- Joined
- Mar 29, 2009
- Messages
- 139
Making a thread here, because I can't upload this map in accordance with hive's map submission rules.
Its grounds for rejection are lack of credits and spaghetti triggering. Now, I'll just explain why it's come to this...
This map was never planned to be anything, it started as a random pastime project with no clear goal in mind over 12 years ago, and mainly served as a testing grounds for custom heroes back when I was still fresh to map making, hence why this map is full of spaghetti triggers. I never planned to continue development on this map making it into what it currently is today, so I didn't bother crediting the authors of all the resources I used. Now, the spaghetti triggers I could clean up, but as far as I'm concerned it's not necessary for the sake of the map's performance, and the larger memory leaks are taken care of, so you'd have to play this map for longer than the game's max duration in order to notice any memory leaks affecting the game.
Now, the lack of credits is worse. Tracking down all the models/icons I've used over 12 years is quite the pain and I'm pretty sure I won't be able to locate it all. So, I could probably with a lot of work credit the majority, but a bunch would still be left uncredited, so that's really why I'm hesitant to tracking down the authors and attempting an upload if it's gonna be rejected anyway.
With that out of the way, I'm gonna explain what this map is about.
What happens if you take heroes with DotA-like skillsets and place them in a large jungle in a FFA setting? This map is probably the answer. The map is covered by fog of war and a large amount of single trees blocking vision everywhere. This is by design, so that counterplay may be possible even if a hero is so strong/fed that he can oneshot you. In other words, juking is a key element to playing this map. Creeps spawn everywhere, but respawn slowly so you'll have to be on the move to find new creeps. There are also shops scattered around along with a few bosses, so this will constantly keep the players on the move so that they are likely to encounter other players. Since there is no base, and you just randomly spawn somewhere in the arena, you're left on your own to keep your health/mana steady.
I attempted a few different "game modes" to find the most suitable game mode for this map, and regular old "X kills to win" seems to be the best suited and most liked option. This is where the map has an unsolvable problem. Many players care too much about "winning" and are not able to enjoy the map simply as a fun map. So, say the score limit is 30 kills and a few players sit on 10-15 kills, while the others have 0-3. The players who have 0-3 kills then usually end up leaving the game and by reducing the amount of players certain heroes start gaining a huge advantage.
The map's fun factor relies heavily on the chaos created by playing full 8 player games, when the player amount drops so does the number of encounters, and the game's pacing drops to a slow-paced game where people just farm, kill bosses, and try to max out their inventory. Now there's nothing wrong with that really, but the score limit then becomes unreachable and I eventually made a solution by forcing the game to end at the 1 hour mark if the score limit has not been reached, but this solution is not really satisfactory.
Lastly I'll just say a bit about what I want to do with this map going forward
The map is still not yet fully complete, but it's close. I want to release the map in a stable state where all the heroes are viable, but it's really hard to get full 8 player lobbies and even if I do it's not really any good in terms of testing for game balance. This is because the skill-level of people playing this map is so far apart that it's impossible to get a good grasp on which heroes truly dominate at the end of the day. This is like playing chess against beginners, where I am the grand master and basically cannot lose. No matter what hero I pick, I will win, and if I hold back there's no way to get a grasp on the game's balance. So, I really wish there was an experienced playerbase to draw players from so that proper balance could be made. There's not, so I'd like to hope that this map sparks some interest out there, and if it does seem interesting consider joining the discord server I made for this map. I had an old discord server with a few more people in it, but I deleted it after I announced that I would cease development on this map, regrettable.
Join the Icy Hero Arena Discord Server!
If this is too long of a read for you, you could watch gameplay of the map by a youtuber here.
Its grounds for rejection are lack of credits and spaghetti triggering. Now, I'll just explain why it's come to this...
This map was never planned to be anything, it started as a random pastime project with no clear goal in mind over 12 years ago, and mainly served as a testing grounds for custom heroes back when I was still fresh to map making, hence why this map is full of spaghetti triggers. I never planned to continue development on this map making it into what it currently is today, so I didn't bother crediting the authors of all the resources I used. Now, the spaghetti triggers I could clean up, but as far as I'm concerned it's not necessary for the sake of the map's performance, and the larger memory leaks are taken care of, so you'd have to play this map for longer than the game's max duration in order to notice any memory leaks affecting the game.
Now, the lack of credits is worse. Tracking down all the models/icons I've used over 12 years is quite the pain and I'm pretty sure I won't be able to locate it all. So, I could probably with a lot of work credit the majority, but a bunch would still be left uncredited, so that's really why I'm hesitant to tracking down the authors and attempting an upload if it's gonna be rejected anyway.
With that out of the way, I'm gonna explain what this map is about.
What happens if you take heroes with DotA-like skillsets and place them in a large jungle in a FFA setting? This map is probably the answer. The map is covered by fog of war and a large amount of single trees blocking vision everywhere. This is by design, so that counterplay may be possible even if a hero is so strong/fed that he can oneshot you. In other words, juking is a key element to playing this map. Creeps spawn everywhere, but respawn slowly so you'll have to be on the move to find new creeps. There are also shops scattered around along with a few bosses, so this will constantly keep the players on the move so that they are likely to encounter other players. Since there is no base, and you just randomly spawn somewhere in the arena, you're left on your own to keep your health/mana steady.
I attempted a few different "game modes" to find the most suitable game mode for this map, and regular old "X kills to win" seems to be the best suited and most liked option. This is where the map has an unsolvable problem. Many players care too much about "winning" and are not able to enjoy the map simply as a fun map. So, say the score limit is 30 kills and a few players sit on 10-15 kills, while the others have 0-3. The players who have 0-3 kills then usually end up leaving the game and by reducing the amount of players certain heroes start gaining a huge advantage.
The map's fun factor relies heavily on the chaos created by playing full 8 player games, when the player amount drops so does the number of encounters, and the game's pacing drops to a slow-paced game where people just farm, kill bosses, and try to max out their inventory. Now there's nothing wrong with that really, but the score limit then becomes unreachable and I eventually made a solution by forcing the game to end at the 1 hour mark if the score limit has not been reached, but this solution is not really satisfactory.
Lastly I'll just say a bit about what I want to do with this map going forward
The map is still not yet fully complete, but it's close. I want to release the map in a stable state where all the heroes are viable, but it's really hard to get full 8 player lobbies and even if I do it's not really any good in terms of testing for game balance. This is because the skill-level of people playing this map is so far apart that it's impossible to get a good grasp on which heroes truly dominate at the end of the day. This is like playing chess against beginners, where I am the grand master and basically cannot lose. No matter what hero I pick, I will win, and if I hold back there's no way to get a grasp on the game's balance. So, I really wish there was an experienced playerbase to draw players from so that proper balance could be made. There's not, so I'd like to hope that this map sparks some interest out there, and if it does seem interesting consider joining the discord server I made for this map. I had an old discord server with a few more people in it, but I deleted it after I announced that I would cease development on this map, regrettable.
Join the Icy Hero Arena Discord Server!
If this is too long of a read for you, you could watch gameplay of the map by a youtuber here.
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