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- Oct 31, 2015
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Nightfall in Hampstead
A survival map with strategic orientation. The main goal is to form a group of creep-heroes picked from theme-based but yet slightly modified vanilla creeps from warcraft 3 and venture into a decrepit neighbourhood while facing horrors at every corner.
Inspirations
- The Shadow over Innsmouth - This book from Lovecraft instills the feeling of loniness in a dark and hostile unknown place which this map hopes to mimic. However it can be played by multiple players and even while playing solo you may control multiple units, quite losing the loniness feeling, therefore I hope the lack of visibility and impredictability of multiple threats might compensate to keep the atmosphere.
- Color Out of Space - Also from Lovecraft this one brings a glimpse on how a person might become a victim of an unnatural force beyond any sort of control or comprehension. In Hampstead players will face consequences from their actions or from their lack of them. But as will be clarified soon, not everything can be predicted from start and overconfident players will become victims of their own self-claimed knowledge.
- Darkest Dungeon - The greatest influence over gameplay aspects while others remain more in the aesthetic and atmosphere field. Each player can control a bunch of characters which are NOT heroes at all. They will die and they will stay dead. Things can easily escalate out of control as bad decisions mount up. Preparedness is as important as sheer power. Knowledge is key, but it is important to understand that what is called "knowledge" may vary from game to game.
- Warcraft 3 - Your options to build a group is to pick among slightly modified vanilla creeps. They behave like demi-heroes with inventory, levels and attributes but also behave like creeps in regards of skill level up and most important, death. When they die they stay dead and is up to you to replace them with fresh meat.
Gameplay
- The Stagecoach - Such unit behave pretty much like a Mercenary Camp. The available units in a Stagecoach are randomized at the start of the game and its list is refreshed at the beggining of each "day". Players can access one Stagecoach at the beggining, but more can be unlocked with upgrades.
- Unit Skills - Abilities are not always about combat. Some revolve about preparation, others about item/ambient interaction. But almost all abilities are only upgradable through upgrades sold by merchants in Hampstead.
- Day/Night Cycle - It's always night in Hampstead. The shrouding darkness blots out the sun.
- Siege - In the darkest hours after the second night the town of Hampstead might be sieged by the threatning beings. Players will know if a night will be such one only when the time comes, so it's best to be always ready.
- Merchants - These vendors located in Hampstead are NOT invulnerable and they also may die if the town is breached. But replacements will arrive eventually a day or two after the incident.
- Townsfolk - Their behavior is still yet to be designed. However it's expected that they will react differently to random events that may occur on a daily basis.
- Camping - Units barely regen. One of the few effective ways to restore health and mana is by carrying firewood and liting firepits spread along the road. Also, some abilities requires proximity to lit firepits. Players can carry tents in their inventory to sleep.
- Ambush - Whenever setting up a camp nearby a firepit, a group of foes might approach from a nearby location and severely damage the group. Some units like the Huntress can alert the group about this kind of event.
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Objectives - To end this madness the party members of the mission must slain key monsters that lurk in the vicinity. But BEWARE: the monsters are invulnerable to EVERYTHING at start. To fight them you must gather lore in remote places and forgotten grounds.
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Lore - This is a special type of consumable item that affects all players in the game. When acquiring a lore item a weakness of the current monstrosity will be revealed. Monsters have different sets of weaknesses and they cannot be all unlocked in a single game. You must adapt your composition and item build to explore such weakenesses. You don't lose lore by losing units. The goal of this mechanic is to emulate a search for a way to defeat such ancient horrors. Each match will bring different challenges and will demand different approaches.
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Victory - Can only be achieved by slaying 4 monstrous beings to retrieve their fragments. Each fragment is used to build the altar to summon the final boss. The lore about this final evil must also be gathered beforehand. Once the final evil is defeated, Hampstead will be saved and you will be victorious. However, you must achieve this within 13 ingame "days" (About an hour and 45 min).
Highlights
of version 0.02
This section is dedicated to report what is new in the current build of the game. Older stuff will be passed to the Changelog section.
of version 0.02
This section is dedicated to report what is new in the current build of the game. Older stuff will be passed to the Changelog section.
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Well let's start with some simple things. Starting zone is set and the players can decide if they are willing to control 1 unit only or a 4 squad group. The firepits can be lit with firewood already and I am still thinking if the players should be able to turn on and off braziers to conceal its characters.
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ENEMIES. Yeah, there are some. Foes are split into categories which share a core behavior. For now there are 3 finished or so categories:
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Zombies - There are two kinds: Zombies and Wights. Both are considered as "undead" for spells. The common trait is an absurd amount of physical resistance handicapped by a very, very slow movement speed. The most fearsome aspect of these vile corpses is that when they do damage, more of their kind arrive from every corner. New zombies will attract even more of their kind and soon the situation can become unbereable if you get cornered. The difference relies in the simple fact that the Wights are also highly resistant to magic as well as physical damage.
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Hounds - They come in four types and colors: Hellhounds(Reds), Plaguehounds(Green), Faminehounds(Purple), Deathhounds(Black). They are essentially faster than most enemies and bear specialized attacks which aim to explore vulnerabilities in the player's compositions. Hellhounds always focus the units with less hit points and cannot be taunted. Plaguehounds have a damageless but stacking slow poison and the long lasting damage of the undispellable Disease Cloud, a nightmare for frontliners in this low regen map. Faminehounds are immune to magic and can both Abolish Magic and Mana Burn, helplessly tearing down mage comps. Finally, Deathhounds are the tankier of its kind but has no potential on itself aside from the fact that non-Deathhound enemies cannot die near this beast. They keep respawning, over and over, until all Deathhounds are dead or far enough.
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Drowners - Only the basic one is added for now. Drowners, guess what, comes from the water. Yeah, but these renamed murlocs do more than just swim. If one of them can notice your characters nearby he will call a tide of their kind from the water. Unlike zombies, sniping the prime summoner won't prevent the horde from coming. Also consider that all summoned drowners will be able to summon more drowners after a moderate cooldown, so waveclear is vital. Watch as 3 or 4 of this apparently silly creatures almost inevitably turn into a nightmarish tide of piercing attackers that melt Unarmored targets. Scouting ahead and area of effect are the best ways to deal with them. They will always come from shores, rivers or lakes, so you can more easily predict the direction from which the swarm will arrive, unlike Zombies.
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THE CREEPS (aka the heroes cof cof). Almost all of them have at least 2 out of 4 skills already. Keep in mind that all of them share, at least, the abilities Interact and Stash. Stash is a wooden box with six slots that appears on the ground when the ability is used. Each unit has its own Stash which vanishes from sight when its owner moves away from it. Interact allows the creeps to interact (seriouly...) with multiple objects and the ambient. This would go as far as turning on and off lights, talking to NPCs or triggering devices. One last note is about the hero ability types.
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The first two abilities are meant to be action skills, which in most cases will affect combat in a more direct way.
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The third skill is a preparation skill which basically means that it can only be used around a lit firepit. It may vary from a long lasting undispellable buff to obtaining a free supply item.
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The fourth and last skill is an interaction (again??) skill. To clarify the fourth class skills are meant to behave in a wide variety of ways, rather dealing with the ambient in some sort of prolonged preparation of strategic value than a cast-to-slash style. Some examples of concepts I have for now are Shamans or Druids being able to pray when surrounded by enough trees to create warding zones or blessings, Footmen being able to upgrade items or stats when nearing an anvil, Huntresses being able to hint the players if they are about to ambushed, Archers to locate nearing hidden caches of items or, a more concrete one, Crypt Fiends laying eggs that generates their offsprings before hatching after a set amount of time. They can be hatched earlier spawning less offsprings. To create a bit of mayhem I am considering making the offsprings neutral hostile, to force the players to consider their positioning.
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Lastly, the levelup process. "Heroes" levels ranges from 1 to 7. It's also a quite slow process to levelup them, enemies feed low XP and whatever is given, will be divided among the group which may range from 1 "hero" all the way to 16 "heroes". XP gaining is a key process as the difference between levels is massive. A level 2 Footman can and will beat the crap out of a level 1 of its kind. We are talking about a sum of something around 30 attribute points between levels. A lot. Therefore upgrading the Stagecoach is vital when your characters average levels goes up, so replacements are on the same level to keep progressing with the rest of the party
Characters and Abilties
- Footman (High armored, low damage. Excels againt Piercing attackers and provides consistent stuns. Vulnerable against magic attackers)
- Shield Slam - Slams the ground, dealing damage and stunning nearby foes for a brief duration.
- Defend - Activate to block 60% of incoming Piercing attack damage. Passively grants a 20% chance bash while not active and a 20% chance to block all attack damage while active.
- Rifleman (Slow and vulnerable. High damage burst with barrel, works well with allies which can root, stun or ensnare. Vulnerable against normal damage dealers)
- Explosive Barrel - Places down a barrel full of explosive material. Upon being attacked will unleash a great amount of damage to nearby foes. Ignores any armor values above 10.
- Sharpshooter - Can be cast upon an area with a barrel to detonate it. Proved useful when multiple fucking zombies screw your ability to aim your attack at the barrel. Passively grants a hit-kill attack against foes that are stunned, rooted or ensnared. To be killed this way these enemies must be of a weaker type like the ones mentioned above, except for the Deathhound.
- Priest (Vulnerable healer. Provide a reliable instant heal to the living and damage to undead foes. Can easily deal with buffs and debuffs. Vulnerable against almost everything)
- Holy Light - Behaves as usual.
- Dispel Magic - Behaves as usual.
- Grunt (High health, low armor. The powerhouse of all frontliners with his quick slashes. Also can protect his allies with Taunt, but mind his vulnerabilities. Vulnerable against pretty much everything but specially magic)
- Taunt - Can taunt foes in the target area to force them to attack the Grunt for 6 seconds. Taunt won't work if Grunt cannot be seen.
- Infuriate - Has a 15% chance to gain maximum attack speed for 0.75s (3 or 4 swift slashes in a 1 second window more or so) upon being attacked.
- Witch Doctor (Supportive spellcaster. Can place down wards which are effective against stealthed foes or provides a wide area stun. Vulnerable against most things. His gameplay is more about preparation and traps than hack 'n slash)
- Sentry Ward - Behaves as usual.
- Stasis Trap - Behaves as usual, but the activation delay is down from 10s to 2s and stun duration down from 6s to 5s.
- Shaman (Hybrid spellcaster. Can be used both at calculated offense and mindless supportive role. Vulnerable against most things)
- Lightning Shield - Behaves as usual, but does not harm allies.
- Bloodlust - Behaves as usual, but does not increase size nor movement speed.
- Huntress (Tactical frontliner. Can be a great combo with ranged physical attackers and can easily deal with stealthed foes. Vulnerable to piercing attackers)
- Sentinel - Latches her owl companion to a nearby tree, gaining flying sight over a large area and also truesight. Ranged allies nearby the sentinel owl gain 20% bonus attack damage.
- Moon Glaives - Her attacks bounces twice striking up to 3 enemies, but loses 50% damage per bounce. Each enemy struck by the main attack or the bounces will lose 1 armor up to 5 armor reduction.
- Sorceress (Aggressive spellcaster. Capable of dealing both with large amounts weaklings or solo powerhouses. But mind her cooldowns. Vulnerable to most things)
- Flame Strike - Behave as usual, but does not destroys trees. Mind its use when combining multiple Sorceresses for the damage won't stack.
- Polymorph - Behave more like Hex.
- Druid of the Claw(Versatile between a healer and a frontliner. Mind his lack of sheer damage and non-instant healing. Vulnerable to magic attacks)
- Bear Form - Behaves as usual. The bear has Resistant Fur and the druid has Rejuvenation.
- Resistant Fur - Has 100% chance to block 12 damage from all attacks to a minimum of 3.
- Rejuvenation - Behaves as usual.
- Crypt Fiend(Ranged support. Can ensnare foes consistently and has superb regeneration. Might be able to scout with some creativity. Vulnerable to normal attackers)
- Burrow - Behaves as usual, but grants 3% of max hit points as regeneration while burrowed. Impales nearby foes both while burrowing and unburrowing. Mind the manacost of Burrow and the cooldown of Unburrow, as well as the fact that units stunned by Impale cannot be impaled again.
- Web - Behaves as usual (even in autocast), but can be casted against ground units. Cannot web while burrowed.
- Necromancer (Hybrid spellcaster between a summoner, a nuker and an undead healer. Mind its micro potential. Vulnerable to pretty much everything)
- Death Coil - Behaves as usual.
- Raise Dead - Behaves as usual, but summons 1 skeleton at a time up to two. Skeletons are permanent.
- Bandit (The only neutral dude for now. Versatile but not so strong. For greedy plans. Vulnerabilty varies with intended role)
- Change Weapon - Can swap at will between ranged Piercing attacker with Medium armor and a melee Normal attacker with Heavy armor. (Probably there will more differences, specially in attack speed)
- Envenomed Weapons - Autocast. Each attacks applies a damage stacking poison.
- Pillage - The only Fourth class ability so far. Can salvage corpses for gold. Once per corpse. Low cooldown, nice money.
Intended but not done yet
- Ghoul - A corpse eater, self-sustaining frontliner, but likely to be overall weaker. Still to plan his schemes.
- Spellbreaker - Antimagic spellcaster hypocrite with frontline potential. Probably with mana burning attacks and some silence.
- Headhunter - Big game player. Weak against multiple foes. Intended to be able to fully ignore armor values with his attacks.
- Banshee - Mad witch mad game. She will be able to possess critters, creeps and bosses, but only temporarily if the target is too strong. Against weaklings she can end the possesion at will. Useful, specially to waste the bosses' nukes. But be careful to not kill your friends ok?
- Druid of the Talon - The problem with this guy is having too many spells. Currently he has Entangling Roots, a starfall-themed Blizzard (very appealing) and an improvised Storm Crow Form using Storm, Earth and Fire that lasts a few seconds but could be a useful flying scout. I am concerned about flying movement in this map (because it could land on areas not covered by pathing blockers that were, well, not ground. Like inside a rock), but without turning into a raven would he deserves the title of "Druid of the Talon"? Suggestions are welcome.
- Archer - Consistent damage dealer. Can use a Wind Walk-like ability named Ambush which damage upon arrival is based on her own attack damage. Also fantastic for scouting. She also has True Sight, therefore she is the only source of mobile true sight.
PS.: I am trying to improve this description, for now I feel there is a lot of text. I would like to add some videos, but it's late today and bed is calling. If anyone reads this line, please let me know if there is a way of adding a video directly here, without using resources like youtube or giphy.
The map still is at early stages of solo development.
Feel free to leave any ideas, impressions or feedback.
Hope to soon release a test version for those interested in testing.
The map still is at early stages of solo development.
Feel free to leave any ideas, impressions or feedback.
Hope to soon release a test version for those interested in testing.
Attachments
Last edited:
. But I plan the next update to be a video showing some of the map features and after it the first demo map upload. The demo map will require the players to find a way to Hampstead. I'm planning some nasty surprises 
![A]mun](/data/avatars/s/140/140771.jpg?1674379729){kind=avatar}
