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- Jul 29, 2008
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Contest Theme: Faction/Altar
Contest Style: Solo ~ In-Game Resources
And what a Contest it was. This was an interesting challenge with a great Theme (if I do say so myself
), lots of good entries, and some excellent competition! But in the end, only one can be the winner... And that's what we're all here to see.On to the Results!
[[Please refer to the attached "Voting Calculations" Excel spreadsheet]]
(Image for those without Microsoft Excel (you can always open an account via SkyDrive & get free Web-Office apps, by the way)
We had an interesting new voting method for this Contest known as 'Modified Borda Count' (more can be read about it in the Contest's Poll thread). Users basically tried as many entries as they could & ranked them preferentially, best to worst. The (weighted) summation of the votes was what gave the final score.
Unfortunately, not many (total of 4) people took advantage of this new method; hopefully future trials will encourage the shy ones to try it out. : )
One thing of note; early on it was discussed that "voting for oneself" was overly self-aggrandizing & thus undesirable. However, after some more discussions, it was made known that this had the effect of discouraging votes; particularly votes from the entrants themselves (in a nutshell: leaving oneself out on a vote leaves oneself with 0 points, and if they voted for everyone else (as 3 of the voters did), that puts them 12 behind the highest on their list). This was seen in previous Contests (on another site) that used preferential voting; the way to fix this issue is to automatically put all the entries of entrants who voted the 'top' of their list (i.e. Cokemonkey11, Cosmicat, and Kyrbi0 gave 13 points to their entry; Dalvengyr gave 4), so as to properly maintain the incentive for this & future Contests.
All fixed!
[[Please refer to the attached "Voting Calculations" Excel spreadsheet]]
(Image for those without Microsoft Excel (you can always open an account via SkyDrive & get free Web-Office apps, by the way)
===
===KAM
===
1st | Kyrbi0 | 51 |
2nd | Dalvengyr | 48 |
3rd | Mythic | 46 |
4th | Cosmicat & Wa666r | 43 |
5th | Cokemonkey11 | 42 |
6th | DED1 | 41 |
7th | Footman16 | 40 |
8th | angkysaputra | 39 |
9th | Rufus | 37 |
10th | Direfury | 33 |
11th | A Void | 11 |
Theme: Clearly a Night Elf caster. The ability cohesion here is good particularly between Preservation and Fury of Nature. Dreamscape is a pleasure to use.
10/10
Role: All of these abilities have the chance to interact with each other in different useful ways. Dreamscape extends the idea of a ranged caster in a literal sense.
10/10
Balance: Dreamscape could have been a real nightmare but you've created a good balance by forcing the Archdruid to remain stationary. I'm not sure the duration on Spore Cloud is working correctly, it lasts more than 20 seconds at level 3. I also don't think Toadstools should be permanenet. Enemy players need to be able to counter them. Right now all one can do is avoid them and they don't seem to have a timed life.
8/10
Creativity: Preservation is fairly simple but is integrated well into the spell set. Fury of nature I have seen in similar forms but never exactly like this. I would not have guessed Dreamscape was based on Storm, Earth, and Fire. Sporer Cloud, depsite the issues, is a unique spell. The threat of a unit producing a toadstool forces a player to make that unit retreat thus removing a unit from combat.
9/10
Coding: Extremely simple for what your spells do. This is wonderful for map makers as any time I can avoid using code heavy abilities that may conflict I do.
10/10
Awesomeness:
4/5
Total:
51
Additional:
-Fury of Nature, Preservation, and Spore Cloud should share the same button locations on the Astral projection.
-The Mortal Coil has two dummy abilities based on Unholy item and Clockwerk that should be in a disabled spellbook.
-It would be nice if when Dreamscape is cast it moved unit selection to the Astral Projection.
-Preservation should have an area indicator instead of a target point.
Theme: Fits right into TFT lore and general Undead characteristics.
9/10
Role: Clearly a disruptor. An enemy player would need to be careful to not bunch units or strong them along in a line. Frost Phase in particular can apply as an aid to retreat or as an attack opener.
9/10
Balance: Frost Phase and Frozen Fate have nice cohesion. I was able to use Frozen Fate in a group of enemy units and then Forzen Phase out leaving slowed attackers to mutants. Cold Addict seems underpowered. AT level 3 the stun on Frost Phase seems too long.
9/10
Creativity: Frost Phase and Frostwave are nicely done. Frozen Fate is an obvious take on Resurrection without much change. Cold Addict just did not feel useful.
8/10
Coding: You used some systems I am more familiar with and it looks good. After dealing with spells and their requirements for years I can tell you that 7 required systems can create issues especially for melee map makers in terms of compatibility. The idea of having the four spells as one library is interesting but presents an issue again if I only want one of them, or want to modify one spell.
9/10
Awesomeness:
4/5
Total:
48
Theme: Fits the race. This is a heavy nuke hero for sure. Malediction is nice but I'm not sure it it fits with the other three well. Something more fitting would be an aura that reduces magic resistance of units damaged by the Dark Sorcerer.
9/10
Role: I would classify this as an assault caster. It does well in that sense but again I would like to see his aura be more in line with a heavy damage assault caster.
9/10
Balance: Tornado of Souls could do something more than area damage. Hand of Corruption needs a different spell effect, it's not entirely clear to the enemy player why their units just died because the effect is slow to spawn but the damage is done instantly.
9/10
Creativity: Tornado of Souls is underwhelming. The best way I have to think of ultimates is that they should seem too good as a standard three level spell. Tornado of Souls seems more like a standard ability besides the high damage. His standard three abilities are nothing new.
6/10
Coding: I don't see any issues.
10/10
Awesomeness:
3/5
Total:
46
Theme: There is a clear link to Arcane magics present in vanilla Human units.
9/10
Role: My take is that the Artificer is a disruptive magic unit but that is not clear. Energize is throwing off the ability cohesion.
7/10
Balance: Charged Bolt rewards choosing the best target rather than simply the weakest. Energize is interesting but I wonder why it affects enemy units and how it can be used in combat or in moving units across the map since the affected area is so small. Static Shield provides a useful defense for a weak magic unit. Lightning Rod is too powerful. It deals Chaos damage and has 1000 HP/6 Fortified armor. If placed correctly behind an attacking force it decimates base defenders.
8/10
Creativity: Charged Bolt and Static Shield are fairly unique, although I remember trying a spell similar to Charged Bolt. Energize is not particularly useful. Lightning Rod is a basic summon. Lightbning Rod is a beefy ward that requires the enemy player to retreat out of range or destroy it immediately.
7/10
Coding: The code seems fine, Static Shield can lag behind the unit if it is movining.
9/10
Awesomeness:
3/5
Total:
43
Theme: Fits Undead and the icon choice is superb. You also managed to use one of my favorite voice sets. These abilities all relate well. He benefits from being in the heart of combat, and with Summoning can bring the combat to him.
10/10
Role: This would be better suited as a melee strength hero. His abilities rely on enemy units being close, and Feeding direclty encourages this.
9/10
Balance: I found nothing wrong with the damage levels. I'm not sure if Summoning should be able to target the same units each time. Mind War may be too good because the stun can be from any source of damage.
9/10
Creativity: Not entirely new ideas. Summoning may have proven more interesting if it had additional criteria such as picking the weakest units in terms of HP and providing them a substantial buff.
7/10
Coding: Waits cause issues with MUI/MPI. In my initial review I misunderstood how Summoning worked and was trying to use it around enemy units.
5/10
Awesomeness:
3/5
Total:
43
Theme: An archer could fit with Humans but it is clear that in WC3 Gnomes have taken over the Human ranged combat area. Upgrades are all for powder weapons.
7/10
Role: It is an interesting combination of ranged attacker and melee healer. In combat I was able to keep an overwhlemed melee force alive through careful healing of near dead units with Holy Sigil, and opening holes for attack with Arcane Arrows.
9/10
Balance: Arcane Arrows is too powerful. It is essentially a variant of Doom in how quickly it can maim a unit. In its current form Holy Sigil is difficult to use. It has a low cooldown but your window to deal damage is only 8 seconds. For a single target ability that is not enough time. I would like to see it be an AoE. I would also like to see Forrestwalk (sp?) display the agility bonus as a standard +XX bonus on the hero stats. This is important for enemy players who may be looking to see what kind of buffs/bonuses your units have.
6/10
Creativity: I like Arcane Arrows rewarding the user for targeting high value units. Holy Sigil also rewards a player for microing weakened units to the rear of combat while the attack force stays engaged. Sigil of Dexterity had a nice effect but was otherwise underwhelming. Forrestwalk seems much more a Night Elf bonus than Human. I understand the connection to a Ranger but it is too out of line with Human skill sets.
8/10
Coding: I can see no issues here but I am lacking in advanced coding skills. As with Kyrbi0 I would suggest reducing the required libraries if possible. It may be a configuration issue but the movement bonus for Sigil of Dexterity does not last 10 seconds.
9/10
Awesomeness:
3/5
Total:
42
Theme: I've seen many pirate heroes. This is the first that really took that concept and infused it into every ability. It fits the Human concept but really would be better suited to the Tavern.
8/10
Role: This is clearly meant to be a melee hero with support abilities. I think they lean too far in the intelligence direction though. Ability cohesion is well done.
9/10
Balance: Steal Object is too powerful as there is no consideration for how much effort the enemy player expended to aquire their item - it could have a substantial gold value. Ghost Ship provides too many bonuses. The ability to have an instant air transport that also provides gold income, deals damage, and can disable a unit is too much. Walk the Plank! is too much of a drain for the enemy player - 48 gold here or there means 1 less combat unit and there's nothing that can be done to counter other than kill the Pirate Captain.
6/10
Creativity: You took the concept far and provided a unique set of abilities. I would suggest making this a ranged intelligence hero though. The hint and burried treasure ssytem is interesting but does not suit a melee setting.
9/10
Coding: Wait actions break MUI/MPI, and you have too many triggers for what these spells do.
5/10
Awesomeness:
4/5
Total:
41
Additional:
There is great potential here. Please explore it more.
Theme: The link to Human is dubious. The abilities are loosely related in that they all directly effect the armor/movement/attack stats of units.
6/10
Role:
7/10 Each ability affects unit stats but there is no much opportunity for stacking other than to spam all your abilities. For instance using Power Strike while having the Charge buff should cause extra damage or an additional effect.
Balance: Banner of the Alliance is not well suited to a melee hero. The Banner is so weak that a few hits will kill it. A more suitable implementation would be to have it as an activated aura. Otherwise there were no issues.
9/10
Creativity: I've seen all of this before. I might give more points but even the implemetations are not much different than many spells in the database.
6/10
Coding: Meets the requirements.
10/10
Awesomeness:
2/5
Total:
40
Theme: There is a clear design direction towards a disruptive melee hero meant to be thrown into combat and confuse enemy players.
9/10
Role: I am partial to heroes that could fit into the timeline after the events of TFT. The Elven Shadow reflects both the former glory of the Night Elves and the remnant state they existed in after losing their eternal power source.
9/10
Balance: At max level I was able to wipe a small normal AI attack force without microing at all. Illusion Dance in particular is too powerful.
4/10
Creativity: Shadow Dodge has been done before but I do like the integration with this hero. Drunken Brawler has simply been renamed. Shadow Blade is not different enough from Cripple. Illusion Dance is also a renamed Mirror Image. OVerall there is not a great deal new here.
4/10
Coding: You accomplished what you wanted in an effecient manner.
10/10
Awesomeness:
3/5
Total:
39
Theme: This should have been a Night Elf hero. The abilities work together, but not as well as they could if Drawback behaved correctly. Additionally the idea of an archer with four arrow based abilties is somewhat overdone.
6/10
Role: Area damage ranged attacker. There is no doubt it excels at this.
9/10
Balance: The one problem is that Drawback has no effect on spell damage which is where it should shine. It also does not stack. If you fix it to affect spell damage then you also need to reduce the damage bonus greatly.
9/10
Creativity: These are all abilities that I've seen in numerous hero maps. This is a perfect hero to do spell combinations with but you've not done that. Drawback should increase damage of all three other spells and her normal attack. Arctic Arrow could have provided a an attack damage bonus for casting additional spells on the affected unit(s), and Volley would be more suited as a % chance based on previous attack damage. There was a lot that could have been expanded on.
6/10
Coding: Waits cause issues with MUI/MPI and Do Nothings are not necessary.
5/10
Awesomeness:
2/5
Total:
37
Theme: Should be Undead or a neutral hero based around fire. There isn't much connection between the abilities other than that they can be used to force enemy units to move where you want them to. It would be nice if there was cohesion where stacking spells in a certain way would create additional magic effects.
7/10
Role: Unit movement disruptor. If an enemy wants to avoid damage they will expend energy dodging where they think you will cast. This is a fairly powerful meta ability.
9/10
Balance: They all do too much damage. I should not be able to solo kill an orange creep camp without taking more than 10% damage. Fire Barrier needs to be a point AoE target ability so the player has an idea of the width and more control over where it is being placed. I would say the same for Infernal Meteor.
7/10
Creativity: Hell Strikes is fun to use and the least familiar, but they all are too similar to spells I've seen before.
5/10
Coding: Waits cause issues with MUI/MPI. I would not use thunder clap as a dummy spell. The terrain deformation can cause desyncs in a melee game.
5/10
Awesomeness:
2/5
Total:
35
Theme: Fits into a Human tree. Polymastery is an ok ability but not something I would consider an ultimate. There could be more cohesion though with general human spell characteristics.
7/10
Role: Support caster. There is no real connection between units though. I would have liked to see an area slow that could then be used with Polymasteyr to catch more enemy units.
7/10
Balance: Chaos damage is overkill. Other than that I did not feel like I could trounce enemy armies. Nourish has a good cost/gain mix. Mana cost is low on all spells.
8/10
Creativity: There is not a great deal of new material here. Stormshiver is simply a repackaged Flamestrike.
4/10
Coding: Waits to not do MUI/MPI any favors.
5/10
Awesomeness:
2/5
Total:
33
Theme: There is no theme here.
1/10
Role: There was no theme between the abilities. You could use Storm Bolt in conjunction with Kaboom but that's about it.
2/10
Balance: Nothing outrageous. Not having a standard attack is too detrimental to creeping and basic combat.
7/10
Creativity: There is nothing new here.
0/10
Coding: There are no triggers.
0/10
Awesomeness:
1/5
Total:
11
===
===BANNAR
===
Kyrbi0
| Theme: | A melee archdruid we got there. Interesting. Druids always fits well to nature-based races, which NE is one of. Nice composition of in-game icons and unique spells. Preservation - misses disabled icon. Fury of Nature - no indicator of actual buff, animation time is too short. The tooltip holds incorrect damage value. Ultimate isn't finished. There is no way to end the spell, redundant icons, the values for ultimate could be higher (bonuses). Visual effect for "out of range" could be added e.g ethernal projection could start flashing red when reaching max distance. | 8 |
Role: | Melee fighter with caster-oriented theme. I'd say that there are some missconcepts here. Hero of yours has spells with decent cast range and is very potent when it comes to kiting, yet this is domain of range heroes which he is clearly not. Whatmore, his ultimative, although very unique, is designed for scout/hunter type of hero i.e prevent him from being at the front line. Kyrbi0, what have you done with his attack range values? | 7 |
Balance: | Of the the best entries when it comes to balance. Perfect mana costs (the fury could have it's initial cost higher tho), nice damage scaling together with snare and root effects. You knew that hero doesn't need mass damage to be usefull and unique in his kit. His scaling is very nice, mix of strength and intelligence fits well. This is how melee/caster types should be implemented. My only concerns came from first spell's damage values, but it's AoE-ish kind of spell so there should be no worries in the long term. | 10 |
Creativity: | Melee druid with some wierd orientation - where is his range? Wierd sometimes equals uniqueness, this time I'm willing to agree with this. Selfish voodoo spell together with spores and all the effects create crazy mix, however, they don't made hero useless. Stun effect, snare with addition of damage couple nicely with NE style of "hit and run" tactics. Might be especially usefull when combined with Warden and dryads which also benefit greatly from such tactics. | 9 |
Coding: | Demo code It's for testing so no comments there. There is almost nothing to judge, you surely could add more of it, consider handling the dummy abilities, providing bonus effects via code if object method results in incorrect timings etc. Coding some additional parts of spells would reduce the contrast between spells and improve some of the graphics. (Casting unit) -> (Triggering unit) (Owner of (...)) -> (Triggering player). This is not always true, but many events are generated strictly by players e.g spell castings, thus there is clear actions that comes from a player in order to perform given action. In such cases, we are save to use the faster native retrieving triggering player. In the trigger related to your ultimate (Dreamscape), you could have stored references to units directly into local or global variables in order to prevent process of constantly repeating the reference statements. | 4 |
Awesomeness: | Funny hero, unique and wierd in some way. The concept seems to be a combination of 2 themes coupled together because author was unsure which one to choose. Anyway, I had fun playing and testing him. You could have choosen differend icons for some spells e.g paw buff icon could be replaced with Dark Ritual one, which even matches spell graphics. So many colours, lol. | 5 |
Dalvengyr
| Theme: | Banshee Queen with cold theme fits very well. Whatmore, her kit, playstyle and overall composition would surely be nice addition to UD army. Problem: frost caster already exists in their race, thus concept might seem redundant. This would be more innovative if this was agility frost-oriented caster. | 9 |
Role: | Disruptor with high damage potential - ultimate is a nice contrast to the rest of her spells (again, situation similar to Lich hero) summoning dozen of zombies to fulfill the task of dark lady. | 10 |
Balance: | You were close. Some spell should have thier mana cost adjusted e.g the blink spell (Frost Phase) on lower levels is too cheap (original blink costs are 50/10/10) - keep in mind that your ability provides snare and damage factor. I love the way you scaled her. The average stats again together with innate stat values are in the right place. Main problem comes from slow mechanic - it's everywhere and it's very punishing for the enemies. Zombies could have thier movement speed reduced since they also have cold attack. | 8 |
Creativity: | If this was agi-based caster, I'd give you 10 out of 10. Good usage of icons, model and effects. Nothing too fancy, couples well with other hero effects. For almost every spell, you have found the way to present standard concept in different fashion. Very nice. | 9 |
Coding: | I'm not gay to point out every single misstype - especially since your code is almost perfect. It's very clean, readable and efficient. Sometimes there is even too much free space but it's your call. The amount of requirements could be reduced, but I see you have already made some "optionals". You could, however, declate trigger "t" in init methods only within portion of static if that is responsible for implementing given code - it's redundant in cases where this trigger is unused. Everything was perfect untill I took a look at variable naming (the class's members). Something inside me died. The "u/a/s/d/e (...) /z" style is not acceptable and is a big blow to such beatiful entry. Is this approach healthy? No. You should have known that such sort names are for locals, and since I'm not the writer of this, I'd like to be able to know which name describes which variable without being forced to scroll up everytime. The ".u = u".. oh my.. I could point out one more thing - since I'm not really into sized arrays as struct members in vJass, and from the fact that I expected a bit more from you in terms of structure, it'd be really nice if you dropped down some requirements or added some data structures into your code. The wave spell (Frostwave) could have it's base effect size reduced, but it's no real matter - more doesn't mean better. | 9.5 |
Awesomeness: | Fun hero to play with, fits the snare-oriented UD theme. No effect overload, no damage overload so you don't feel like a god while playing this one (although the escape ability is fancy..). Hero matches expectations and feels fresh. I'm willing to say that Blizzard could accept some version of this banshee and implement as a ladder hero. | 5 |
angkysaputra
Disclaimer: This entry should be disqualified and not allowed to be judged in my eyes. If the entry lacks code, I can understand that considering that it's recompensated by creativity or other factors which make hero feel complete. This one, however, is an abomination of Ctrl+C/Ctrl+V.
| Theme: | Repeated theme of DotA's phantom lancer - all of the spells are related to illusions and illusions only. There is nothing that my eyes could hold upon. | 3 |
Role: | High damage hero, with steady and constant damage. Perfect for killing other heroes, being also hard to kill due to illusions and block mechanics that could be applied. Poor choice of such, model too. There is already similar hero of this kind in NE arsenal and he is called Demon Hunter. This one is a mix of Blade Master and DH which are topping the whine rankings when it comes to War3 balance. | 3 |
Balance: | There is no balance. His only two spells have high mana costs but even so, their potential is over the roof. The criple (Shadow Blade) basically says: run or die. The excessive damage, block techniques, avoidance, snare together create overpowered mix and are unhealthy for any RPG's meta. His statistics couple nicely with hero role though. | 1 |
Creativity: | None. Icons are missplaced - 2nd icon should be switched with 3rd, the illusion icon should have replaced dodge one etc. Almost every ability is called "Shadow (...)". | 2 |
Coding: | None. Triggers are unnamed, not ordered, demo code isn't separated - total mess. Standard procedures in typical contest would allow judge to just ignore or delete this part completely. Impropper choice of references, (Attacking unit), (Owner of (...)) etc. Almost every reference could be replaced by faster equivalent. No configurables, code isn't MUI, MPI and leaks. Improper usage of waits and globals. Unnecessary usage of CustomScript in GUI code. This is shortage of trigger editor in this entry. | 1 |
Awesomeness: | None. I don't feel awesome demolishing armies with hero taken/copied from DotA with enhanced abilities. I couldn't find nothing new in this entry, which unfortunately, feels empty. | 2 |
Mythic
| Theme: | Lord Voidcaller you say.. hmm.. Void is very close to "purple" for me and probably majority of peps. At least, this is how voidcallers, voidlings and monsters of such type are colored and designed in most universes. This one is green and calls skulls at his disposal - stinks like necro to me, but whateva. Whatmore, his only possible summon is.. zombie. Well played oh mighty Mythic. Anyway, meaby you wanted to be innovative? To be more serious, I'll add that his icon-kit fits the hero, together with all the effects and models. I'm against so many floating texts though. | 5 |
Role: | High burst caster with some disruption. This one should belong to Undeads. Sadly, UD already has powerfull abilities and snares. They lack, however, dexterity hero. However, this one fits quite well the role of a caster and his statistics prove that it is true. Just make sure you don't get close too when facing an army - when facing few, he will handle them with ease and won't allow to get even remotely close. | 6 |
Balance: | Imbalanced hero, one that isn't used to War3 melee standards. Cost of his spells is pain for my eyes. Although, I'm with and into reduction of mana costs for hero spells & abilities, unfortunately Blizzard is not and their standards are different - spells are very costly, especially if they are designed to deal aoe damage and even more if it's burst damage. Take a look at Blizzard or Rain of Fire. The cooldowns are horribly scaled as well, ultimate with 50 sec cd? I don't remember AoE dealing up to 450 dmg having lower cd than 1min. Another problem are the raw values of damage. Together with his aura, they are going over the roof. His basic stats are fine though, his mana pool is vast and hit points low, compared to melee heroes. Armor of 7 is good choice here, together with attack power. Considering those facts, we end up with op caster, summoned to spread death to everyone opposing his master, and indeed, he actualy does annihilate everything and everyone. Spells should be rescaled, some additional positioning factor e.g channel time could also be added. | 4 |
Creativity: | Voidcaller? Doesn't really sound fresh - not to mention he is undead, he can't really be fresh (haha). However, spells are clever-made and require a bit of strategy, especially against moving targets (instead, this should be replaced with: (...) require strategy to prevent excesive overkill damage, you want to kill as many units as possible, don't you?). The delay factor related to Darkstorm is also nice addition. Even tho, his whole kit is designed to lie waste, it is done is interesting fashion. | 7 |
Coding: | First (and almost last) and foremost: Lack of configurables. There are so many things that could or should be moved to settings panel that I won't be listing them here. You probably already know what I'm talking about. The Cast trigger should have been splitted instead of putting everything into same basket - if you chose this direction, I could immidiately highlight mistakes like: setting TempPoint[0] within each condition to Target of ability being cast - why isn't it at the top of script? There is more of that, but just a little. Next, the condition for neutral invurnerability as fixed condition is bad, there are more of such abilities within object editor and I could be using some custom ones on the top of that. "DoT Loop" should have it's period interval lowered, what more checking for exact number to apply actions isn't good either. If you really want this, why isn't there modulo usage? Value % 1 == 0. Throwing Missile Loop - code line 61 - unnecessary. Sometimes you use CustomScripts instead of GUI formulas, if you want more of "script", go ahead and switch to jass. The design behind "Malediction Loop" could use an improvement. Instead of looping every given interval to first remove, then apply effect, mark and instanciate targets that has been nearby caster with our aura. Every given interval check, if it's under effect of higher-lvl buff or if it's distance from caster is too great. If conditions are met - remove the buff or increase the effect. This way, you are only looping through the targets with effect applied instead of removing them from loop only to add them right away (possibly). Another approach would be to relay on damage engine which can distinguish between spell and melee damage. "Tornado of Souls" - Chaos damage, really? The values for group search radius don't match together ^)^ (250/260). There were quite few small coding mistakes, but overall this was pretty well made piece of GUI script. It was very readable and hasn't really required much documentation, although addition of small documentation wouldnt hurt. The usage of standard methods for spell-making is good, the requirements in form of utility libraries e.g indexer are well chosen and there is no real overhead there. The script is effective, leakless and does the job as it should. Good job. | 7 |
Awesomeness: | Having fun demolishing armies with single unit? Yes. This was very fun hero to play with. He is not boring, you should always be using his abilities to your advantage in chaos of battle and those are very meaningful. Concept is nice, there could be more "voidness" tho and some details could use a hand (raw stats..) but overall necros are fun. | 3 |
Codemonkey11
| Theme: | Very nice concept, I had great time testing her out. The kit is well made although you could chose more "arrowish" icon for your Arcane Arrows and use lovely Shadow Meld (hidden) icon instead of Orb of Annihilation one. Nontheless, the set up is more then fine, icons match spells and effects also couple nicely with this hero. Another suggestion: provide different graphic for autoattacks when arcane buff is active. The buff is not removed after 7 seconds what leads to permanent bonus untill it's fired against low level monster. | 8 |
Role: | Supportive marksmen. Fills spot for range agility hero for HUM race - very good choice. Does not copy any of standard heroes, is a bit similar in concept to ranger from DotA but the amount of differences is high enough. | 10 |
Balance: | Good job. Mana costs match the ladder equivalents and effects triggered by those spells and abilities give an edge to the caster, but are not overpowered. You have to think to use this hero properly, instead of right clicking AoE anywhere around enemies. | 9 |
Creativity: | Original hero. You have found a way to provide marksmen's style and supportive spell in different fashion and whatmore, you managed to combine them together so it feels like we are playing one fresh hero, instead of playing couple of random concepts mixed together. | 9 |
Coding: | A bit different writing style than me, but you have made a rather clear, readable and efficient piece of code. Interpretation of hero as an object of class "ranger" is something very clever and should always be used as a frame for highly connected scripts with single pivot. There is a lot of configurables, and documentation is good. You could, however, drop down ugly names such as "c" or "p" for method names. Also, public directive could also be omited, the BlessedRanger_<scope e.g data> doesn't look nice. Arcane Arrows miss the timer factor - the buff is not reseted and has too much delay even if it is. Floating text could be configurable - flag it, whether display it or not. Forrestwalk - first check if unit is alive, then start enumerating i.e this can save a lot of operation overhead. The calculations for ability stat should be omited by additing additional class member or via item ability. The second option might be even better due to displayed bonus on hero panel. The timer for forrestwalking is never paused even when no instances are present. In most cases, you can remove the SquareRoot and replace it directly with higher values. In later calculations, just refer to those values instead. "dashT" member should only be initialized once a propper ability is learnt. The Sigil of Dexterity dash feature would benefit greatly from "Tornado - Aura" effect. The greatest concert comes from Arcane Arrows - the approach is exploitable - if the arrow if in the air, activation will trigger the effect immidiately i.e there is no "on next attack" factor. This could be taken into account with usage of Poisoned Arrows with proper custom buff. Check for damage event and buff placer. If both conditions are met, apply the effect. The buff will only be applied on "next attack", what fixes the problem. That method alows you to add different arrow model while spell is active. This is tough spell anyway - it's hard to handle such case perfectly, especially since you want it to be Pop up bonus instead of arrow based ability. Additional object data resources would be needed too. | 9 |
Awesomeness: | Don't think I've missed the pool of names that you have prepared for your Hero. Big bonus here. Once again, had great fun playing her. You have made sure both object and trigger data match each other, creating nice composition. As I've said in few other cases, you don't need big blows and mortal effects for hero to be awesome. | 5 |
Cosmicat
| Theme: | Arcana mage that should be placed into HUM arsenal - problem is, there is already a mage in their setup. This one is different though, so might not be that bad idea. You've chosen well when it comes to effects and icons, they couple nicely with hero. The animation times in some cases could be extended to match visuals. | 6 |
Role: | Strategic wizard whose role is to control the battlefield. Seems more like orcish Shadow Hunter than human mage, especialy the ultimate is wierd choice - it's a building with no effects triggered on spell cast rather than an orb of some kind. The Energize is very unforgiving and hard to be placed correctly. | 6 |
Balance: | This hero seems underpowered if not for the Lightning Rod - this one can deal very high damage in short amount of time but can also drain your mana in second. Thats the main problem with this hero, his underpow comes from fact that the tower is very easily counterable, while 2-4 tougher units (650+ hp) smash her into pieces no matter if shield is present or not. The escape ability provides no reliable bonus, might as well quicken your doom. Whatmore, spells dont have any synergy. The speed provides for hero with insta cast times that wants to be hit? The idea behind "be hit" for intelligence hero is also wierd - there is no real way out once you start getting hit to trigger your effects. You will either lose whole mana or die. | 5 |
Creativity: | Shadow Hunter for HUM is not a bad idea, and it is creative but the execution is lacking. By the way, why isn't the Charged Bolt based on classic spells? Don't complicate something that could stay simple. If you had provided some additional synergies or effects, this one would have a better shot. | 7 |
Coding: | If this was vanilla jass, i would say this is mediacore. But it's not and there are several places where you could improve the code. Honestly, the script can be improved greatly - With time you will be better and better at this. Drop the ugly gg_ naming, it's vJass. Store references e.g GetSpellAbilityUnit() instead of recalling functions over and over. You don't need to store player handle - unit handle is enough. Configurables should be placed in globals block instead of function spamming. Calls such as CountUnitsInGroup/GroupPickRandomUnit can be replaced easily, the latter could be even FirstOfGroup. ForGroup should be replaced by FirstOfGroup loop or the list iteration. When you see a man on the street - would you rather describe him as (example) blond, tall, handsome guy <or> Tall guy. Blond guy. Handsome guy. See the difference? Single sentence this sounds more reasonable. The same situation goes to condition list - instead of emerging a if/elseif monster, just combine them together. If you're not dealing with heights, always use coordinates directly, instead of locations. Beacuse of fact that you are relying on native globals (e.g bj_enumDestructableCenter) your spells might work incorretly when placed in someones map i.e those might have different purpose already. Moreover, MPI & MUI feature might be lost too due to some improper delays that are present here - second cast or another unit performing the same task could ruin your script actions. Dealing with variables that are level dependant? Use arrays to retrieve them instatly e.g MyData[1] = 'duf1' (index 1 stands here for level 1). Static Shield's approach could be different - instead of catching attack event, you could react on damage event. This would make your spells more accurate. Nulling trigger does not prevent leak from existing if circumstances align for leak to appear. Trigger leak may be removed via DestroyTrigger native, granted we stored required reference somewhere inside the code. To keep code clean, it's adviced to null local variables that refer to handles. In many cases, GetTriggerUnit() should be used instead of specific getters. There is a lot work ahead of you, even that for some this might be okish, if you chose vJass or any other script language available in War3 environment, make sure you know the standards to keep the code healthy and clean. Wish you good luck in future projects of yours. | 3 |
Awesomeness: | Sorry to say, but this one feels like "meh" compared to some other entries. I want to give honest opinion so you can improve your further stuff. Instead of coupling random ideas, first try to think how you (yes, you) would see this hero in human army with other heroes running around. How is he fitting army set up and available choices? Nonetheless, I had fun, as always, playing and testing something new coupled together with old units. | 3 |
Direfury
| Theme: | I'll try not to take stuff you take, or at least try to avoid it if possible. Thats the wierd thing we got here.. An arcanist with voice of demon and green flares. Last time I've checked, the arcane is highly connected to blue and purple colours. Ya, whatever - or not? Bird for roar icon? Paw for polymorph? Mage is changing his colours too - first she wears blue, then she shines with green. Nice.. Some icons are missing the disabled counterparts. The icon for hero could also be different. | 4 |
Role: | A funny punny caster whose role might be better described as confusing opponents whats the hell is wrong with that hero rather than straigh fighting. If I was to be serous here, she would probably ended up as disruptive caster with supportive capabilities. | 5 |
Balance: | Underpowered and overpowered at the same time. The mechanics are not yet finished, thus there are a lot of unreliable things going on, thats why hero is hard to control. I don't recall this one having synergies, on contrary, there is a lot of random stuff. The wisps especially. A random pile of beams with no description or tooltips. Mana costs are set to 75, no differences that might tell us if one spell is more powerfull than other. I know that the initial values for some are different, but you end up with ugly 3x75 anyway. I'm not even sure if this one should have intelligence as primary stuff i.e that arcanist is certainly not the smartest one. Chaos damage instead of hero type is unacceptable. Dexterity base and gain values are too low. Armor of 3 at level 10 for such hero makes her too squishy. Cooldown of Stormshiver is also something you could work on. | 4 |
Creativity: | Wierd not always equals creative. I'm unsure whats the right judgement here. AoE polymorth with falling sheep and random wisps could be called creative if the execution was better. You could fix the effects of Nourish so there isn't so much stuff there e.g concetrate on one part e.g mana and armor gain. The damage reduction flavour is nice though. | 7 |
Coding: | No testing or debug preparation. I had to create and modify map myself in order to test it. Code is in really bad shape and honestly, all triggers should be rewritten. I strongly advice you to visit tutorial section of hiveworkshop and start practising with examples available in spell section. Improper usage of references, waits and globals. No configurables, code leaks is not MUI nor MPI. You dont store any caught references and relay on ladder abilities (bonus +5 to stats) which can already be modified in someones map. Again, (Triggering unit) could be the choice in most triggers of yours, replacing (Casting unit) and other natives. Instead of picking units in rectangle of size 450x450, pick units found within circle around given point but not further than 450 units away. In current state, actual spell effect doesn't match graphic indicator. Such code is not clean nor pleasant, but I wish you best in your future projects. | 2 |
Awesomeness: | There is a lot that has to be improved in order to make this entry awesome. I found it funny, but the potential is unfortunately lost. Hero bugs out very quickly, especialy if you cast abilities multiple times or if another instances are present, that I'm not feeling awesome playing a gloryfied footman with effects and actions missing. Sometimes I felt like I'm doing nothing, really. But I guess thats the part of disruption mechanics. Even if there is no effect, at least the enemy doesn't know what going on either. | 2 |
Footman16
| Theme: | Lord Garithos! Unfortunately, as awesome the classic hero concept is, your composition hasn't impressed me. The grand marshall who is supposed to buff allies and charge into enemies with glory and light in his hands.. This one seems dull with no real effects and very lazy spells. Yeah, the first thing you notice is that your hero completely misses visual effects. Even if there is an effect, it's probably the wrong one e.g Charge. The icons are chosen randomly i.e you could have found better choices for Cry Havoc and Charge spells because surely, hand and foot don't express the actions given spell triggers correctly. There are many options available e.g Berserk or Reincarnation at your disposal. I'm sad that you avoided "holy" theme as much as possible. Also, since the hero speaks crazy phrases, you could have used that to your advantage via some interesting spells. | 5 |
Role: | Offensive melee fighter able to greatly increase the power of allies and his own. Against heavy cc or disruption his abilities might not be that good but his late game power is of the roof. This one would probably go to HUM arsenal - problem is, humans already have 2 strength heroes. You could have worked on agility version or make this one more unique. | 5 |
Balance: | As i said, his early power is very low i.e you would probably choose Power Strike for first skill point. Power Strike has melee range and it's equivalences outrange and outdamage it heavily. The ministun doesn't help either. However, the Charge bonus allows high level hero to nuke and kill everything in seconds, not to mention that it stacks with Cry Havoc. Both have the same duration what I don't agree with. Self buff should always last longer than AoE buff. Honestly, Charge and Cry Havoc should be combined and you would have place for one additional ability. Power Strike could also use some adjustments, both in effect and visuals. Banner that scares enemies? Sure. Banner that damages enemies? Nope. On top of pulsing effect that is missing here, this is the spell that could hold any op buff if you wanted some. | 6 |
Creativity: | I'm not impressed. 2x buffs + underpowered thunderbolt with banner that deals damage. It's Lord Garithos! More glory, more honor, please! I have described most of the points related to creativity above - once again, you should have combined some effects here and add new ones there. Few simple operations would make this one a lot more fun to play as. | 4 |
Coding: | Almost no code here. You could have provided a better debug code but thats not the real deal. Standard of the Alliance - you should have added all the units of type "banner" into single group and iterate through it every given period of time. Battle Stomp is poor choice here since this one provides ministun which stops channeling abilities what is not mentioned in the description. Temp_Point set but not used what effectively creates a leak since you are not using and removing location handle in a proper way. Power Strike - there is only requirement for single if statement to check if the ability is already learnt. 3x if just to change 1 number in few lines? You can do better than that. Storing the current level of ability during calculations might help you there. No configurables, spells lack effects and additional bonuses - again, this could be greatly improved via simple triggers. | 3 |
Awesomeness: | Lord Garithos is awesome, but not in this version. Because of the reason mentioned, the hero feels dull and it's a shadow of true Lord (or meaby this one is just asleep?) The lack of graphics and visuals is the heaviest blow to Awesomeness because as much as I don't favour high bust effects, I don't like autoattackers either. Cool set of names you got there tho | 2 |
Rufus
| Theme: | An archery archer. Yeah, there is a lot of bow and "arrow" stuff. If everything leads to provide an answer to question: how big and how many arrows I can shoot? Why isn't her name: Big F. Gun? Every effect has basically the same model: an arrow. Every icon represents a bow or arrow on black & white background. Don't get me wrong, I like the initial idea, but this one could be more than BFG.. Example of improving visuals: each time the proc for multistrike is active, different icon could be used: fire arrows (hidden). Hero itself could even benefit from visuals too e.g adding effect to his hand or weapon. Right now, it's hard to tell in chaos of battle when our effect is active. Also, it's certainly more than 3 arrows The tooltips are lacking informations. | 4 |
Role: | Marksmen. BFG. Reaper. The deaths wish. Agility for humans is good idea, but this one could be better executed then just being a right clicker - HUM race is always about abilities and strategy, never relies on raw attack power. | 5 |
Balance: | BFG, reaper, the deaths wish etc. I have not mentioned those for no reason. Girl with such power.. I wouldnt want her as my gf. The moment this one gains few level, the second enemies leave the game. You don't need strategy, no skill, just right click to lay waste to countless armies. 30 mana for spammable 90 bonus damage hero-type damage? Every second attack damage whole army? This scales enormously with her Drawback. Enemy hero running away? Arctic Arrow says welcome. If anyone was to fight against her, he needs more than skill and cheats to do so - if he hasn't left the game already that is. 13 armor at level 10, 49 agility and 3.20 gain per level - perfect and well chosen values.. wait, what!? Oh, this is B.F.G we talking about. Tanks like truck, fires like black hawk. Good job balancing this one. | 2 |
Creativity: | There is a lot you should tweak to provide different view on our archer with each spell. Bow, Arrow, Bow, Arrow isn't really fascinating. You took most of stuff from LoL's Ashe hero and added some basic common abilities to create a monster. Why not provide some kind of selfbuff? Or dexterity oriented spell? Or meaby some wizardy since she comes from elven country anyway. If you really wanted to implement Ashe, the lack of frost spells hurts. Vision based abilities are also perfect for differenciating autoattackers. | 4 |
Coding: | Why not visit some tutorials first? Code is dirty and lack configurables. Abilities are not MUI, MPI and leak horribly. Unpropper usage of waits and globals. In most cases, (Owner of (...)) could be replaced with (Triggering player). The same goes to (Triggering unit) as a replacement for (Casting unit) and others. Location and other handles such as groups should be stored and removed when effect is finished to prevent the leaks. Addition of global groups or list is required in order to provide MUI solution for your spells. You have also forgotten about loops i.e instead of repeating given line multiple times, use loop statement to do that for you. The approach for multishot is bad. Unit type enumetation into picking targets nearby and if found, repeat enumeration just to find which arrow was close enough? Store the (Picked unit) first, then perform some operations. | 3 |
Awesomeness: | Arrow, arrow, arrow, bow, arrow. This pretty much sums up your hero. Even though I had great time demolishing everything around this little lady of yours, I'd not implement such hero into ladder environment. Multishot could have used some sound effects and overall, there could be more than just arrows flying around. Right now, this feels like I'm firing the same projectile over and over again. All the effects are concentrated on dealing damage what provides a clear lack of mechanics for this one (tho you need to understand stutterstep technique in order to own your enemies in the first place). | 3 |
Shadow Fury
| Theme: | You were talking with Rufus yes? This concept is very similar when it comes to idea: here the arrow theme is replaced with fire. Every spell is an area of effect ability that deals damage. How interesting. Icons match the spells and their effects are also chosen well. The model, however, is somewhat lacking. Knight, chaos knight as a pyromancer of some kind? Certainly, melee doesn't fit this arsenal of spells. What about charging? Where my curses had gone? Whatmore, first, second and ultimate spells are not really different from each other. They all deal damage, just in various shapes | 5 |
Role: | High burst caster who is actualy a melee character (400 range yeah). Fate lets him join the ranks of horde. A chaos orc, really!? After all the Thrall has done to prevent the horde from Legions influence you want another bloodthirsty orc walking on this earth? You crazy.. | 6 |
Balance: | His mana costs are high but so is his damage. His burst is outstanding. Stat gains for both, strength and intelligence are high. The ultimate's cd is too short. Horde already has heroes made for AoE damage but there is more of disruption there too. This one lacks some mechanics, his slow is not reliable and for high level play, just damage is never enough (unless this one gains 10 levels). There are no real synergies, neither in hit kit nor with units from orcs arsenal. | 5 |
Creativity: | You could do more than that. If one spell deals heavy AoE damage, provide second one that do something different. There is a reason why heroes usually have 1 lower (weaker) and 1 passive ability. Here, we got set of 4 abilities that do practicaly the same and have similar cost what will eventualy make some of them useless - you do not need 4 buttons if 2 are just enough. Cuting some damage would leave space for spells such as Cauterize Wounds (since your hero is fire oriented). That would make your hero more fun to play with good strategy mechanics on top of that. | 4 |
Coding: | Pretty much the same as in few other entries. Lack of practise shows results here. Your spells are neither MUI nor MPI. They leak heavily and since all of them are AoE oriented, can quickly provide lag experience for user. Any other instance running after the first one effectively breaks your spells randering hero unable to perform any actions. Improper usage of globals and waits. Skipping loop statements and dirty usage of if statements. Bring arrays to store data and use spell level as an index to retrieve proper values thus avoiding a lot of unnecessary code. The approach for some spells is also bad - you don't need to search multiple times small areas in Cross Fire trigger. Initialize 4 rects instead, and they check if targets found within those rectangles. (Triggering unit) should replace most of other calls such as (Casting unit). The same goes to (Owner of(...)) that should have been replaced with (Triggering player). Store the references to prevent multiple calls what effectively improves efficiency greatly. Currently, you spam function calls left and right. There are also no configurables presented. Honestly, just few hours of exercises and you would do the same stuff in much more efficient way, more readable way and with half of code size. | 3 |
Awesomeness: | Hero is fun to play, especially on higher levels when you have a lot of mana. There are lots of effects going around too. However, if this was more than a bunch of fiery AoEs, you would have a better score. A lot of reds does not equal awesome. Clearly, the execution could have been better. Once again, if you want to provide different shapes for your AoEs (not just circle), you could combine some spells and add another shape with each level leaving space for additional stuff. Here, it's more of a "boss" character than actual hero, but I know that with time, your projects will be better and better. | 3 |
Wa666r
| Theme: | A Nathrezim Agent, sounds interesting. Sneaky assasin with powerful disruption, almost too powerful. Ok, honestly, you have watched too many games with Blade Master as a star. This hero is subject for permanent invisibility with high damage potential and ability to be hero killer. The range attack doesn't fit this one, especially since dread lords are very intelligent demons but melee fighters. You could have added more shadow oriented or dark based elements into this concept. The icons could have been chosen better. Egg for Mind War and Urn of Ashes for Summoning? There are already perfect icons for mind oriented spells (Possession) and there are plenty for summonings (even scrolls and Dark Ritual fit here). The effects lack shadowy theme i.e thats how I imagen the demons. The summoning lacks consistency i.e the graphic effect doesn't match actual action. The randomness hurts too and tooltips could be improved. | 7 |
Role: | Midrange assasin with high disruption potential. Goes into UD arsenal which lacks assasin kind of hero - well made choice. Agility oriented hero is something undead army was in need for a very long time. Unfortunately, this hero plays much differently compared to other undeads i.e is a solo character. | 5 |
Balance: | Overpowered. Permanent invisibility (yes, requires Brilliance Aura or a Mana Potion to achieve but you can also just hit heroes..) is broken. Together with his Mind War we got a recipe for Blade Master 2.0. Don't get me wrong, this hero has a lot of synergies e.g mana drain to sustain his invisibility & snare and stun to get the job done but there are too many of them and are not scaled properly. Since his activation cost of Deceive is very low and Feeding is passive, the only thing he got to spend mana on is Mind War which potential is of the roof. Even peons become murderes when each hit has a 20% chance to stun for 2 seconds. Couple those with fact that you can sneak invisible into an opponents base and summon just enough units to finish the key structures. His attack speed is also something that multiplies effects of Feeding and Mind War greatly. Basicaly, if something gets hit by our Nathrezim Agent, it dies. Raw stats and stat gains are fine and his armor values end up fair but that doesn't compensate the possibilties brought by his spell arsenal. | 1.5 |
Creativity: | Blade Master 2.0 doesn't sound creative. Ultimate is kind of orginal - kinda, becuase it's campaign summoning with mixed randomness. The invisibilty is meh. Why not something involed with darkness or night? Where is my vision manipulation or decieving skills? The stun idea was nice, but you could have scaled it better and meaby replace stun with constant vision loss or such. NIGHT! | 3 |
Coding: | (Triggering unit) together with (Triggering player) should be the choice if yours in almost all cases instead of (Casting unit) and (Owner of (...)). Impropper usage of waits and uncorrent use of if statements. The globals and waits coupled made spells not MUI nor MPI in this case. Instead of repeating the if statement to execution code, use arrays or other storages to halt the code size and improce efficiency. Code leaks multiple handles, even that sometimes you set value to variable to remove some unnecessary calls, you don't clear the leaks when effect is finished. The correct choice of event is: Unit begins effect of ability. Stick with this one. Spells lack configurables. Your approaches could be improved greatly. Especialy the Deceive algorithm. Add agents or units with your ability to set group or list. Now, every time period event fires, just loop through that group or list and check for buffs to apply correct effect. Right now, you are performing two enumerations - one for "on" and one for "off" effect. Whatmore, the enumeration type is: "every unit" (found on playable area) what can easily end up lagging someone out when the certain amount of units are present on the map. Never ever do that. This piece was better than some others, but surely it could use a hell lot of improvements. | 3 |
Awesomeness: | UD version of Blade Master feels good to play as, especialy if it is us who are under control of this monster. Hero effectively removes fun from other players to summon their heroes and draws ppl crazy because of his limitless potential brought by mix of mana burn, invisibility, tp and stun. There are very few effects and in my eyes, they don't match hero theme completely. The only shadow effect comes from.. autoattack, yes. Range of 400 is a nail in to coffin for dream of balanced "blade master 2.0". | 3 |
A Void
Disclaimer: Entry requires UMSWE or other modyfication in order to be opened properly. Such restrictions are forbidden in all of the contests and it's a surprise that it has been allowe here.
If not for Kyrbi0' good attitude, this entry would be disqualified.
| Theme: | Nice and original concept that shares some ideas with Techie from DotA. Unfortunately, this is ladder we are talking about, and no ladder hero would end up without basic attack. Right now you are obligated, almost forced to put first skill point into 3rd ability: "Light the Fuse!". The ultimate spell is also very wierd - the damage is fine but the death of hero as a consequence? You would never ever pick this hero. The cost of reviving high level hero together with time loss is too much. The Goblin Land Mine already does the job and there is no need for instant mine that hurts both sides a lot. The volley ability which replaces autoattack effectively takes one spot from heroes arsenal of abilities. | 5 |
Role: | Offensive, range (?) hero perfect for controling the battlefield. Goes into Orc army. The choice of goblin race is good, since horde lacks goblin flavour but this one could have been intelligence based. Requires a lot of strategy to control well and is unreliable in most cases. | 5 |
Balance: | Heavily underpowered, although the cooldown on mine is pretty wierd - 0 seconds (the duration of mine is strange subject too). The mines may be activated via single unit or killed with invisibilty ward and preparing them takes a lot of time. Whatmore, most of maps are at least middle-size but even when playing 1x1 map, the amount of area to cover is huge. Thats why in most cases, you cant get enough value from this spell. Loss of autoattack replaced with volley ability doesn't help either - loss of one ability. The ultimate hits hard but cost up to 540gold not to mention the lumber and time consumption is far too much for this ability to be activated. Don't forget that during that time hero could be getting additional points of experience. His health pool is very low and the dexterity as main stat is worst choice here. | 3 |
Creativity: | Very creative in some way, yet those original concepts lead hero to be almost useless and lack functionality. The volley ability could be active type of effect which would "replace" his autoattack for the duration. Level 6 spell also requires some tweaks in order to make it actualy usable. | 6 |
Coding: | Not much to judge. (Triggering unit) should have been used instead of (Casting unit), (Attacked unit) and such. Code leaks - you must store references to handles such as locations and remove them when they are useful no longer to avoid them. Instead of spamming if statements, use an array or store data in other way to eaze the retrieval of ability's information and effectively halt code size. That would also improve the efficiency of your spells. Lack of configurables. AI code for Kaboom is pointless, first CP would never train such hero, second there are better ways to achieve such thing. Currently, that method is unreliable and the 0.01 period is bad choice. | 4 |
Awesomeness: | Feeling awesome? Not really. Killing myself for cheap results is not rewardable. In most cases, you end up running around or using Cluster Rocket. If you are running around (maxing 3rd spell), then you dont even have to control your hero, just let it follow your army or be assigned to some ground. If maxing thunderbolt-like spell, then there is even less to do and there are better equivalents of that spell already. Honestly, there is no way I would choose this one over any other ladder hero, except for the first time to see whats up. Nonetheless, with few additional mechanics this one would have much greater potential, since clearly, the potential is here. | 1 |
DED1
| Theme: | Treacherous captain Kunkka with multiple additions. Pretty much a RPG character, who with just two hands is still able to hold 11 weapons. Yeah, this guy has many cards under his sleeve. You have overcomplicated your entry - the amount of stuff does qualify this pirate neither for ladder nor for DotA map. Pirate, Navigator Beaks and Ghost Ship - really? Who's gonna control that? The amount of work to do when playing this guy pretty much forces controler to resign from having an army, not to mention other heroes.. Never, ever provide low mana cost spell that can heavily impact another players infrastructure. The Walk in the Plank! can single handly win you the game from the very begining if used correctly. Opponent won't be able to react because his resources will be limited. Moreover, the Navirator Beaks has also something to say: The ability to steal an item is an absurd. Ship + bird allows for very good scouting and can tease the enemy. Don't think I have forgotten about ship's passive - oh no, next nail in the coffin for statement that this one is OK. You should have concentrated on 4-5 ideas and implemented them directly instead of going so far away from basic concept that you ended up creating 3 heroes under single banner: The Pirate. | 6 |
Role: | A mother.f.k. and a thief. Each of 3 iconic players (the pirate, the bird and the ship) together fight with one goal in mind: steal everything from everyone. Owner gets super rich, foes are ultra poor. HUM arsenal, you say hmm.. HUM race is the best one when it comes to economy, especially gold subject due to Militia + Cooperative Building + Easy exp protection - without even the addition of composition of yours. The addition of this gang removes the requirement of expension at all - the other player is working for our bank anyway. | 5 |
Balance: | Ultra overpowered and toxic in environment due to fact, that our opponent can't do a thing if we play hero correctly. Sustain damage and constant gold income. His raw initial stats are also too high. Beaks's and ship's stats are far too good, with abilities on top of that we don't have to focus on building too much. The scout possibilites are endless and each of our scouts has an arsenal of spells that help us exploit every misstep to our adventage. You haven't probably played against him, but trust me - you wouldn't want too. There is no way you gonna hide your tech and valuables/treasures gained from neutral camps can be stolen so easily. Since ship is summoned from time to time - it lasts for very long time and has abilities which allow it to escape in most of situations. Parrot is very cheap (also consider it's duration time), the only thing you gonna end up spending mana on is Walk in the Plank! - what is exactly what you need: punish your enemy every time you see him (with taxes..). | 1 |
Creativity: | Hero is very creative, especially the treasure mechanics and his general concept. Unfortunately it's not RPG but RTS and your abilities don't trigger properly in some cases thus not everything worked out. Don't get me wrong, this would be the perfect subject for RPG hero or character but here, we are more focused on standard ladder heroes what brings some limitations. I like the connection between parrot, ship and pirate - all of them working together with the same goal in mind. Most of the effects are cool and the icons match the kit well. | 9 |
Coding: | You have overcomplicated most of your algorithms and approaches, but the amount of triggers is too high to write everything down, although some triggers consist of no code at all. Most of the mistakes are repeated in each of them. Shortening the approaches would effectively result in reduction of code size to about 40-50% of yours. Some scripts aren't MUI, MPI and waits are used in incorrect way. (Triggering unit) and (Triggering player) could replace most instances of (Attacked unit) etc. and (Owner of (...)). References to often used values retrieved from natives should be stored to improve the efficiency. Code leaks heavily and is not well tested. Most of the spells can be bugged out quickly. Store handles, use them and clean them up when they are no longer needed. With proper usage of loops and if statements you wouldn't need to write some pieces multiple times e.g Purchase Rumer hint (1, 2, 3). There is a lot room for improvements, right now there are so many flaws that the game experience can be ruined in minutes - you don't want your hero to do nothing, do you? The readability could be better if the amount of triggers was reduced. 1-2 triggers should be enough for 1 spell. Configurables should be one of new additions too. Strongly adviced to visit tutorial and spell section for explanations and exaples, wish you the very best. | 3 |
Awesomeness: | Hero is fun to play with - stealing gold and everything - you feel like you are really playing as a pirate. The bird and ship couple nicely into this theme. The names found within pool fit perfectly. You have connected common subjects related to piracy very well. Unfortunately, it's not an RPG Remember, if this is you who has to stand against might of trio gang.. uhmm.. well, good luck. | 4 |
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===SOFTMINTS
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(Can't really copy/pasta it, so just check out the link)
Score | Rep | Entry | Name |
85.24 | 50+5 | Blessed Ranger | Cokemonkey11 |
84.55 | 35+5 | Banshee Queen | Dalvengyr |
74.09 | 25+5 | Arch Druid | Kyrbi0 |
68.87 | 5 | Artificer | Cosmicat |
68.48 | 5 | Dark Sorceror | Mythic |
67.76 | 5 | Nathrezim Agent | Wa666r |
60.57 | 5 | Pirate Captain | DED1 |
57.01 | 5 | Grand Marshal | Footman16 |
51.97 | 5 | Fire Knight | Shadow Fury |
51.52 | 5 | Marksman | Rufus |
51.35 | 5 | Arcanist | Direfury |
40.32 | 5 | Elven Shadow | AngkySaputra |
20.38 | 5 | Goblin Sappers | A Void |
Whew! It was pretty close there between the top two, with the rest of us lagging behind. Congratulations to Cokemonkey11, Dalvengyr and Kyrbi0 for their winning entries, and congratulations to all who entered! And on a personal note, thanks for letting me
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Contest ||Poll
(Hey, "a little over a month" isn't too bad, considering...
)
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