Nerubian Race Design

[DKG]

Hey guys, just looking to gather some ideas/opinions on my nerubian race design .

The general idea is to have them fairly similar to a standard melee race and as such they have the core town hall, a worker type unit (collects wood and gold) and 4 different heroes.

From there, their main unit producer is actually a unit/units - the brood queen. She produces (by the wonder that is the spellbook ability, up to (atm) 7 different kinds of eggs, each type hatching into different units.

In terms of structures, they only have 2 atm, the hall (with no tiers) and a ziggurat type building that provides food. Around their buildings is spread icey web (like the undead blight, but a different texture) and over the top of them is an actual web (in game terms this provides a slow aura for enemy units entering the base).

Initially, I was intending to have the queen limited to moving only on the nerubian webbing, however this was proving a bitch to code (if you know how to code this that'd be awesome), so instead she is now incredibly slow (moving her anywhere will be a painfully tedious process) but she does have the ability to burrow-move (teleport using the burrow animation) to any webbed location instantly - this is handy for expansion defense.

In terms of units, I thought a cool racial trait might be to not have any flying units at all, rather, have a number of units with the web ability (with varying cast ranges and cooldowns).

Other ideas im looking at are things like, having an egg laying unit that is fast enough to follow on attacks - allowing the nerubians to hatch eggs during battle (only some egg types would be allowed for this).

Also for defense I considered some kind of web-bound "scuttlers" that are very weak, and produced automatically by ziggurats or maybe another building type.

Any thoughts/comments on what you think of this, as well as ideas and suggestions are greatly appreciated

 

[Formula1]

I kinda dig it...

One thing I am just thinking is just an Ant Race in General where there are no buildings but rather the Townhall would be able to move around at will and work like a Zerg Hatchery...

From there... there would be Minor Egg layers like you said... but I don't think they should have an attack... but just be fast... or they could be slow but have a web casting Ability so they would be a nice thing to have around

All the units should have Burrow and Canabalism Ability.
-Some of the units would have Carry Corpse ability

And the units use no gold at all but just mana and Casting Time

Other abilities May be Parasite (Queen Ability most likely) which can target Allies or enemies.

I don't know what I would make the Melee units... But I feel like I would want the race to be very skill based and depend on burrow and ensnare alot...

Also... making the webs a ward with a slow aura and no collision size...

I get tired of The same old races with small changes... I kinda Want something completely original... ya know?

 

[DKG]

I kinda dig it...

One thing I am just thinking is just an Ant Race in General where there are no buildings but rather the Townhall would be able to move around at will and work like a Zerg Hatchery...

From there... there would be Minor Egg layers like you said... but I don't think they should have an attack... but just be fast... or they could be slow but have a web casting Ability so they would be a nice thing to have around

All the units should have Burrow and Canabalism Ability.
-Some of the units would have Carry Corpse ability

And the units use no gold at all but just mana and Casting Time

Other abilities May be Parasite (Queen Ability most likely) which can target Allies or enemies.

I don't know what I would make the Melee units... But I feel like I would want the race to be very skill based and depend on burrow and ensnare alot...

Also... making the webs a ward with a slow aura and no collision size...

I get tired of The same old races with small changes... I kinda Want something completely original... ya know?

Yeah the webs have no collision size, and die when the building they're linked to dies.

I know what you mean about the dependent on web and burrow, I have a couple of ranged units planned obviously, and also was looking into making a wasp-like flyer for them.

I'm definitely gonna remove the attack from my minor egg layers (as you said, thanks for the idea ) and give them a couple of spells to cast as auxilary abilities.

I dont know how I could balance the not really needing resources aspect, so they're still going to be dependent on gold mines. The idea is to make a network of sorts though (nydus canal - starcraft) style.

Im also not sure how to deal with heroes, does the queen lay a special egg? Do i have a special hatching building? etc.

Thanks for the input

 

[HorizonTal]

a good spell for a Nerubian hero:
Fill with webs (or something like this)
fills with webs an enemy building for a short period (or very long if you use this as ultimate): during the effect of this spell the building can't provide food if it does, can't make units, research upgrades or sell items, can't attack and can't be repaired, and if it is a mine, it won't provide gold.
I can't imagine anything more annoying for the enemy!

P.S. what are you going to use this race for?

 

[DKG]

Atm I'm using it in my custom melee mod, which currently features 4 new races who are going through design and balancing, as well as some modifications of existing races. I'm struggling a bit with the coding of abilities and removing leaks and stuff (I'm very slow at this, also the only person working on it) so mostly I've just been designing new races and testing them with a few friends.

Your ability sounds kinda neat, specially the food disruption, should be pretty easy to code too (big plus for me). Thanks for the suggestion

 

[dragon_kid]

Very interesting. A swarm race like the Zerg are, but in War3. I like!

 

[Formula1]

THe way I would balance out the races is like this...
-The Nerubian-If the player was able to cast abilities as quickly as they could, there would come a point where you could no longer get faster (the basic Army enhancement)
-The Machine Builder-Using Trees as fuel (eat tree restores mana) and Made from Gold these units can help eachother build buildings making them go much faster then normally

Pretty much make each race have its own way to build very fast
-Though the nerubians tend to be especially... easy...

 

[invertedhat]

DKG, you mentioned that you were making a mod which had 4 new races; this is something i am also trying to do, but i'm stuck on changing the displayed name of the race in the warcraft pre-game screen. do you have any advice? huge thanks

 

[HorizonTal]

changing the displayed race-names is easy, but it's impossible to ADD new names, then you have to invent an other method to choose race

 

[DKG]

Uh, actually, mine has 4 added races, plus the 4 original ones, and as the above said, you can't add additional items to the dropdown box, and I'm not actually sure how to change the values myself. Sorry

 

[Kwah]

Sounds cool. Try to add some units beside nerub maybe? Like beetles and other insects?

 

[DKG]

there are some beetles already, few spiders and im thinking of possibly adding wasps as a flying unit

 

[200monkeys]

Nerubians sound pretty Epic, I must say. Most games that add races such as them just do basic stuff that makes them pretty much just any other race, but having them be special and whatnot is an especially awesome feature. Sounds good so far.

 

[SilverSong]

About the hero egg... Perhaps require the Nerubian Queen to engorge herself on corpses, perhaps a corpse cannibalism count of 100 or so, before she may lay a single hero egg.

If the hero dies and needs to be revived, she needs to engorge another 25 corpses before she can lay the same hero egg again.

...oh and your game sounds really cool, just Pm me if I can help at all.

 

[Deathlord135]

About heros maybe you chould do what SliverSong said but make it when u devour corpses the queen gains mana which they use to build heros? Like nerubs have mana insteed of gold and wood. They chould gain it by doing things like fighting.They chould also "infest" a mine which makes it gives mana. The mana your queen(s) has is = to the amout of gold (mana) you have.

 

[Formula1]

About heros maybe you chould do what SliverSong said but make it when u devour corpses the queen gains mana which they use to build heros? Like nerubs have mana insteed of gold and wood. They chould gain it by doing things like fighting.They chould also "infest" a mine which makes it gives mana. The mana your queen(s) has is = to the amout of gold (mana) you have.

Bugs eat gold?

I said Ensnare and Burrow but having very weak units you'd have to ambush and control your enemies quickly.

TO prepare for the ambush-Scouts which could be grasshoppers of sorts which would have no attack but would be incredibly fast and have a minor camouflage ability

Workers/Carrier ants which bring back corpses to feed on

You'd have to move your queen every once in a while to prevent your enemies finding you...

Also.... lets say your enemies never Actually attack you and just let your species starve to death from lack of canabalism.... You'd get screwed.....

Thats where I'm thinking the "eat tree" ability would really come in handy....
-THe only difference is that

As for buildings... At first i was thinking "no buildings"... but now I'm thinking....

Nest
-Underground building that can store units and is a drop off point for bodies and Wood
--Building restores mana when they go to it

Hive
-Hide it in the trees like a wisp
--Can create units from those locations

Web
-Acts as an ensnare ability only it can be attacked
--Slow aura with no collision size but a big mass so it can be attacked easily...


Units
Flying
-Dragon Fly-BIG Flying unit that actually deals no damage. Acts as a Large HP Scout/Tank unit though and has the submerge ability


Ground
-Worker Ant-Carries Wood, Medium HP
-Grasshopper-Very Fast Movement, No attack, Medium HP
-Silkworm-Creates Webs and ensnares low HP
-Prawns-2 spawn at once and cost very little and have no foodcost... But they have low HP and high attack making them incredibly useless... sometimes...

Queen-Creates Most of the Units
-Parasite Ability-Makes units into Carriers of Prawns which have High attack but low HP and burrow. This has very limited range

Heroes
-Big Beetle-Flying Ability for limited period of time, Canabalism, Consume and ultimate is Hardened skin (Basic Offensive Tank)
-Spider- Ensnare, Webs, Life Drain (short distance and very powerful) and as an ultimate Massive Prawn Spawn (Support and Anti-Hero)
-Army Ant-??
-Mind Gnat-Locust, Speed up Aura, Parasite and as an Ultimate


THese are just ideas, not necessarilly the right ones.... I hope ya'll understand I'm not trying to sound arrogant... I just want people to think about how this race should play without making it conformed to other species again...

 

[hellclown]

this sounds WINRAR good luck
If you need any custom models I can do that.

 

[Deathlord135]

Bugs eat gold?

I said Ensnare and Burrow but having very weak units you'd have to ambush and control your enemies quickly.

TO prepare for the ambush-Scouts which could be grasshoppers of sorts which would have no attack but would be incredibly fast and have a minor camouflage ability

Workers/Carrier ants which bring back corpses to feed on

You'd have to move your queen every once in a while to prevent your enemies finding you...

Also.... lets say your enemies never Actually attack you and just let your species starve to death from lack of canabalism.... You'd get screwed.....

Thats where I'm thinking the "eat tree" ability would really come in handy....
-THe only difference is that

As for buildings... At first i was thinking "no buildings"... but now I'm thinking....

Nest
-Underground building that can store units and is a drop off point for bodies and Wood
--Building restores mana when they go to it

Hive
-Hide it in the trees like a wisp
--Can create units from those locations

Web
-Acts as an ensnare ability only it can be attacked
--Slow aura with no collision size but a big mass so it can be attacked easily...


Units
Flying
-Dragon Fly-BIG Flying unit that actually deals no damage. Acts as a Large HP Scout/Tank unit though and has the submerge ability


Ground
-Worker Ant-Carries Wood, Medium HP
-Grasshopper-Very Fast Movement, No attack, Medium HP
-Silkworm-Creates Webs and ensnares low HP
-Prawns-2 spawn at once and cost very little and have no foodcost... But they have low HP and high attack making them incredibly useless... sometimes...

Queen-Creates Most of the Units
-Parasite Ability-Makes units into Carriers of Prawns which have High attack but low HP and burrow. This has very limited range

Heroes
-Big Beetle-Flying Ability for limited period of time, Canabalism, Consume and ultimate is Hardened skin (Basic Offensive Tank)
-Spider- Ensnare, Webs, Life Drain (short distance and very powerful) and as an ultimate Massive Prawn Spawn (Support and Anti-Hero)
-Army Ant-??
-Mind Gnat-Locust, Speed up Aura, Parasite and as an Ultimate


THese are just ideas, not necessarilly the right ones.... I hope ya'll understand I'm not trying to sound arrogant... I just want people to think about how this race should play without making it conformed to other species again...

They dont eat gold the queen eats corpses like u said and gains mana from them which they use as gold.The race chould be kinda nomanic.?!!!

The other ideas of yours are great.Here's some of mine.

Units:
Bug: a fast attk unit that evolves into other units. Medium health
low attk.

Spider: Quick moving raiding unit has critical stike and slow poisen. Low health low attk.

Stealth bug: a bug that devoloped stealth capabilities has shadowmeld, a weak windwalk-like spell, burrow. Low health high attk

Crab: A large tank-like unit lots of health medium attk.Has pulverize

Mantis Warrior: A medium unit medium attk medium health has a fly move that turns it into a air unit, a attk spell that does good damage and stuns, and harden carapace that increases defences but lowers attk speed.

Beetle: A large seige unit that can change between mellee and ranged. high attk medium health.

 

[DKG]

OH my word, ton of ideas here; reading through them all

I'm actually designing my nerubians now, so alot of these may see light in some form or another

 

[hellclown]

okay I have the basic idea for the queen model but I reference pics so those would be nice.

 

[DKG]

I know its just the new zerg queen design, but it happens to fit really well, so something -like- this would be wonderful. Though to reflect the egg laying nature of it, perhaps attaching a large egg sack type thing at the back of it would work.

Thanks again for the help offer, if its too hard dw about it, and if its gonna take forever, thats ok too

 

[hellclown]

That's a great picture and all but i kinda ment like insect life etc.

 

[Kino]

Well since the Nerubians were suppose dto be the ones who invented the Obsidian Statues etc.

How about an Obsidian Construct.

Has fairly resistant armour, no attack and can be upgraded personally with different support skills to turn it into kinda of a mobile battle standard?