[Aeon of Strife] Noctis [Beta 2.31]

[Troxxy]

Noctis
Beta 2.31

Download current version of the map*:
https://www.hiveworkshop.com/attachments/bnoctis-2-31-w3x.269867/
*you can scroll to the "attached files" section as well...
**Also, there's an archive there. You can check some of Noctis's old versions if you want.

Join Noctis Development Discord channel*:
Discord - Free voice and text chat for gamers
*if you please...

Author's note: I've been developing this mod for quite a while. The scripts and even game concepts themselves have foregone some tweaks and shifts. So anything you see is incomplete and can be rearranged and changed in the future. Please, DO provide any useful feedback (balance issues are appreciated the most).

Story/Setting:
There isn't much of a story told in this certain mod. But I'll do my best to explain things to those of you inerested via story mode, tooltips and in-game tips.

Features currently implemented:
-2 "finished" playable major Factions and 2 unfinished.
-2 "unfinished" subfactions, currently being worked on.
-Each faction features its own unique playstyle, units, upgrades, abilities etc.
-Continious game sessions (you can play several games in a row as different factions without having to re-host the game).
-Fast-paced rounds. The game is designed and balanced to be as quick s possible without being frustratingly hard.

Gameplay mechanics:
A map for 2 players. Completely different playstyle. Much like Castle Wars, AoS and Clash Royale for sure. But it's not a minigame of any sort, It's being developed as a deep and self-sufficient real-time strategy game. A fast-paced one (a single game is designed to take from 5 to 10 minutes at most).
No micro-management, only upgrades, spells, buildings (for some factions), resource management and troop hiring.

Current issues:
-Siegecraft Zeppelin [Demolitionists] units act inadequate. Some other units [namely Karma Launchers] tend to disobey their orders as well.
-Unoptimizied code (working on it periodically, making it better... soon it'll be pretty much leak-proof and quick as possible).
-Map size (not a big problem for a 300 kb-map, but I still want to keep it as light as possible)
-Occasional AI and Script errors (report them to me, will keep those in mind and will try to fix ASAP)
-Balance issues (everything seems fun and fluid, yet I don't want to take any chances... if you think something is OP or too weak, share your oppinion.) Please, don't tell me what to do exactly. I don't need any advices with that. Just highlight the problem.
-Incomplete factions (this problem will be resolved soon enough, don't worry).
-Missing tooltips (this problem will be resolved soon enough, don't worry).
-After finishing a match, minigame player colors don't revert back to the initial state.

Spoiler: Change Log

V.2.31

1. Added time display windows for total game time and current round's duration.
   
2. Clan of the Dragon [Dark Alliance]: Grim Raven's cost increased to 20 gold due to unit's exceptional power and effectiveness.
   
3. Prosperity Syndicate [Dark Alliance] is no longer available due to faction's frustrating gameplay [you can still play it, though... simply type "-test" in game chat].
4. Prosperity Syndicate [Dark Alliance] Syndicate Agency's attack damage reduced from 50 to 40.
5. Nature's Revenge [Nature's Revenge] has received two new upgrades: "Potent Digestive Acid" [Dendrarium] ("Maneater Plants" deal 40 damage per 0,5 seconds instead of 25 to enemies they devour) and "Wings of Thunder" (+1000 hp to Boltrons and +35 to their movement speed).
6. Nature's Revenge [Nature's Revenge]: plants are now untargetable (this caused problems with some units' behavior).
7. Demolitionists [Liberated]: Changed Siegecraft Zeppelin's behavior.
8. Demolitionists [Liberated]: fixed problem which resulted units getting stuck between Boomworks and Hidden Cell.
9. The Worthy Ones [The Great Cycle]: removed Cycle Breach's ranged attack.
10. The Worthy Ones [The Great Cycle]: added "Inevitable" unit [faction's dedicated tank]
11. The Worthy Ones [The Great Cycle]: added "Overseer" unit [elite flying unit, spawns corpses, Expendable, Hierophants and has a powerful long-ranged attack].
12. The Worthy Ones [The Great Cycle]: added "Conductor" unit [dedicated anti-air unit. has powerful anti-air attacking capabilities, spawns "Conducted" units to aid himself. Those units stun flying enemies they attack, but can attack groung units as well, without stunning effect]
13. The Worthy Ones [The Great Cycle]: added "Condemner" unit [a beffy flying unit with weak splash attack and an ability to curse enemies, making them take 120 damage per second and spawn "Returned" unit upon death]
14. The Worthy Ones [The Great Cycle]: added faction's tech building ("Eternal Council") and upgrade system.
15. Each faction has received "detector" units (those units can spot invisible and hidden objects... for now there're only two invisible objects in game: The Worthy Ones' Cycle Breach and Demolitionists' Makeshift Mines).

• Clan of the Dragon [Dark Alliance]: Grim Raven, Zeal Pillar.
• Prosperity Syndicate [Dark Alliance]: Haunter Jet, Field Strongpoint.
• Stormships' Crew [Liberated]: Support Drone, Drone Carrier.
• Demolitionists [Liberated]: Troublemaker, Death Chopper, Makeshift Battery.
• Nature's Revenge [Nature's Revenge]: Hawk, Eagle.
• The Worthy Ones [The Great Cycle]: Conductor, Overseer.

V.2.22

1. Prosperity Syndicate [Dark Alliance] added "Strongbox Transporter". Designed to be a tanky unit with single-target attack and some support capabilities.
   
2. Prosperity Syndicate [Dark Alliance] added "Precious Cargo" upgrade (accessible via Syndicate RnD), which gives Strongbox Transporters +200 hit points, +2 armor, +10% allied damage aura and ability to leave behind "Strongbox" unit (which also provides aura, but cannot move nor attack) upon its destruction.
   
3. Clan of the Dragon [Dark Alliance] Whisperers, "re-created" from dying Whisperers due to "Watchers' Vow" clan alignment upgrade now can be easily visually distinguished.
   
4. The Worthy Ones [The Great Cycle] Added "Bygone" unit: a flying support unit with a curse-like ability (makes an enemy miss on every attack for 5 seconds) and long-ranged siege-type single-target attack. It costs 150 energy and stuns all enemies at the area of its summoning for 3 seconds.
   
5. The Worthy Ones [The Great Cycle] Added "Returned Reinforcements" autocast ability as an alternative [or addition] to basice "Expendable Reinforcenemts". This ability quickly converts corpses all over the map into weak "Returned" ranged units one at a time. The cost is 4 energy per corpse converted.
   
6. The Worthy Ones [The Great Cycle] Added a weak ranged attack to Cycle Breach marker. Not sure if it actually works.
   
7. The Worthy Ones [The Great Cycle] Added "Overseer" super-unit. Not yet implemented.
   
8. Added some more versions of currently existing chat commands (/gn, /v, /vertical, /ff, /gg, /surrender, /n, /normal... e.t.c. The chat command list will be updated and expanded upon the next upload)

V.2.20

1. Unused player slots have been removed (thx Meai)
   
2. The Worthy Ones [The Great Cycle]: added "Hierophant" unit and ability which summons this unit. Hierophant features powerful ranged attack and ability to raise dead in form of Acolytes.
   
3. Added warning signal for The Worthy Ones [The Great Cycle] faction whenever their spawnpoint marker gets destroyed.
   
4. Prosperity Syndicate [Dark Alliance] has received some initial technologies and dedicated tech. buildings ("Syndicate RnD" structure) and clan alignments ("Hidden Agenda Quarters' structure).
   
5. Demolitionists [Liberated] have received a new tech structure ("Boomworks"). Upgrades incoming.
   
6. Demolitionists [Liberated] have also received a new ability ("Enviromental Contaminator").
   
7. Added timer system to waves.
   
8. Nature's Revenge [Nature's Revenge] has received a new "project" (lumber-costing upgrade). The name is "Field Vet" (resarched at the "Synthesis Facility"). ~this caused severe bugs, so I've decided to remove it for now.
   
9. Resolved animation bugs [sort of].
   
10. Added "-gg", "-ff", "-surrender" chat commands... All of those do the same thing: concede a match. Useful for singleplayer test mode too (starting a game without an opponent, typing "-start").
    
11. "Credits" and "Chat Commands" now contain some info. Those can be accessed via "quests" menu.
    
12. Script-vise: Removed huge, ugly and unnecessary game ending construction [It's split into two different scripts now].

Spoiler: Planned stuff

1. Multiboard [mainly for wave timers].
2. "Noctis cometh" mode. Like "sudden death": once a game hits 10 minutes milestone, both players get sudden burst of power to help finish the match and decide the winner [I hate tug-of-war situations where games tend to last 20 or even 30 minutes].
3. Completion of factions and subfactions [it's obvious]. The next faction [after I finish The Worthy ones and Nature's Revenge] will be "The Rulers". The order in which I'm going to work on subfactions: Demolitionists [Liberated] -> Prosperity Syndicate [Dark Alliance] -> Faun's Vigor [Nature's Revenge] (Nature's Revenge with weakened plants and empowered beasts) -> The Forsaken [The Great Cycle] (zombie-based necromancers) -> Dedicated [Dark Alliance] (tank-ish faction) -> Rioters [Liberated] (Liberated with improved spawns, but limited troop selection) -> Blue Helmets [The Rulers] -> Death's Voice [The Great Cycle].
   
4. Tooltips... Of course. + Custom icons (if they don't take too much space).
   
5. Some singleplayer and co-op missions. Different game modes... Nothing of this till I'm done with balancing and adding a healthy variety of factions.

Help required:
Currently the mod is in its early development stages. So the best help would be you sending your feedback to me. What's fun, what's not fun, what's broken... Everything. You may send it to my e-mail, but it would be nice if you just left it in this thread so everyone interested could see it and compare with each other's experience.

P.S. Sorry for possible grammar mistakes or thread creation errors (I'm sort of new to publishing stuff on HIVE), report them as well
P.P.S Let the resource moderators forgive my lack of high-quality screenshots. Here're some videos of previous mod versions instead:

Map developer: Troxxy [[email protected]]

 

[Troxxy]

Well, by the way, the mod can be played without an opponent, against a brain-dead AI (for it to happen, in game creation change your opponent from "Open" to "Computer"). If you play as player 1 (red), you'll face Stormship's Crew. If you play as player 2 (blue), you'll face Clan of the Dragon. The feature will be developed and extended, but I can't tell you when exactly.
Upd: You can even play without opponent whatsoever. Just pick your faction and subfaction and type "-start" without quote marks in chat.

 

[Idaero Ace]

Ow.. i thought this is a Final Fantasy XV map

 

[Troxxy]

Updated version is out: it's 2.14 now. It's in "work in progress state": added some general mechanics for the fourth major faction, but the faction itself is in early development state (still playable, though). The main reason of updating the file right now is a shameful typo I've missed...

From now on I'll upload a new version of this map every wednesday.

P.S. Please, report any typos you see in tooltips, loading screens, in-game alerts etc... I want to keep things as clear and clean as possible.

P.P.S. For those wandring about size-jump from 267 to 309 kb. It's all because I've put an uncompressed loading screen picture inside for testing purposes (since I want to make custom artwork for each major version of Noctis and need it to look as good as possible without demanding much in terms of resources).

~I should keep track of working progress, so I could post some patch notes and/or change log...

 

[Meai]

is this a joke? I picked the elite/low spawn option, it spawned an invulernable tank and I was driving over npcs. Map seems completely unfinished and nonsensical? I dont get it.
Admitted, I tested this solo but I doubt it's any better or hugely diifferent in multiplayer. why would it be

 

[Troxxy]

is this a joke? I picked the elite/low spawn option, it spawned an invulernable tank and I was driving over npcs. Map seems completely unfinished and nonsensical? I dont get it.
Admitted, I tested this solo but I doubt it's any better or hugely diifferent in multiplayer. why would it be

Read the description, please. It's not a singleplayer map by any means. + I've noted the AI is brain-dead.


Anyways, let's get things straight once and for all:

1. Yes, the map is far from being finished. It still requires balancing and stuff (not to mention there're only 2 factions which can be considered "complete"). It's part of a development process, and everyone knows that. And if it would be finished or nearing completion, I would post it in "Projects" section or "Maps" forum.
   
2. Once again: it's a multiplayer map. I've been developing it for a couple of months. Did a lot of testing (daily tests with several of my good friends of different skill level and gaming tastes). And, you know what? The situation seems quite fair and fun even as it is (though, Nature lacks flexibility, Clan is too straight-forward and Stormship is way too reliant on either mass-rush or waiting for its costly upgrade called "Massive Assault"). What I want is some more information on balance. But that information should come from people who bothered learning a bit about the map and dedicating some time into playing it with their friends or some strangers. That's one of the main reasons to post it here.
3. There will be a .pdf insight on how the game works. + I've already tested some "Quest"-based ingame manual arrangements. You won't miss anything.

Well, thanks for your feedback. It's still appreciated...

 

[Troxxy]

is this a joke? I picked the elite/low spawn option, it spawned an invulernable tank and I was driving over npcs. Map seems completely unfinished and nonsensical? I dont get it.
Admitted, I tested this solo but I doubt it's any better or hugely diifferent in multiplayer. why would it be

Oh, wai-wai-wait... OMG...

it spawned an invulernable tank and I was driving over npcs.

Oh, goodness... It's a minigame built-in. For fun and time-wasting purposes. If you want to play against AI, fill in the player 2 slot (the only selectable slot in the second Force) with Computer when setting up the game.
+If you want no opposition: don't fill in player 2 slot. But after picking faction and subfaction you should type "-start" in chat. That way the game will start abnormally (I use it while testing core mechanics, will remove the feature later on).

Hope this helps...

 

[Troxxy]

Version 2.2 is out.

 

[Troxxy]

Version 2.22 is out.

~Not much progress this time, though... sorry.

 

[Troxxy]

Version 2.31 is out.

I need more testers and test runs of this map (and, obviously, feedback). It's hard to keep everything balanced and interesting while preserving fast-paced nature of my mod.

P.S. In one or two major beta releases (2-3 weeks) I'll publish a special version of this mod in "Maps" section. That section seems to have more active people. The version is going to have only 4 "vanilla" factions, no signs of upcoming unfinished content, all tooltips fixed and a micro-tutorial. That's my goal for now. So, I need your help too to make this very first "true" release of my mod as user-friendly as possible.

 

[Troxxy]

No update this week. I'm busy testing/polishing balance (and fixing bugs), not adding new stuff.