- Joined
- May 22, 2015
- Messages
- 1,051
I'll start with a bit about how my map works and what I am trying to add to it. The problem isn't really an editor problem, but more of how I should go about doing the hero selection for my map. It is about the user experience and ease of use (keep in mind that I will have to trigger these things, so they can't be super crazy - I am using JASS in the default editor).
If this is not the place for this kind of problem, my B. I didn't know where to put it.
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Step 1: Choose a hero.
The hero is very basic and will only vary in some base stats. No abilities are attached to heroes. I don't think I need help with this part. There is currently one building (the fountain where you heal) and it has all of the heroes in it. I plan to move it to an area outside of the playing area (I have a decent amount of space for this) and separate it to 3 buildings - str, agi, int. No issue here for me.
Step 2: Choose 2 passives.
Choose two passive, hidden abilities for your hero. As examples, one of them gives you bonus gold when you kill enemies, another makes your regenerate mana based on your max health. They are to encourage certain types of builds and just generally give some room for experimentation. This is currently not implemented at all (well, the passives are tied to heroes, but I plan to separate them - I really want to push the custom hero theme).
Step 3: Choose a class.
All of the abilities are tied to the class. There is a building for each player that can be upgraded into any class. The building has a bunch of upgrades. When you get an upgrade, it gives an ability to your hero (the tooltips match). The abilities cost lumber which you get from levelling up. The buildings are currently situated out of bounds in the corner of the map. It is expected that you hotkey your building so it is easy to use while playing.
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There are a bunch of things to consider:
- Should the order of passives and class selection be forced? It would be nice for new players to be able to consider more things before they choose, but maybe it's not a problem and they can just play again or something. It will take a while to find a nice hero / class / passive combination, anyway. It may also have the newer players taking a loooong time to choose their hero if they have so many things to read at once.
- I was thinking it would be nice to lock the camera at each section while choosing all the hero stuff. This would help save players from being distracted by everything on the map and maybe even losing track of the hero selection area. I'm not sure how to do that, though.
- The passives should not be stackable, but each player should be able to get the same passive abilities as each other (basically can't use items with 1 stock as a solution or something). What's a good way to allow the player to get exactly 2 unique upgrades?
Note that classes are unique and two players cannot have the same class. I'm not sure if I want to change that, but I'd prefer not to. This can be bad due to players potentially racing for a specific class (the most defining selection for your hero).
I had a couple ideas for this - It could be tied to the class building and it only lets you choose a class after you choose two passives (I guess by morphing the building after the second passive is chosen). The passives would be upgrades. This would be very awkward if I allow passives and class to be selected in any order.
The other idea I had was to have a customization area where you can walk around with your hero. In that area, there would be the hero selection buildings and you'd basically buy items from shops to choose passives (I would have to enforce two unique passives with triggers - it may be sort of weird since you can keep buying the same passive but it just does nothing). An alternative to the items would be hidden buildings with the passives as upgrades. Clicking on the passives building would select that player's hidden building so that the upgrades can be completely separate. I'm not sure how I would do the class selection here since it would have to give them a building to choose the upgrades that they can return to if they did not hotkey it.
The last idea I had was to give a few spellbooks to the hero that you choose. In each spellbook would be a list of passives (well they would be abilities that do nothing that have tooltips saying what the passive will do). When you cast one, it will be removed from the hero (to avoid stacking them). Once you have chosen two, all the spellbooks will be removed. This seemed like a nice, easy solution to code, but I am not sure if it will give a good experience.
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TL;DR
How should I got about making a hero selection / customisation area? You need to be able to:
- Choose a hero (pretty sure I don't need help with this)
- Choose two passives for your hero
- Choose a class for your hero
Keep in mind I don't need help with the hero stats, the effects of the passive abilities, or how to make the class work with a hero. I just need help in how to organise and build the selection process so that it is intuitive, not annoying, and not possible to screw up (ie click elsewhere on the map and lose track of where you were building your hero).
I'd like to hear any suggestions / comments. I don't want to have to redo this part lol and it will be a pretty significant part of my map, being the first thing anyone will do in it.
If this is not the place for this kind of problem, my B. I didn't know where to put it.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Step 1: Choose a hero.
The hero is very basic and will only vary in some base stats. No abilities are attached to heroes. I don't think I need help with this part. There is currently one building (the fountain where you heal) and it has all of the heroes in it. I plan to move it to an area outside of the playing area (I have a decent amount of space for this) and separate it to 3 buildings - str, agi, int. No issue here for me.
Step 2: Choose 2 passives.
Choose two passive, hidden abilities for your hero. As examples, one of them gives you bonus gold when you kill enemies, another makes your regenerate mana based on your max health. They are to encourage certain types of builds and just generally give some room for experimentation. This is currently not implemented at all (well, the passives are tied to heroes, but I plan to separate them - I really want to push the custom hero theme).
Step 3: Choose a class.
All of the abilities are tied to the class. There is a building for each player that can be upgraded into any class. The building has a bunch of upgrades. When you get an upgrade, it gives an ability to your hero (the tooltips match). The abilities cost lumber which you get from levelling up. The buildings are currently situated out of bounds in the corner of the map. It is expected that you hotkey your building so it is easy to use while playing.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There are a bunch of things to consider:
- Should the order of passives and class selection be forced? It would be nice for new players to be able to consider more things before they choose, but maybe it's not a problem and they can just play again or something. It will take a while to find a nice hero / class / passive combination, anyway. It may also have the newer players taking a loooong time to choose their hero if they have so many things to read at once.
- I was thinking it would be nice to lock the camera at each section while choosing all the hero stuff. This would help save players from being distracted by everything on the map and maybe even losing track of the hero selection area. I'm not sure how to do that, though.
- The passives should not be stackable, but each player should be able to get the same passive abilities as each other (basically can't use items with 1 stock as a solution or something). What's a good way to allow the player to get exactly 2 unique upgrades?
Note that classes are unique and two players cannot have the same class. I'm not sure if I want to change that, but I'd prefer not to. This can be bad due to players potentially racing for a specific class (the most defining selection for your hero).
I had a couple ideas for this - It could be tied to the class building and it only lets you choose a class after you choose two passives (I guess by morphing the building after the second passive is chosen). The passives would be upgrades. This would be very awkward if I allow passives and class to be selected in any order.
The other idea I had was to have a customization area where you can walk around with your hero. In that area, there would be the hero selection buildings and you'd basically buy items from shops to choose passives (I would have to enforce two unique passives with triggers - it may be sort of weird since you can keep buying the same passive but it just does nothing). An alternative to the items would be hidden buildings with the passives as upgrades. Clicking on the passives building would select that player's hidden building so that the upgrades can be completely separate. I'm not sure how I would do the class selection here since it would have to give them a building to choose the upgrades that they can return to if they did not hotkey it.
The last idea I had was to give a few spellbooks to the hero that you choose. In each spellbook would be a list of passives (well they would be abilities that do nothing that have tooltips saying what the passive will do). When you cast one, it will be removed from the hero (to avoid stacking them). Once you have chosen two, all the spellbooks will be removed. This seemed like a nice, easy solution to code, but I am not sure if it will give a good experience.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TL;DR
How should I got about making a hero selection / customisation area? You need to be able to:
- Choose a hero (pretty sure I don't need help with this)
- Choose two passives for your hero
- Choose a class for your hero
Keep in mind I don't need help with the hero stats, the effects of the passive abilities, or how to make the class work with a hero. I just need help in how to organise and build the selection process so that it is intuitive, not annoying, and not possible to screw up (ie click elsewhere on the map and lose track of where you were building your hero).
I'd like to hear any suggestions / comments. I don't want to have to redo this part lol and it will be a pretty significant part of my map, being the first thing anyone will do in it.
