaning, so I might pick some English variant then.

 

[Kino]

Nitpick all the way you like to. As a gamer, I am aware that it can often be the simple details that decide whether a game annoys you or not and that one may see a straight better solution all the time.

Well thanks for explaining, i adapt easily to new layouts and stuff so it wont be a problem for future testing.

 

[WaterKnight]

I will need a bit longer after all as I cannot finish all tooltips before I am not too sure that the spells are complete because those of the new heroes have to match up. Also, I experiment with a new stat for heroes. Stamina is gained from Agility and fills up like life/mana. It modifies move speed and maybe attack speed too. A bar above the hero's displays the pool. Also made one for mana right away.

 

[Kino]

because those of the new heroes have to match up

By new heroes do you mean entirely new ones, or just those that you havent finished?

 

[WaterKnight]

One is entirely new, the other one was just started shortly before the uploaded test version. They are not in the overview yet. The others have their complete skillset but I am replacing some details and side effects, so everything becomes well rounded out. For example, Rocketeye's Polar Bear summon now shields the allied target and itself for a short time upon emerging or Tajran's Emeraldgreen Leaf turned into a Tainted Leaf for characteristic reasons and because an effect was added allowing him to transform a Cobra Lily into an upgraded version, therefore pushing the spell's possibilities and neediness as it was previously somewhat boring and replacable.

Thing is, I have a set of shared buffs and effects that find utilization in different spells, so there is a kind of structure to not be totally arbitrary and to be (just partly) replacable throughout the other heroes. Now, I have to pay attention that everyone warrants their uniqueness, that spells are fitting the image and balanced and that I somehow distribute these effects in different shapes. There is no single-target spell for the cold debuff yet (except Rocketeye's bear has it) and no aoe-spell for the ignited debuff, so I will probably set them onto the new heroes. Invisibility was there just once on hero-side. Since turning enemies willingly invisible does not make sense and group targeting among allies seems imba and forceful, I decided to add another single-Invisibility, which was however connected to a different spell position (alternative cooldowns, main use etc.).

 

[WaterKnight]

Will try to finish the 2nd test version in a week from now. It features the two new heroes completely and adds minor computer-controlled castle spawn for the defenders side (like in an AoS). Latter was introduced to insert additional slack time, drag and hold the battle positions on the wings and provide more targets for ally-targeting spells. Those defenders spawn at the start of each level and walk from the center to the castle's portals.

To adapt to the new heroes, but also because I was not satisfied quite yet with some, I edited some old hero spells another time, now I have a very coherent picture (I keep track of all the spell effects in a table to balance their occurences and to ensure all heroes possess about the same amount of "points").

A global change was made to channeling abilities: To not disable yourself too hard while channeling and emerge more combos, you can now cast other non-channeling abilities meanwhile. You still cannot move or attack. But you may reposition yourself with special movements from abilities.

Some words to the new heroes:

Keralda "Kera" Zeron
Covered in metal, Kera is the Sarafin family's bodyguard and mentor of Aruruw. Underneath her cloak, she holds a whole armory of devastating weapons which she knows well to effectively make use of in combat.

So she is an assassin type with trickery and weaponry.

Her spells are:

• Razor Blade
• Wan Shroud
• Doppelganger (Ultimate)
• Susanoo
• Silent Boots (Artifact)

Imagine for yourself what they do. Is not that hard to guess.

"Jota" Temoinas
An elven acquaintance of Count Drakul. There is not much known about this character either but he seems to be into general magics.

He is a mage and close combat switcher, has no movement abilities but a mix of disables and support.

His spells are:

• Water Bindings
• Garments of the Salamander
  • Vomit
  • Conflagration
• Negation Wave (Ultimate)
• Tsukuyomi (Ultimate ex)
• White Staff (Artifact)

Meanwhile, just for fun, check out the old intro if you had not yet. I will get rid of it because it's too long and the new heroes were not included back then.

 

[WaterKnight]

I am finished with with the tools that should enhance the map's development. Saving and map loading is much faster than before, mostly because objects are directly processed as slks instead of object editor objects. External scripts have no longer to be activated/deactivated. Information about objects and scripts is now outsourced in os folders as a development structure and necessary data from objects is converted to jass input.

Currently, individual things are fixed in order to make it work as it used to.

As for gameplay concepts, I have decided to go with one idea cohadar has mentioned before, that is to divide the chapters into parts to reduce to worst case of max amount of enemies on the map and to give players more breaks. Since 6 waves do not seem enough to have them separated, it will be heightened to 8, creating 4+(3+1), or 9 --> 3+3+(2+1). However, the boss of a chapter no longer waits for clearance. To not form too big of a disadvantage combat-wise when spawns are stacked before the boss, its arrival will turn all remaining spawns into runners, which also adds more flexible scenarios.

Another change to be introduced will be about invisibility. I felt it would be too scarce and sharply-balanced. In other maps, there would be an invisible wave once in a while and only then will you place one sentry ward and that's all. So I will implement more invisibility in general, not only passively but as active spells and expand revelation methods as a counter-measure. Each hero will obtain a small revelation aura, so the popping up and vanishing again of melee attackers won't be as annoying. Furthermore, sight ranges will be reduced and revealed units visible in fog. Some static, atmospheric light sources on the map grant sight/revelation.

 

[WaterKnight]

I have decided to release a test version per week, just to push activity a bit and show current status. It is far from flawless or finished but I can say the new development tools and systems open up possibilities, I have become quite adapted to them and a lot of the map's previous state has already been restored within the recent weeks.

So here's first of the weekly versions (want to do this at least 5 times).

-deleted old download

 

[WaterKnight]

Testversion 074

Have not gotten to much this week, which is why I have delayed it until now to finish some stuff.

-deleted old download

 

[WaterKnight]

Testversion 075

Update, download & changes in first post

 

[Magtheridon96]

~Opening~

 

[WaterKnight]

Continuing. That means I have already been working on it since last upload but had periods where I did nothing, also because of uncertainties about the direction to follow. Furthermore spent a lot of time on tools to easify development and to make testing more comfortable.

A new version is attached in first post. There are also the major changes described. I still cannot remember all the small things like spell changes but those are of less importance anyway.

The cover text was edited:

About one month ago, two peculiarly luminescent orbs draught across the sky. While one featured a blue color and immediately vanished again behind the far horizont, the red one bolted right into us, our great town, which was meant to be peaceful home to all of the known species. The shock wave easily tore buildings and roads apart and cloaked every nook in gray dust. As many died from the impact, with us survivors facing the poor remains, nothing was left but utter chaos and despair. Whereas some took it for the coup de grâce, I perceived it as divine mockery that shortly thereafter the sky darkened and a bittercold early winter set in.

Only the of a strange material consisting glowing meteorite we lifted from under the debris seemed to spend some even weirder soothing warmth. Though the sky cleared a bit within time, the cold persisted and a growing restlessness of our environment became noticeable. So we set out to seek shelter in the adjacent shire of count Drakul, owner of Wintercastle, right at the foot of the Crystal Mountains. Along our journey did we bring that life-shattering rock whose still thermal energies emitting nature easily mesmerized us.

Since that time we try to get by with the small rations here and hope that the sun will return to us someday. Yet, the problems keep piling up: Besides the lack of food and the ongoing frost which we call the "Dark Winter", the surrounding forest's inhabitants are getting very anxious and have begun to engage us. Most of us refugees do not dare to leave the castle anymore. And how long will the strange stone provide us with strength and hope?

 

[Kwaliti]

Reopened.

 

[WaterKnight]

Version 0.76g

Download link is in first post.

The terrain has been a bit reworked. The spawns no longer try to reach the center first before advancing to the Meteorite. This means that the side entrances walk diagonally and unless you kite the spawns, the throng will be rather at the final destination. The Meteorite's ability to hurt spawns was shifted to the Brazier Oracles next to it; they shoot fiery missiles that deal %dmg and apply the explosion debuff.

The upgrading to different towers works again. A new combat effect has been introduced whereby killing units grants healing based on the gained exp. Part of the spawns now drop tomes that enhance a hero's attributes permanently.

Selecting the hero was modeled fancier and the chamber now has another exit to teleport to the left wing of the castle. A background piece of music by Aaron Krogh has been added, maybe I exchange it at some later point when I find something more fitting but I eventually wanted to introduce a main and some battle themes for the bosses.

The major thing for this version is the rework of all the hero ability kits. While the spells of the Library as known before were deprecated, each hero was assigned a private replacement, and the other abilities, too, were adjusted. Furthermore Amaterasu, Tsukuyomi and Susanoo were replaced by specific 2nd ultimates on the heroes as well. The overview I have been using has been added to the first post >Defenders >Hero Kit Table. The descriptions under >Defenders have also been updated.

The map organizes an info/debug log under Warcraft III\Logs\Defend Wintercastle. You may want to flush that afterwards to release disk space.

From a technical view, a lot of the stuff I have been talking about around the forums has been solved/fixed/used, but in reality it was a lot more since not everything is public-suitable. For testing purposes, a row of commands was inserted. Most practical for you to test would probably be:

-clearSpawns
removes all spawns on the map
-create <unitType> <owner> <x> <y>
Ex: "-create deer 10^4" would create 4 deers for player 10 (spawns) at 0;0, the appended ^4 is a common operator to repeat the command n times
-nocd
turns the cooldown of all abilities on/off
-pingSpawns
pings all spawns on the map
-exp <x>
sets experience of selected units to x
-kill
kills selected unit
-remove
removes selected unit

 

[IcemanBo]

something like "thread has been reopened on request"

 

[Anderhil]

If abilities of he heroes are Attribute scaling i would 100% play this

 

[WaterKnight]

They are. Depending on the type, spell damage scales and spells may benefit from different attributes but that varies individually. I only do so where I see it fitting.

Anyway, the reason I have had the thread unlocked is because I want to fixate some fresh ideas. I won't implement them yet but they will come in handy when I continue working on this map actively.

And that has correlation to our encounters, Anderhil. As I said, there needs to be some scheme how the players should behave on a basic level. I included a bunch of abilities and freedom in Defend Wintercastle to push flexibility and found it has been difficult to control the battle. Often enough, you fire all skills as available and run into big trouble when your mana has been dried up but there is no point in saving it up either and it's not assessable what is to prefer when.

When I made the latest changes to the hero kits, I tried to counteract this a bit by assigning distinctive mana costs and cooldowns. It helped partially. A problem however is that in contrast to AoS maps where you systematically try to break down your intelligent opponents by imposing your play style respectively react to your enemy, in a defense map, there is more of a constant and simple menace. Thus the condition building that demands player reaction is wholly different.

I want to slow down the general offense and at the same time inflict more conditions to the spells to determine their power/usefulness and have the players prepare for it by adjusting themselves and the combat area. To stir things up, the attackers shall exert abilities you have to dodge, stop or single enemies approach you with alternate traits but I want to avoid rapid accumulation of dangers. The game cannot be over just because one player dies, so his/her attack damage, kiting actions and the 5 spells should not be too frequent nor cumulative enough that his/her death rips a major hole in the gameplay. This has become a disadvantage of the possibilities I inserted. Currently, each player is too important.

To decrease the significance of mana and to implement a kind of skill rotation, a second casting resource shall be introduced: furor. Furor has a static capacity (0-100 or something) and is gained by conducting normal attacks, e.g. 10 per attack. A full 100 furor is required and consumed for some spells, which I think should be the minor ultimate and the elemental classified ability, the reason being that the latter is usually the typical damage source ability and the former is only available at a later stage, meaning the aspect of furor will be lesser in the beginning of the game and later on, the player will have to decide which ability to spend the current furor for. Also the minor ultimate will be in less competition to the major ultimate. Furor dissipates when the character dies and slowly fades out.

Independent from that, the need for furor forces the hero to apply standard attacks and thus create a rotation between attacking (especially interesting for melee characters) and casting those furor-supported skills. I do not generally deny mana costs on such abilities but it should rather be subject to utility and major ultimates, which are not spammable and require a special stance anyway. Furthermore, there may be other furor regenerating or diminishing effects like potions or enemy debuffs.

Stamina is to be removed. It lacks assessability and I do not want to punish players for running about.

Another thing is that I would like to add a new player resource: ink. Ink shall be dropped from slain bosses, regularly for succeeding a level and maybe occasionally as randomized enemy loot. It is used to buy items with special effects, tomes (that permanently increase stats without blocking an inventory slot) and runes. The advantage of tomes already stated, they may be better in the long run but they won't get you new effects whereas those enchanted items are a unique domain and more powerful. The runes do take up a slot and improve an ability of the hero.

Ink enables a second purchase line. While it is important for greater items, gold can be spent for consumables and to stuff gaps primarly. It reduces the current monopoly of the gold resource and the player does not have to pay as much attention that he/she wasted all the gold in the wrong department. Since ink is granted in rare instances only and is especially scarce at game start, there will be enough time to take a look at the shops before making a significant choice. Additionally, the new item categorization helps to fill up shops. The one in the center has been empty after I got rid of purchasable spells and there could be more anyway.

Lastly, I am thinking about turning the quest ideas I originally had but which broke down under the standard gameplay into bonus stages where the meteorite is not affected. Instead, you can earn resources and perks. This shall allow for a nice change of pace here and there. The bonus stages appear after a boss and maybe at half-time.

 

[Nordmar]

I just hosted the map and I am a bit dissapointed. The hero I played smokealot is bugged. After using Tempest Strike (I think it's the spell that caused the bug) my hero can't move anymore. I tried anything..but meh..that kinda sucked.

Inner Force also causes the unit to be pushed away and then they dont attack me anymore. They just stand there, facing me...
Btw, after level 8 in chaper 1 it ended for us...i couldn't type -rdy anymore and we cleared the whole map but still..it didnt work. The map seems to be quite bugged :/ And why are there only 2 shops? basically only 1..the other is for pots only. After 5min we had a full inventory and that was it ~

 

[WaterKnight]

The Tempest Strike bug is known, the Inner Force one was not, thx. There is a chapter 2 but not sure if you can reach it normally at the moment because the boss for chapter 1 has not been fully integrated yet, which marks the end of chapter 1. Multiplying stuff is fairly easy then but you see there are and have been a lot of changes and before I extend the level base, I have to make sure I am content with the gameplay in chapter 1 and that the starting conditions for chapter 2 worked out as intended.

Also there is another more grave bug in the map at the moment. In multiplayer games, it often kicks single players during the loading phase, which throws a wedge in play tests. Guess that will be the first thing I am going to investigate on continuation of the project but at this point, the compile scripts will be completely different anyway, possibly resulting in a couple of new bug scenarios. DWC does not use my postproc framework and friends yet and I want to apply the upcoming object editor, too.

I said something about the shops in my previous reply. The market in the center was left empty after I had revoked purchasable abilities. Part of the item assortment is supposed to alter with each chapter although maybe I will leave earlier chapters secondarily.

Please note that I am still considering the map to be in alpha stage as I am jumbling integral concepts up and it won't be fully playable before version 1.0.

 

[Nordmar]

Yeah, the map really feels like it's in alpha stage. I think the Inner Force bug might be related to the tempest strike bug.

Oh and after playing the map, I played a normal game and all the trees ingame were gone and i immediately got disconnected. I am pretty sure it's because of your map. Even the text color was blue like it is in your map.