Particle Party v2.6 AI

This bundle is marked as high quality. It exceeds standards and is highly desirable.
3MoBoI.png


RbeQz1.png


Total-conversion action arena map in the quantum world of Azeroth

When a gnome & goblin engineering experiment goes wrong, a group of Azeroth citizens is reduced to a quantum size,
stranded in the great nothingness of the cosmos, and taken captive by a malicious voidlord, who forces them to fight each other
for his own amusement.


Join our discord to find more partiers!

RbeQz1.png

OVERVIEW

FEATURES

VIDEOS

STORY

HOW TO PLAY

CHANGELOG

CREDITS


OVERVIEW

RbeQz1.png

Particle Party is a team-based action-arena map with fast and dynamic gameplay. Skate through space, blast your opponents with particles, and use your abilities to deflect those coming your way! Game modes are divided into deathmatch and objective games. In deathmatch, the goal is to score as many kills for your team as possible. In objective games, you might play soccer with an atom or feed a black hole. Although Particle Party takes us to a weirder dimension, the Warcraft flavor still stays with us.

Particle Party is primarily a team-based multiplayer map, but can has a dedicated single-player mode with various challenges and battles against highly sophisticated A.I. opponents. Free-for-all deathmatch is available to support odd player numbers. A.I. can also be added to multiplayer games to balance out teams.

Single-player: Earn medals in various challenges and battles against A.I.
1 vs 1: An epic test of skills in deathmatch.
2 vs 2: Fun and interactive in any mode.
3 vs 3: Work as a team in objective games or prepare for absolute madness in deathmatch.

During each match, you are thrown into the arena as part of one of two teams - Team Lunar and Team Solar. Damaging particles constantly spawn from the environment. While you're trying to evade them, you pick up powerups randomly spawning on the map, such as health and mana potions, items that boost your power, as well as particle pellets. Particle pellets provide you with ammunition to shoot your own particles. In addition, you have access to a set of abilities unique to your character, such as emergency defensive cooldowns.

RbeQz1.png




Competitive gameplay if you know what you're doing. Fun, colorful chaos if you don't.



FEATURES

RbeQz1.png
  • Easy to learn with in-game tutorial cinematics that explain all the basics of the game.
  • Highly sophisticated A.I. with adjustable difficulty to play and train against.
  • Fully customized controls and UI.
  • Incredibly high skill ceiling.
  • "Trippy" atmosphere, accentuated by old-school music from Unreal.
  • Seven multiplayer game modes for a variety of tastes.
  • Dedicated singleplayer mode with the option to save your highscores.
  • One of the most powerful physics engines in Warcraft III, able to compute many particles communicating with and influencing each other over any distance; an N-body simulation.


RbeQz1.png




Every particle sees every other particle and reacts to its presence instantaneously over any distance.



VIDEOS

RbeQz1.png



2v2 bot-match on Maelstrom Madness.

RbeQz1.png



A 1v1 match against the Xen A.I. on Dodgecore.

RbeQz1.png



A 1v1 match against the Xen A.I. on Maelstrom Madness.

RbeQz1.png



3-player FFA bot-match on Cosmic Shower.



STORY

RbeQz1.png

"Operation Firefly: A joint project between gnomish and goblin engineers. The task was simple: Reduce the test subjects down to a subatomic size with the Ultra-Miniaturizer 3000, then fire them to the outpost on Outland, where our technicians would get them back to their original size. It was supposed to be a cost-efficient way to travel between the two planets. Well, compared to the Dark Portal, that is. Do you know how much energy it takes to keep that thing open all the time?
Anyway, the miniaturization worked perfectly. But, as it is always the case with goblin technology, the rocket malfunctioned, and now instead of arriving on Outland, the passengers are stranded somewhere in the cosmos, reduced to a subatomic size, being exposed to the interstellar medium and who knows what else.

I just hope the voidlords don't find them before we do. They'd probably do all kinds of terrible things to them. Maybe even throw them into an arena; let them fight each other for their amusement.

Oh my, I don't dare to imagine the lawsuit that's coming our way."
—Shimo Jigglescrew, gnomish engineer

RbeQz1.png

The Passengers

9KjQwb.png
Sylvan Ranger

A revered hero of the Second War, Anestria followed the call to conquer the new frontier in the name of the Alliance. While things aren't going exacty as planned, the arena at least gives Anestria an opportunity to practice quantum combat for when she eventually returns with an entire battalion of her best rangers to hunt down the voidlords and retaliate this humiliation.
CFEuEF.png
Daughter of the Ancients

As Shimo Jigglescrew's close friend, Mira was happy to help the gnome test his new invention. Expecting to encounter tiny little men to chat with, the dryad was eager to enter the quantum realm. Instead she found giant, mean voidlords that hold her captive. And if that wasn't bad enough, her photosynthesis doesn't seem to be working all that well in the darkness of space.
chBjg3.png
Sunfury Agent

A spy sent by Kael'Thas to investigate their enemies' new way of transportation, Silandori signed up the Firefly experiment in hopes of stealing the plans upon arrival in Outland. While the crash landing is definitely a setback, at least she can now take revenge on the other passengers for making her listen to endless ramblings about the best cheese in Stormwind and other similarly asinine topics.
iByA6y.png
Lord of Elements

Before being enlisted by the Goblin Experimental Engineering Korporation, Brok was in rough shape, drinking and gambling in the streets of Orgrimmar. The Firefly's accident is a godsend for the former shaman, not only entitling him to enough compensation to pay off his gambling debts, but also giving him an outlet for all his pent-up anger in Dimensius' arena.
mkWced.png
Mistress of Waves

Merely looking for a ride to get back to the Zangarmarsh, Srarda signed up to the Firefly experiment, writing 'wave manipulation' in the special skills box. As it was vague enough to be misinterpreted as experience in quantum experiments, Srarda was accepted. Only after being shrunk did she find out that her skills as a tidecaller do in fact translate well into the quantum realm.
7fmjgi.png
Astromancer

As the ship's navigator, Varuun is the one to blame for the crash landing. Clearly he was supposed to navigate the ship through every speck of dust from Azeroth to Outland. Clearly the gnomes considered that this might become a problem for a quantum-sized spaceship when they came up with their brilliant idea.
cz06MV.png
Arcane Prodigy

Celestine signed up to the Firefly experiment as soon as she saw the flyers across Stormwind. The curiosity of the young mage apprentice was instantly excited by the promises of an adventure in a realm unknown. While the other passengers are distressed about their current predicament, Celestine is eager to try out her new quantum powers and combine them with her arcane spells.
eST001.png
Dreamwalker

Amara, being unable to enter the Emerald Dream for quiet some time, grew increasingly desperate to restore her connection. It was at that time that she was offered a job as a counselor on the Firefly. She accepted, hoping to be able to use the quantum realm as a gateway into the spiritual world. In hindsight, maybe she should have tried a potion.
WB180i.png
Gnomish Tinker

Forced by a contract he didn't fully read, Timon had no choice but to participate in the Firefly experiment as part of the grant that funded his own inventions. While not associated with the Mechanical Engineering Guild directly, Timon is afraid that this will not stop the other passengers from venting their frustrations on this little gnome. Better get your contraptions ready!
MVB94f.png
Argent Knight

Hired by the Mechanical Engineering Guild to protect the passengers of the Firefly from harm in the EXTREMELY unlikely case that something goes wrong, Orik is conflicted about participating in the battle, as he would forfeit his duty in doing so. But as the saying goes: 'Sometimes you have to beat up people to protect them. Or something.
A6jfFw.png
Amani Invoker

Ramahn, once a powerful high priest of the eagle loa, has seen better days. Having fallen from grace, he is now lower on the pecking order than even a gnome. Used by the Alliance as a lab rat for their shrinking tech and subsequently brought on the Firefly in case another completely-safe™ invention had to be tested, Ramahn's luck took a turn for the better when Dimensius freed him from his captors. It's time for some payback!
B7YmSc.png
Voidslime

G'xul, an interstellar slime creature, hitchhiked on the Firefly after the ship accidentally picked it up while traversing the Gryphon nebula. To avoid detection, G'xul quickly devoured and replicated the ship's janitor. However, with the battle in Dimensius' arena looming, a more combat-prone form would be more suitable.


HOW TO PLAY

RbeQz1.png

GETTING STARTED

GAMEPLAY TIPS


Particle Party can be played in a variety of ways. Here is an overview of the available features and best ways to learn the map. The very basics of the game are explained in an in-game tutorial that automatically plays after hero selection. If you haven't watched it already, do so and then come back here.

RbeQz1.png


Controls

You control your movement just like you would control your hero in any other map, except with the added feature that you can change directions by holding down the (Right Mouse-Button). This will save you many clicks and your fingers will thank you for making use of this feature.

You cast spells just like in any other map, but launching particles works a bit differently. You move your mouse-cursor in the desired direction and then press the hotkey for the spell, with no need to click with your mouse to confirm.

These controls may be unintuitive in the beginning, but you should get the hang of it relatively quickly. A good way to get used to the controls is to start a Warm Up game (multiplayer gamemaster) and simply practice movement and shooting particles. Return to the lobby at any time by typing -exit.


RbeQz1.png


Singleplayer Challenges

Chances are, the first time you launch Particle Party will be in singleplayer mode. There are a number of challenges available at the singleplayer gamemaster. Quantum Survival is a great challenge to practice the basics of the game. You will learn how particles behave, how to avoid them, and how to use your abilities to stay alive without the added complexity of having to deal with opposing players. Electric Slingshot is a puzzle game that forces you to think about how particles interact, but is aimed more at experienced players.

Finally, there are the Battle against Xen challenges. These will pit you against the Xen A.I. in one of the multiplayer deathmatch game modes. You select the difficulty of the A.I. before you start the challenge. The difficulty increases quite rapidly, with the Platinum A.I. being barely beatable by human players. It is recommended that you start with the lowest diffulty - Copper. You will find tips on how to beat Xen under Gameplay Tips.

By improving your high score or beating Xen, you earn medals, which are displayed in the multiboard. You will also receive a code that can be used to load your highscores by typing -load xxxx-xxxx. If you forget to load your highscores before achieving a new one, simply type your code and your highscores will be combined and a new code generated.


RbeQz1.png


Bot Matches

Another way to play against the A.I. is with the Add A.I. feature at the assistant. You can add various characters and select the team and difficulty for each of them. You then start the game at the multiplayer gamemaster. Currently, bots can only play deathmatch games.

For example, you can play a 1v1 match against Cipher or add two more A.I.s and play a 2v2 match. You can also disband teams and switch to free-for-all mode at the assistant. Note that the A.I. threat detection strains your CPU and weaker computers might be overburdened by running multiple scripts.

While the game difficulty and A.I. difficulty are bundled together nicely for the Xen challenges, you have to adjust them separately when playing against A.I. in this way.


RbeQz1.png


Multiplayer

You've mastered all singleplayer challenges. Now it's time to invite your friends and explore the multiplayer modes. In multiplayer, you can play the deathmatch game modes that you already know as well as various objective games. These are recommended for 4 or 6 players, while deathmatch game modes are recommended for up to 4 players.

If you're playing with an odd number of players, you can either add A.I. to balance the teams or enable free-for-all mode. In both cases, you can only play deathmatch game modes. A.I. support for objective games might be added in the future.

If the skill levels of your play group are too disparate, you can use the boost feature to even the odds.

RbeQz1.png

Now you're all set! Check out the Gameplay Tips section if you want to further improve your gameplay. Good luck and have fun!


Particle Party is a map that can be quite difficult to master. Here are seven tips and tricks that will help you on your road to Platinum.

RbeQz1.png


1. Utilize the minimap

4Shh5H.png

Powerups are displayed on the minimap as colored dots. Particle packs are purple, healing potions are green, and permanent items are brown. The most powerful powerups, greater particle packs and super potions, are displayed as a bright, prominent orange and red. A quick glance at the minimap will give you valuable information about where you want to go next.

RbeQz1.png


2. Fight for powerups

dWiGR7.gif

The battle doesn't begin only once each player has picked up particles, but as soon as the first powerup spawns. Denying your opponent valuable powerups and claiming them as your own will put you into the driver's seat for the rest of the game. Most heroes have some form of disable that can be used to gain the upper hand in those battles or a way to temporarily increase their speed.

When both you and an opponent are racing towards a powerup, keep in mind that you will be knocked away from the collision. To counteract this, steer partially towards your opponent and not directly towards the powerup.

Not all powerups have equal value. It is important to know which powerups are worth burning your resources over to get.

KWdNPb.png
A Healing Potion. Restores 25 health. The weakest of the potions and not worth getting into a fight over.
zfbwSs.png
A Greater Healing Potion. Restores 40 health. Worth prioritizing when you are low on health.
RDi4qE.png
A Mana Potion. Restores 60 mana. Situational, but can be quite powerful, when you are low on mana.
6SlltR.png
A Super Potion. Instantly restores the hero back to full health and mana. These can be game-deciding!
2dhnJo.png
A Minor Particle Pack. Contains two rolls of random particles. Always worth picking up and fighting over.
Puz5Ve.png
A Greater Particle Pack. Contains five rolls of random particles. Drop everything else you're doing when you see these!
moxRdV.png
An HEV Tunic. Reduces all damage taken by 10%. One of the best permanent items. Like all permanents, they have the most value if picked up early in the match.
GlOiVd.png
An Elvish Accelerator. Increases particle launch velocity by 15%. Similar to the HEV Tunic in terms of power.
eZb4hi.png
A Control Rod. Increases mana regeneration by 0.4. Useful for some heroes, but not as game-changing as other permanents.
8NaqVI.png
A pair of Space Slippers. Increases acceleration by 25 and max speed by 40. A great pickup, especially at the beginning of the match.
nFR5oe.png
A Carbon Collector. Increases health regeneration by 0.4. A useful pickup, but not as powerful as other permanents.
fwBz06.png
A Chrono Key. Reduces ability cooldowns by 25%. A very useful pickup for many heroes.


RbeQz1.png


3. Conserve your ammunition

In most situations, it is only correct to start blasting at an opponent when you have a reasonable chance to kill him or her with the ammo you have available. When the opponent is at 100% health and you have 5 electrons, there is no point in going for an attack, because the damage you do will likely be nullified by the opponent picking up a healing potion. Instead, it is a better strategy to conserve your ammo and prioritize survival and picking up additional packs.

The value of particles drops significantly when you are at or close to the carrying capacity. Not only will an additional pickup be wasted, you also lose a portion of those particles should you die.

The value of different particle types also greatly varies. While electrons and positrons are throwaway particles that can be spammed with abandon, taurons are much more precious. Ideally, you always want to get secondary knockback-damage out of your taurons in addition to the contact damage.

Another reason to conserve ammo is that you might initially misjudge the particle trajectory. Shoot particles in small bursts, see if you land a hit, then adjust your angle accordingly for the next burst.


RbeQz1.png


4. Aimed Shots or Brute Force?

uxP9tY.gif

One way to assure that your particles hit is by launching them in melee range. The downsides are that the damage is reduced by 30% and the lightning jumps over to you, damaging your hero as well. However, if you have more health than the opponent, you can simply tank the damage and then try to find healing potions to heal up again. This will guarantee the kill as there is next to no counterplay.

Another method is to approach the opponent, start blasting, but come to a stop just outside of the melee range. This will protect you from the jump-over lightnings, but potentially give the opponent the opportunity to escape as well as the ability to use defensive tools such as jigg's bosons.

When you're blasting while moving towards the opponent, you have to watch out for jigg's bosons, which could throw your particles back at you, making you run into them.

A long-range shot with electrons or positrons is most often only feasible when the movement of the opponent is severely restricted or you have an ability that helps your particles connect, such as the Sylvan Ranger's Hunter's Mark.


RbeQz1.png


5. Learn one Hero

If you're not yet fully comfortable with the basics of the game, it might be a good idea to reduce the complexity and focus on playing only a single hero. Try to find one hero that you like, then exclusively play this hero until you have the fundamentals down. Even a veteran of Particle Party might require some time to get comfortable with a new hero he or she has never played before.

RbeQz1.png


6. Practice against Xen

"You asked for it!"

Xen is the best practice partner from among the available bots. The Arcane Prodigy is an offensive and defensive powerhouse, but lacks mobility and disables. In order to beat her, you have to react fast to her relentless assaults and use the tools you have available to defend yourself. Dominate her by denying as many powerups as possible and take control of the game.

Xen has access to these four abilities:

LXUfqR.png
Arcane Barrage: Increases the launch velocity of Xen's particles by 60%. Quickly react with jigg's bosons or get away from her until the buff runs out.
2lvJ7f.png
Charge Up: Xen will start using this ability on Silver difficulty and higher, either on you or herself, depending on the game mode. If used on you, immediately stop launching electrons as your positive charge will attract them. Get away from all environmental electrons until the buff runs out. Evade incoming electrons by moving sideways. Jigg's bosons are not a reliable tool in this situation.
NXjnmz.png
Absorption Field: Xen will use this ability when under attack. While channeling, it makes her immune to all particles and converts incoming particles into mana. Stop attacking her and move into the optimal position for when she stops channeling or simply fall back and pick up more powerups.
iF8J70.png
Unstable Vortex: Xen will use this ability both when threatened and when attempting to go for a kill. It creates an explosion that pushes away all nearby particles. Xen will use this explosion as a ramp to launch super-fast particles. Immediately stop attacking and get your defensive abilities ready.

RbeQz1.png


7. Creating Collisions

XQH0Ik.gif

This tip is mostly targeted at objective games. When trying to make a collision happen, in game modes such as Feeding Frenzy or Tiny Creators, start by eliminating the particle's speed perpendicular to the black hole or your planet. Then, depending on the situation, you can give it another push or let gravity do the work for you. If you haven't slowed down the particle enough and pull it towards its collision partner, it will sling right past it.

This means that you have to get behind the particle to use gluons and in front of it to use jigg's bosons.



CHANGELOG


RbeQz1.png

Version 2.6
  • New hero - Voidslime.
  • In the hero selection, heroes are now divided into simple, advanced, and expert.
  • Improved UI layout.
  • Enabled camera zoom.
  • New charged particle impact effect.
  • Nerfs to Battle vs. Space Jaina.
  • Balance changes to many game modes.

Version 2.5
  • New game mode: Space Jaina - A co-op game in which both teams join forces and face Space Jaina across various arenas, attempting to bring her down before the timer runs out.
  • New bot: Mystery, playing the Dreamwalker.
  • Game mode tutorials are now fully voiced.
  • Players now have increased acceleration and deceleration on Rookie and Novice difficulty.

Version 2.4
  • Revamped and simplified the singleplayer mode.
  • A fifth difficulty level has been added.
  • Players now always spawn with at least 5 (Q)-particles.

Version 2.3
  • New hero - Amani Invoker
  • Added a range indicator circle during spellcast.
  • The tutorial is now acted and narrated by Space Jaina with an A.I. generated voice.
  • You can now adjust the hero selection style at the beginning of the game. You can choose between Default, Hidden, Draft, and All Random.
  • Self-cast and alternate cast have been moved from (Space-Bar) to (Shift). Unit-targeted debuff spells can now be made to auto-target the nearest opponent by holding down (Shift).
  • Removed the particle descriptions in the lobby.

Version 2.2
  • New hero selection and gamemaster interface.
  • Added tournament mode.
  • You can now change game mode and number of games played when restarting the game.
  • A player that dies by being knocked into a wall, black hole, or star will now award the knocking player a kill.

Version 2.1
  • New game mode - Quadrupole Quarrel.
  • New particle - Neutron.
  • Added an option to rearrange teams in-game.
  • Added an option to boost the power of specific players to even the playing field when the differences in skill levels of players is too high.
  • Added an option to enable cheat codes for multiplayer.
  • The hero's level now denotes that player's standing in the player scores.
  • Launching neutrinos now has inverted controls.
  • Added a new gamemaster, Mentor Than'zoth. Tips and information are now found at him instead of the assistant.

Version 2.0
  • Intelligent A.I. to train and play against. See here.
  • Dedicated single-player mode with an option to save your highscores.
  • New hero - Argent Knight.
  • New custom error sounds for no mana, cooldown not ready, and no particles.
  • The particles have been moved out of the inventory and new permanent items have taken their place.
  • The tutorial now plays automatically after hero selection and can be skipped.
  • The grid is now pulsating with energy.
  • Introduced auto-self cast by holding (Space-Bar).
  • Heroes now have short background stories shown during hero selection.
  • A plethora of balance changes.

Version 2.6

General

-New hero - Voidslime.
-Reshuffled the game UI. The inventory items are now located beneath the character sheet, making more room for death messages.
-Heroes are now divided into simple, advanced, and expert during hero selection. When you select a random hero, you can choose from which pool the random hero is drawn from.
-The -exit command has been replaced with a UI button next to the minimap.
-Added a Concede button next to the Exit Arena button.
-The camera can now be zoomed out up to a distance of 2000.
-Charged particle impact has a new visual effect.
-Particles of the same type now experience an additional repulsive force when close together (Pauli exclusion). This prevents the formation of large particle clumps.
-Particle visual height reduced from 90 to 75.
-Positrons have a new model.
-Bot scripts are now slightly less performance-hungry.
-Added a second tiebreaker based on total damage done to deathmatch arenas.
-Added an NPC to the lobby to honor the winner of the first 1v1 tournament.

Balance

-Charged particle area of effect damage now drops off over a small distance to the impact point instead of having a hard radius.
-Water and cyanide molecules are now destroyed upon collision with a crystal instead of being reflected.
-Antiproton-induced explosions of nuclei should now spawn X-rays and particles more evenly distributed over all angles.
-Proton and antiproton interaction with jigg's bosons, gluons, and spells has been increased by 10%.
-In Cosmic Shower, electron pickups have been replaced with taurons.
-In Dodgecore, positron pickups have been replaced by pions. Pions have twice the mass of positrons, a slower launch speed, and decay after 3 seconds, preventing them from eratically jumping around the arena.
-In Quadrupole Quarrel, the inner walls now destroy particles on contact. In addition, players should now always respawn in a safe distance to the current wave.
-In Tiny Creators, the amount of elements required for each stage has been increased.
-In Battle against Space Jaina, the Water Servant's health as well as the healing multiplier for Space Jaina have been reduced. The transition to phase 2 now happens at 70% health instead of 75%. You no longer lose all buffs on arena transitions. The battle now ends with Space Jaina's death instead of at low hp.

Sylvan Ranger

-Multishot mana cost reduced from 20 to 15.
-Freezing Trap stun duration reduced from 4.5 to 4 seconds.
-Flaming Arrow mana cost reduced from 35 to 30.
-Hunter's Mark mana cost increased from 15 to 20. Effect strength increased by 7%.

Amani Invoker

-Messenger Eagle cooldown reduced from 40 to 35 seconds.

Gnomish Tinker

-Poultrifying Ray duration reduced from 4.5 to 4 seconds.

Argent Knight

-Taunt mana cost reduced from 30 to 20. Cooldown increased from 45 to 60 seconds.
-Crusader Charge now provides its damage reduction for an additional 0.75 seconds after the speed buff expires. Mana cost increased from 10 to 15.

Daughter of Cenarius

-Aimed Shot cooldown reverted back to 10 seconds, up from 9 seconds.

Lord of Elements

-Burn to Ash mana cost increased from 10 to 15. It now has an additional visual lightning effect.
-Blizzard mana cost increased from 15 to 20. It now has a visual indicator of its radius.
-Fixed a bug that caused Chain Lightning to sometimes not jump to particles and players and improved its jump behavior.
-Command the Elements mana cost reduced from 35 to 30.



Version 2.5

General

-New game mode: Space Jaina - A co-op game in which both teams join forces and face Space Jaina across various arenas, attempting to bring her down before the timer runs out. While Space Jaina is defeated upon death, players have unlimited lives.
-New bot: Mystery, playing the Dreamwalker.
-Game mode tutorials are now fully voiced.
-Players now have increased acceleration and deceleration on Rookie and Novice difficulty.
-Dimensius now turns to get a better view of where the action happens.
-The tutorial now mentions that you can move by holding down the right mouse-button.

Balance

-Increased the interaction of nuclei with spells slightly.

Arcane Prodigy

-Unstable Vortex mana cost reduced from 65 to 60. Effect strength reduced by 10%.

Daughter of Cenarius

-Aimed Shot cooldown reduced from 10 to 9 seconds.

Dreamwalker

-Enter the Dream duration reduced from 6 to 5.5 seconds.

Lord of Elements

-Passive damage reduction now correctly affects damage taken from nuclei.
-Command the Elements acceleration increased by 10%, but particles now have a max speed of 500.
-A player dying from particles that are under the effect of Command the Elements will now always properly attribute the Lord of Elements the kill.
-Chain Lightning can no longer friendly-fire. Mana and cooldown return on unsuccessful cast increased from 65% to 75%.



Version 2.4

General

-Revamped the singleplayer mode. By default, only the singleplayer gamemaster appears. You have to talk to Space Jaina to activate multiplayer mode.
-The singleplayer gamemaster now has 2vs2 bot matches on Maelstrom Madness, Cosmic Shower, and Dodgecore as options.
-Game restart has been moved from the Assistant to Space Jaina.
-A fifth difficulty level has been added, between Apprentice and Adept. This new difficulty enables the fourth particle ability without increasing the environmental particle amount.
-Difficulties have been renamed to Rookie, Novice, Adept, Expert, and Grandmaster.
-The teal player is now red.
-Fixed various bugs.

Balance

-Players now always spawn with at least 5 (Q)-particles.
-In Quadrupole Quarrel, the intervals at which crystal polarities switch has been increased.

Arcane Prodigy

-Unstable Vortex mana cost reduced from 70 to 65.

Argent Knight

-Fixed a bug that caused Chains of Light to sometimes not break when the target teleports away.
-Fixed a bug that caused Chains of Light to last 10 seconds instead of the previously intended 15 seconds. New duration is now 12 seconds.



Version 2.3

General

-New hero - Amani Invoker.
-You can now adjust the hero selection style at the beginning of the game. You can choose between Default, Hidden, Draft, and All Random.
-Added a range indicator circle during spellcast.
-Removed the particle descriptions in the lobby.
-The tutorial is now acted and narrated by Space Jaina with an A.I. generated voice.
-Self-cast and alternate cast have been moved from (Space-Bar) to (Shift). It should now be more responsive.
-Unit-targeted debuff spells can now be made to auto-target the nearest opponent by holding down (Shift).
-Extreme End music track has been replaced with Neve's Crossing.
-Bots will now ignore powerups that would be of more benefit to a nearby ally.
-Removed the ability to transfer inventory items. Particles can be transfered by holding (Shift) instead of (Space-Bar).
-Background particles in the lobby and hero selection now include nuclei.
-Fixed various bugs concerning the hero selection and gamemaster interfaces.
-Fixed a bug that caused the energy fence models to disappear when at the edge of the screen.

Balance

-Proton and antiproton launch velocity increased by 15%. Particles per pellet reduced.
-Charged particle area of effect damage can no longer be prevented or reduced.

Gnomish Tinker

-Passive collision size reduction reverted from 15% back to 10%.
-Transmute transmutation rate reverted from 1 per 0.75 seconds back to 1 per 0.8 seconds.
-Charge Down cast range reduced from 800 to 600.

Lord of Elements

-Passive changed from revive time reduced by 40% to damage taken from environmental particles by 25%.
-An unsuccessful Chain Lightning will now refund 50% of the mana cost and reduce the cooldown by 50%, instead of no mana refund and a complete cooldown reset.

Daughter of the Ancients

-Renamed to Daughter of Cenarius.
-Abolish Magic mana cost reduced from 25 to 20. Cast range increased from 700 to 750.
-Wall of Roots cast range increased from 700 to 750.
-Tranquility no longer heals opponents.

Sunfury Agent

-Pick Pocket's cooldown and mana cost are reduced by 5% for each particle stolen fewer than the maximum number, changed from 5 seconds cooldown and no mana cost.
-Pick Pocket mana cost increased from 35 to 40.
-Stalk mana cost reduced from 25 to 20.
-Cloak of Shadows mana cost increased from 20 to 25.
-Venomous Strike duration increased from 10 to 12 seconds, mana cost increased from 10 to 12, and cooldown increased from 5 to 6 seconds. Now refunds 50% of the mana cost if the venom molecule doesn't hit a character.

Sylvan Ranger

-Freezing Trap duration reduced from 60 to 50 seconds.



Version 2.2

General

-New hero selection and gamemaster interface.
-Added tournament mode. In tournament mode, games are chosen at random and you cannot change game settings after the tournament has started.
-Movement command switch to Accelerate has been removed.
-You can now change game mode and number of games played when restarting the game.
-Dusk Horizon track has been replaced with a remastered version by Mothership Loudspeakerz.

Balance

-A player that dies by being knocked into a wall, black hole, or star will now award the knocking player a kill.

Dreamwalker

-Animal Companion is no longer removed upon the Dreamwalker's death. Duration reduced from 30 to 25 seconds.
-Power Word: Deflect cooldown reduced from 3 to 1 seconds.

Mistress of Waves

-Chromatic Laser is now aborted with a second press of (F) instead of (X).

Lord of Elements

-Fixed a bug that sometimes caused Chain Lightning to not abort the spellcast if no jump-to target was found.
-Chain Lightning cast range increased from 600 to 700.
-Chain Lightning cooldown will not be invoked if the only hit was friendly-fire.
-Command the Elements is now aborted with a second press of (F) instead of (X).



Version 2.1

General

-New game mode - Quadrupole Quarrel: A deathmatch. The voidlord Dimensius is releasing waves of charged particles from the center of the ring-shaped arena. In each corner, a charged crystal either attracts or repels the particle waves.|n|nThe crystal's polarities switch in random intervals, turning previously safe positions into death traps.
-New particle - Neutron: A slow-moving particle that explodes after a few seconds, releasing high energy particles and X-rays.
-The number next to each hero's health and mana bar which usually denotes the hero's level now denotes that player's standing in the player scores.
-Launching neutrinos now has inverted controls.
-Added an option to rearrange teams in-game.
-Added an option to boost the power of specific players to even the playing field when the differences in skill levels of players is too high.
-Added an option to enable cheat codes for multiplayer.
-Added a new gamemaster, Mentor Than'zoth. Tips and information are now found at him instead of the assistant.
-Did you know? has been split into random tips and trivia.
-Players now only vote on game modes, not game options, in democracy mode.
-Grid hotkeys now have the same layout as custom hotkeys.
-Fixed a bug that made the Xen A.I. sometimes get stuck trying to cast Charge Up.
-Maelstrom Madness is now classified as low difficulty, down from average, Cosmic Shower as average, up from low, and Dodgecore as average, down from high. Quadrupole Quarrel is the new high difficulty deathmatch.

Balance

-Jigg's boson lifetime reduced from 12 to 8 seconds.
-In Maelstrom Madness, the cosmic rays bombarding the corners of the arena have been removed.

Mistress of Waves

-Chromatic Laser mana cost reduced from 30 to 25.

Sylvan Ranger

-A character dying while stunned by a Freezing Trap will now award the Sylvan Ranger an assist.



Version 2.0

-New hero - Argent Knight.
-New game mode - Xen: Xen is an intelligent A.I., able to play the Arcane Prodigy on Cosmic Shower, Maelstrom Madness, and Dodgecore. Earn medals by defeating Xen on various difficulty settings.
-Replaced the current bots with new bots based on the Xen A.I. You enable the bots at the Assistant instead of by filling the game with computer players.
-Characters now have stats and a background story shown on the select button.
-Particles no longer appear in the inventory, but a counter appears over the ability button.
-Four new permanent items have been added: Control Rod, Space Slippers, Carbon Collector, and Chrono Key.
-The medals earned in singleplayer modes are now displayed in the multiboard. You can now load your highscores to a new session of Particle Party with the "-load <code>" command.
-The tutorial cinematic now plays automatically after hero selection and can be skipped.
-Each hero now has custom error sounds for no mana, cooldown not ready, and no particles.
-The layout of the ability and particle buttons has been inverted.
-You can now auto-target yourself with spells by holding Space-Bar.
-Death by black hole consumption now has an appropriate visual effect.
-The arena grid now pulsates with energy.
-The shooting stars in the hero selection screen have been replaced by interstellar particles. Those particles are also visible from the lobby arena.
-Cosmic Shower (Singleplayer) has been renamed to Quantum Survival.
-Dimensius is now watching the Dodgecore game.
-The gamemasters now teleport the players to the arena.
-Dimensius is now making a comment about the outcome of each game.

Balance Changes

-Health regeneration now increases at low health.
-Mana regeneration now increases at low mana and continues while dead.
-Greater Healing Potion healing amount reduced from 50 to 40.
-Revive time in deathmatch has been reduced from 7 to 5 seconds.
-Particle Pellets are now on a separate spawn timer from other powerups. The overall spawn rate is unchanged, but the spawn rate is more consistent.
-Powerup pickup range increased by 10%.
-Powerup spawn rates increased for higher player amounts.
-Proton and antiproton launch velocity increased by 25%, tauron launch velocity increased by 10%, and that of all other particles by 15%. Only 50% of the player's movement speed is added to the particle's movement speed, down from 66%.
-You can no longer shoot particles while invulnerable after reviving.
-Wall crash damage reduced from 6 per 100 speed to 5 per 100 speed.
-Each additional player beyond the second now adds 5% reduction in all damage taken to all characters, up from 3%.
-In Warm Up, the length of the reflective walls has been reduced.
-In Cosmic Shower, wave intervals have been reduced and crystal spawn intervals increased.
-In Maelstrom Madness, cosmic rays now only target the corners instead of the entire outer area. Frequency has been reduced.
-In Gnomeregan Cup, chargeless crystals now spawn on Apprentice difficulty and above that obstruct a direct path to the goals. The width of the goals has been reduced. The size of the arena has been reduced for higher player amounts.
-In Tiny Creators, protons and nuclei can no longer spawn moving directly towards one of the two planets. Number of particles required to complete the stages increased for higher player amounts. The arena size has been reduced for higher player amounts.
-Electric Slingshot has been updated to reflect the balance changes.
-In Quantum Survival, the Absorption Field ability is replaced with Tranquility. The difficulty now starts lower, but increases more rapidly.

Sylvan Ranger

-Passive carrying capacity bonus increased from 5 to 10.
-Hunter's Mark effect strength increased by 20%. Duration reduced from 15 to 12 seconds and cooldown reduced from 60 to 50 seconds.
-Freezing Trap stun duration reduced from 5 to 4.5 seconds. Cooldown increased from 30 to 35 seconds. Invulnerable characters can no longer trigger the trap.
-Freezing Trap now automatically creates a fake powerup. It can be disabled by holding down Space-Bar.
-Flaming Arrow speed reduced by 10%. Cooldown reduced from 25 to 20 seconds.
-Multishot mana cost reduced from 25 to 20 and cooldown reduced from 30 to 25. Maximum charges reduced from 4 to 3.

Daughter of the Ancients

-Passive acceleration bonus increased from 20 to 40.
-Wall of Roots cooldown reduced from 35 to 30 seconds. You can now change the orientation of the wall by holding down Space-Bar.
-Aimed Shot channeling duration reduced from 1.5 to 1 seconds, and cooldown reduced from 15 to 10 seconds.
-Abolish Magic mana cost reduced from 45 to 25 and cooldown reduced from 30 to 25. Can no longer dispel Auto-Zapper 3000.
-Tranquility cooldown reduced from 75 to 50 seconds. Reduced the time it takes for the first heal to come in.

Sunfury Agent

-Pick Pocket maximum particles stolen increased from 12 to 15. Mana cost increased from 30 to 35.
-Cloak of Shadows no longer protects from wall collision damage. Duration increased from 3 to 3.5 seconds. Mana cost increased from 15 to 20.

Lord of Elements

-Passive changed from revives with +20 mana to revive time reduced by 40%.
-Burn to Ash cooldown reduced from 25 to 20 seconds.
-Blizzard cooldown reduced from 40 to 35 seconds and duration reduced from 8 to 7 seconds.
-Chain Lightning damage per jump increased from 7 to 8. Maximum particle-particle jump range increased from 325 to 350 and maximum particle-character jump range increased from 325 to 391. Minimum forking angle increased from 30° to 36°.
-Chain Lightning mana cost reduced from 30 to 25. The cooldown now resets if the lightning fails to jump to a character.

Mistress of Waves

-Crushing Wave no longer recoils the caster. Mana cost increased from 30 to 35.
-Chromatic Laser knockback increased by 10%. Mana cost reduced from 45 to 30.

Astromancer

-Passive changed from +20 maximum health to 10% reduced damage taken.
-Cosmic Rays mana cost reduced from 40 to 35 and cooldown reduced from 60 to 45 seconds.
-Mystic Nebula mana cost reduced from 20 to 15.

Arcane Prodigy

-Unstable Vortex mana cost reduced from 75 to 70.

Dreamwalker

-Passive changed from +5 mass to +25 maximum health. This does not affect starting health.
-Power Word: Deflect mana cost reduced from 10 to 5.
-Enter the Dream mana cost increased from 25 to 30.
-Starlight Pillar healing amount increased from 5 to 6 per second and mana regeneration reduced from 5 to 4 per second.
-Animal Companion mana cost reduced from 60 to 55, mass reduced from 5 to 2.5, accleration increased from 200 to 225, and Bite stun duration reduced from 3.5 to 3 seconds.
-Control of Animal Companion has been revamped. You can no longer select it, but control it with (Left-Click). The animal companion will now automatically return to her master whenever it is carrying items and is idle.

Gnomish Tinker

-Passive collision radius reduction increased from 10% to 15%.
-Poultrifying Ray duration reduced from 5 to 4.5 seconds.
-Transmute transmutation rate increased from 1 per 0.8 seconds to 1 per 0.75 seconds.



CREDITS

RbeQz1.png

Preview Art:
"I am Iron Gnome" by gafana (Peter Petkov)

Environment:
Starscape: ILH
Crystal model: Tranquil
Planet and asteroid models: Fingolfin
Black hole model: Fingolfin

Heroes:
Astromancer model: Sellenisko
Lord of Elements model: Tauer
Arcane Prodigy model: Direfury
Dreamwalker model: Nasrudin
Gnomish Tinker model: Norinrad
Sunfury Agent model: A.R. & Stefan.K
Daughter of the Ancients model: Hexus
Sylvan Ranger model: Tauer
Argent Knight model: Tauer

Spells:
Cosmic Power effect model: JetFangInferno
Lightsail model: JetFangInferno
Celestial Shield model: EdwardSwolenToe
Arcane Vortex model: Suselishe
Mystic Nebula model: WILL THE ALMIGHTY
Auto-Zapper model: Shardeth
Freezing Trap model: General Frank
Hunter's Mark model: Tranquil
Multishot model: Vinz
Water molecule hydrogen model: General Frank

Items:
Particle powerup model: Kitabatake
Greater particle powerup model: General Frank
Potion powerup models: Ket
HEV Tunic & Elvish Accelerator models: HerrDave
Carbon Collector model: RightField
Other Item models: Kenathorn

Other:
Hoverdisc models: Azure Phoenix, Vinz
Hoverdisc exhaust model: Vinz
Neutron nucleon model: Pyritie
Animal Companion model: Kuhneghetz
Confirmation model: HappyTauren
Invulnerability Shield model: Vinz
Energy fence model: Vinz

Icons:
Santiago Iborra, Lockheart, The_Silent, Windrunner29, WILL THE ALMIGHTY, Destructor [DoR], PeeKay, GhostThruster, Static, darkdeathknight, Marenko, Hellx-Magnus, NFWar, The Panda, Darkfang, Eldin, HawkWing, Sun gate, Scias

Voices:
Space Jaina and Gamemasters created with elevenlabs.io

Music:
Unreal Soundtrack - Dusk Horizon Remastered, Nightvision, Bounds of Foundry, Foundry, Shared Dig, Neve's Crossing, and Dreams Untrue
Composers - Alexander Brandon & Michiel Van Den Bos
Remastered versions by Mothership Loudspeakerz

Previews
Contents

Particle Party v2.6.2 AI (Map)

Reviews
Paillan
First, sorry for not posting on Friday, but I literally could not get a full house game to test this. Second, I would like to say that this map has improved a lot. While before it was shallowly explained how to play, now there's a convinient tutorial...
Level 6
Joined
May 8, 2014
Messages
172
OMG,such a unique map has great potential.It's a combination of WarlockBrawl and dodgeball,which requires tons of feedback from high-apm-pros.:(

There are twelve hotkeys!? Man,that was crazy,but I like it.

However,I'm a little bit disappointed to notice that some spells were too simple and similer.
 
OMG,such a unique map has great potential.It's a combination of WarlockBrawl and dodgeball,which requires tons of feedback from high-apm-pros.:(

There are twelve hotkeys!? Man,that was crazy,but I like it.

However,I'm a little bit disappointed to notice that some spells were too simple and similer.
Thanks a lot! :) Yes, the map has a very high skill cap, which is something I like. But I hope that it's not frustrating to play for beginners.
Twelve hotkeys might be too much, although you'll rarely use the movement commands. I find that I'm having problems coming up with enough unique spells for heroes if each hero has that many, so I might reduce the number of hero specific spells to 3.

Which spells do you think are too similar?
 
These four common spells:
View attachment 323161

In my opinion,their trajectories were too straight though their speed and effects were different from each other.
Oh, in Warm Up mode, I just wanted to introduce all the basic particles so that players can have a feeling for how they behave. To make the game mode interesting, you would probably need only the electron and the higgs boson. The other two particles don't do anything special. But they might do something special in other game modes. In Cosmic Shower, the positron can penetrate a crystal generator, while the electron cannot. But on the open field, the positron never reaches the opponent because it gets annihilated by stray electrons very quickly.

The neutrino is a bit useless, but I think that can be fixed by changing the numbers.

And I plan to add more exotic stuff in later game modes: Black holes, felectrons (electrons corrupted by fel magic :D ) etc.
 
i tried playing this a few days ago and it wouldn't start because some people couldn't pick a hero.
I intended that every hero can be played only once, but because there are so few heroes right now, I disabled this when I increased the player amount to 6. It seems I didn't do it properly :oops:. Apologies, it should be fixed now.
 
Level 18
Joined
Jan 22, 2011
Messages
3,979
The map looks good and have some interesting mechanics, but after a short test it was clear to me at least that it needs more polishing, here are my thoughs:
How to play is not really explained. While I discovered that throwing particles to others make an atom and add velocity, this is vaguely explained to say the least. Half of the time I and fellow testers didn't even knew what was going to happen to the ball.
In football minigame after a goal the players froze and we were unable to move.

Overall the map has potential but needs more work
Set to AWAITING UPDATE
======================================================================

Always check/recheck the Map Submission Rules! (Map Submission Rules)

These will help make a better description:


Screenshots could attract more players to download your work. Make the best of them.

A credits list is required where the names of the resource (models, skins, icons, spells, sound etc.) authors are mentioned along with the specific resource. It would be a luxury to have links leading to the used resources. Credits in the Quest Log would be appreciated.

A changelog in the first post would be helpful to reviewers and notify fans about the newest implementations to your map.

If you want more reviews, come here:
The Grand Review Exchange!
 

Deleted member 247165

D

Deleted member 247165

Totally a cool and interactive map. :plol:
 
Level 7
Joined
Jan 1, 2014
Messages
81
How did you steal my map from my computer? You have only change skins but used my triggers.
have you access to my files.

I had file which had demo of this map (on the video):
released on my computer february 2019, how did you get that idea and file which was totally unique?


Nvm I dont think you stole it but how the hell you got the similar idea? I tought I was completely original.
 
Last edited:
How did you steal my map from my computer? You have only change skins but used my triggers.
have you access to my files.

Nvm I dont think you stole it but how the hell you got the similar idea? I tought I was completely original.
Well, I don't really understand what's going on in that video, but I do like Saltwater :plol:. The particles are shooting lightnings to build the walls?

I had the idea of making a particle physics based game for a decade or so. Tried it as a card game, that didn't work, as a board game, that didn't work either. This is my third try.
 
Level 7
Joined
Jan 1, 2014
Messages
81
Well, I don't really understand what's going on in that video, but I do like Saltwater :plol:. The particles are shooting lightnings to build the walls?

I had the idea of making a particle physics based game for a decade or so. Tried it as a card game, that didn't work, as a board game, that didn't work either. This is my third try.

So weird bro, I always get overprotective if i have created something that i am proud of. Then first i dont want to see is similar map than mine, but yes i have not simulated particle physics in 2d space, only i have simulated planet movements in the past.
 
Level 20
Joined
Feb 23, 2014
Messages
1,265
@Wiizer - it is completely possible for two people to independently come up with a similar or even the same idea. Heck, sometimes even scientists who made actual scientific discoveries run into situations where two or more teams were working on the same stuff :D
 
Level 7
Joined
Jan 1, 2014
Messages
81
@Wiizer - it is completely possible for two people to independently come up with a similar or even the same idea. Heck, sometimes even scientists who made actual scientific discoveries run into situations where two or more teams were working on the same stuff :D
I know, some micro messages that we get from anywhere can work as inspiration for us and make us thing that we have come up with a completely unique idea. Hell even it is possible someone has readed or did same things I did to use particles on their maps with small cage, all things are possible even monitoring my pc use is possible because there is no way for me to detect if it happened or not since i have not invented windows so i have to only trust those who are in power and could actually do it without notice.

In the past it used to make me really worthless and crappy knowing that I could never come up with an original idea because i suffered from negative self image, and wanted people to notice me or my creations.
 
If you have a similar starting point (in this case a map based on particle physics), if you're competent, you're often gonna end up at a similar place at the end, because there are an infinite number of ways to do something wrong, while only a few ways to do something right.

For example, in nature, if you have two separated, but similar biotopes, the species that evolve there are often very similar, but none of the species "copied" from the other.
 
Level 18
Joined
Jan 22, 2011
Messages
3,979
First, sorry for not posting on Friday, but I literally could not get a full house game to test this.
Second, I would like to say that this map has improved a lot. While before it was shallowly explained how to play, now there's a convinient tutorial for it. Also, no game breaking bugs have been found as of this review.
My only note would be that the tutorial bombards you with too much information at the same time, but it's manageable and you don't even need to retain it all, only the basics of particle behavior and spell interaction with particles.

With all this in mind, I see no reason to keep this map pending.
Set to APPROVED
======================================================================

Always check/recheck the Map Submission Rules! (Map Submission Rules)

These will help make a better description:


Screenshots could attract more players to download your work. Make the best of them.

A credits list is required where the names of the resource (models, skins, icons, spells, sound etc.) authors are mentioned along with the specific resource. It would be a luxury to have links leading to the used resources. Credits in the Quest Log would be appreciated.

A changelog in the first post would be helpful to reviewers and notify fans about the newest implementations to your map.

If you want more reviews, come here:
The Grand Review Exchange!
 
Last edited:
Thanks alot!
My only note would be that the tutorial bombards you with too much information at the same time, but it's manageable and you don't even need to retain it all, only the basics of particle behavior and spell interaction with particles.
There are two ways I could go. I could remove parts of the tutorial to make it shorter and have the players figure out the omitted stuff on their own, and/or I could reduce the speed of the tutorial so that you have more time to process it. What's better?
 
Any hopes for singleplayer?
Yes, I have a few ideas. I definitely want to make a sandbox mode. Another option is to make a single-player variant of the survival games, where the task is to survive as long as possible. I would probably have to create a hero that's designed for single-player, with no PvP abilities.

Did you have something like that in mind or did you have any other ideas?
 
Well, if you could add bots which would be a pain, but various game modes would be a really good idea.
I did not really think about anything else, sadly.
There are bots available for Warm Up mode, but I know that's not very exciting. Teaching them to play the minigames seems too much of an effort to me for too low of a benefit. A dedicated single-player game mode I think is the better way to go.
 
Big Update!
  • New, fully customized UI - no more weird hero portraits clipping the frame.
  • Two new game modes - Dodgecore, a deathmatch, and Feeding Frenzy, a new objective game.
  • Improved visuals and audio - less clutter and more useful feedback, such as wound sounds when your own character is hit.
  • New hero - the Gnomish Tinker.
  • New powerups.
With the multiplayer content at a good place, I can start working on some singleplayer content, which has been asked for. Unless the new patch completely breaks the map and makes all the work for nothing... :( I guess better wait for an update on the custom terrain tile front.
 
Last edited:
Level 7
Joined
Jun 19, 2017
Messages
139
A well-made and polished project. I may say it's unique in terms of gameplay because I haven't seen a similar map so far (I'm still wondering where you got the idea from).:grin:
The gameplay is simple, yet requires a high level of skill. The combination of having to predict your movement while evading surrounding particles and "skill-shooting" the enemy is quite a task. The interface is really simplified and intuitive; everything you need to know is arranged and explained with short tooltips and tutorials. There is a completely high-functioning AI (too high, if you ask me).:vw_unimpressed:My advice is that you make an easier, dummy-like difficulty for noob players like me, so they don't get easily discouraged.:xxd:

Pretty much that's it...:infl_thumbs_up:
 
A well-made and polished project. I may say it's unique in terms of gameplay because I haven't seen a similar map so far (I'm still wondering where you got the idea from).:grin:
Thank you very much! I wanted to do a quantum-based game for quite a while. I explored card and board games, where you had to collect different particles to build the ones you need. But those ideas weren't that great. I made the engine for Particle Party at first just as a quasi tech-demo, but it was fun to play the prototype, so I made it into an actual game. But soon it was clear that shooting each other is a lot more fun than collecting particles, so that's where the focus shifted to :D .

For anyone reading this, the A.I. King Valdezar is talking about is not yet implemented on the hiveworkshop version, but it will be soon. A massive update is coming! It will be lit :goblin_jawdrop:
 
Level 4
Joined
Aug 16, 2019
Messages
28
I’ve tried out the map several times now and it’s certainly something special. Very advanced with it’s own particle physics system and many different ways for particles to interact. There’s a plethora of fancy modes and several heroes with cool (if sometimes very situational) abilities. The map is certainly fun to play together with a few people in multiplayer, particularly in the more chaotic modes, and it even has some single-player content as well.

One thing that I found fairly counter-intuitive, however, is that your particles and hero abilities are ”reversed” on the keyboard compared to on screen, so that your hero abilities are on the top row on screen, but on the second row of the keyboard (ASDF). For me at least it has it has made it pretty hard to get a hang of the hotkeys and I still missclick a bit because of it. Another little thing I’m missing a bit is the ability to adjust the length of the mini-games. They can sometimes feel a bit long for mini-games and at least personally I think I enjoy shorter rounds more.

Like K.V. and Ballonskipper I’m also one of the lucky few who have been testing the beta with the soon-to-be infamous AI and it works really well and is super impressive. One thing to note is that currently the difference in skill between the 5 difficulties seems to fairly modest since they’re all really tough. I played against Copper and Platinum and both kicked my ass; Platinum certainly more so, but it didn’t feel like 4 difficulties of difference, so to speak. Platinum is probably just fine as is, but it would be very welcome if the lower difficulties were made easier to please the casuals such as myself.

But yeah it’s definitely a cool map, tough to learn and tougher to master, but maybe I’ll eventually make it to ”learn”.
 
Thank you both very much!

One thing that I found fairly counter-intuitive, however, is that your particles and hero abilities are ”reversed” on the keyboard compared to on screen, so that your hero abilities are on the top row on screen, but on the second row of the keyboard (ASDF). For me at least it has it has made it pretty hard to get a hang of the hotkeys and I still missclick a bit because of it.
:plol: This is pretty funny! I was just talking with @StormKnight about this as he was complaining about the same issue. My rationale for doing it this way was that Q,W,E,R is the bottom row in most AoS maps and similar maps, and if there are additional abilities, they're often D or F and in the row above. So it made sense to me to have an inverted grid. But I told him that if there's another person who complains about this, I will change it, and then 30 minutes later I read your post. :plol:

Another little thing I’m missing a bit is the ability to adjust the length of the mini-games. They can sometimes feel a bit long for mini-games and at least personally I think I enjoy shorter rounds more.
Good idea! Also enable it to alter it in the opposite direction if you just wanna jam Maelstrom Madness for hours on end like you would jam Deck 16 back in the days.

Like K.V. and Ballonskipper I’m also one of the lucky few who have been testing the beta with the soon-to-be infamous AI and it works really well and is super impressive. One thing to note is that currently the difference in skill between the 5 difficulties seems to fairly modest since they’re all really tough. I played against Copper and Platinum and both kicked my ass; Platinum certainly more so, but it didn’t feel like 4 difficulties of difference, so to speak. Platinum is probably just fine as is, but it would be very welcome if the lower difficulties were made easier to please the casuals such as myself.
After spending countless hours testing against the Platinum A.I., which is basically equivalent to training under 100 times Earth's gravity, I can no longer relate to how a beginner experiences the A.I.. That's why it's great to have beta testers such as you and @K.V. to tell me these things.

I am surprised, however, that you think that the difference between the difficulties is modest, because when I let two A.I.s play against each other, the one with the higher difficulty will dominate the lower one, even if they're just one apart. Nonetheless, I identified a few areas where their behavior is still too inhuman and made some adjustments there. Specifically, their reaction to spawning powerups was quite fast and the A.I. now takes a hefty 3 seconds on Copper difficulty to even recognize that a powerup has spawned.

During my playtests against the A.I.s, I realized that denying powerups is very important at a high skill level. The balance changes I did leading up to this version all focused on buffing all heroes except one, the Arcane Prodigy, because I felt like she was far superior to the other heroes. She is a defensive and offensive powerhouse, able to launch super-fast particles with several abilities, while the other heroes' abilities often are quite situational and hard to use. But now I realize that, at a high level, the Arcane Prodigy is just... not very good. You lack mobility and control abilities, and you just get dominated by the more mobile characters who yoink every powerup in front of you while you can't do much about it. Anyway, just some random trivia I thought might be interesting.

Thanks again for the review! Update is arriving on hiveworkshop very soon. :goblin_jawdrop:
 
GIANT UPDATE

Alright, the much hyped-up update is in! This update focuses mostly on introducing intelligent A.I. to train and play against as well as expanding and improving the singleplayer mode.

The A.I. is one of the best, if not the best, you will find in a Warcraft III map and I highly recommend you trying it out. It allows you to choose between five difficulties. These different versions span a large range of skill levels so that each player can find a worthy opponent.

You can find gameplay clips of matches against the A.I. on Youtube here:

Gameplay Clips

The single-player mode is expanded with an option to save your highscores with a savecode. There are three new single-player challenges, each asking you to defeat the "Xen" A.I. in one of the deathmatch games. In a future update, each of the four bots will get its own challenge.

But that's not all!

Playtesting countless hours against the A.I. gave me the opportunity to also playtest many of the heroes and mechanics. Therefore, this update has a lot of balance changes, making many hero abilities more useful or easier to use. For example, the Dreamwalker's summoning was previously impossibly hard to control. Now you can easily give commands via mouse left-click without deselecting your hero.

BUT THAT'S NOT ALL!

There's a new hero, the Argent Knight, a Paladin with a great model by @Tauer .

There is new eye- and earcandy, such as custom error emotes for each hero for no mana, cooldown not ready, and no particles. Or an energy grid that has now come to life:

GridPulse.gif


There are new quality of life features, such as auto-self target when casting a spell by pressing (Space-Bar).

Since the particles have been moved out of the inventory into the ability bar, there are four new permanent items to pick up and collect.

So, help us take down those bloodthirsty murder-bots! You've been recruited, soldier! :peasant-i-object:

General

-New hero - Argent Knight.
-New game mode - Xen: Xen is an intelligent A.I., able to play the Arcane Prodigy on Cosmic Shower, Maelstrom Madness, and Dodgecore. Earn medals by defeating Xen on various difficulty settings.
-Replaced the current bots with new bots based on the Xen A.I. You enable the bots at the Assistant instead of by filling the game with computer players.
-Characters now have stats and a background story shown on the select button.
-Particles no longer appear in the inventory, but a counter appears over the ability button.
-Four new permanent items have been added: Control Rod, Space Slippers, Carbon Collector, and Chrono Key.
-The medals earned in singleplayer modes are now displayed in the multiboard. You can now load your highscores to a new session of Particle Party with the "-load <code>" command.
-The tutorial cinematic now plays automatically after hero selection and can be skipped.
-Each hero now has custom error sounds for no mana, cooldown not ready, and no particles.
-The layout of the ability and particle buttons has been inverted.
-You can now auto-target yourself with spells by holding Space-Bar.
-Death by black hole consumption now has an appropriate visual effect.
-The arena grid now pulsates with energy.
-The shooting stars in the hero selection screen have been replaced by interstellar particles. Those particles are also visible from the lobby arena.
-Cosmic Shower (Singleplayer) has been renamed to Quantum Survival.
-Dimensius is now watching the Dodgecore game.
-The gamemasters now teleport the players to the arena.
-Dimensius is now making a comment about the outcome of each game.

Balance Changes

-Health regeneration now increases at low health.
-Mana regeneration now increases at low mana and continues while dead.
-Greater Healing Potion healing amount reduced from 50 to 40.
-Revive time in deathmatch has been reduced from 7 to 5 seconds.
-Particle Pellets are now on a separate spawn timer from other powerups. The overall spawn rate is unchanged, but the spawn rate is more consistent.
-Powerup pickup range increased by 10%.
-Powerup spawn rates increased for higher player amounts.
-Particle launch velocity (except taurons) increased by 5%. Proton and antiproton launch velocity increased by an additional 10%.
-You can no longer shoot particles while invulnerable after reviving.
-Wall crash damage reduced from 6 per 100 speed to 5 per 100 speed.
-Each additional player beyond the second now adds 5% reduction in all damage taken to all characters, up from 3%.
-In Warm Up, the length of the reflective walls has been reduced.
-In Cosmic Shower, wave intervals have been reduced and crystal spawn intervals increased.
-In Maelstrom Madness, cosmic rays now only target the corners instead of the entire outer area. Frequency has been reduced.
-In Gnomeregan Cup, chargeless crystals now spawn on Apprentice difficulty and above that obstruct a direct path to the goals. The width of the goals has been reduced. The size of the arena has been reduced for higher player amounts.
-In Tiny Creators, protons and nuclei can no longer spawn moving directly towards one of the two planets. Number of particles required to complete the stages increased for higher player amounts. The arena size has been reduced for higher player amounts.
-Electric Slingshot has been updated to reflect the balance changes.
-In Quantum Survival, the Absorption Field ability is replaced with Tranquility. The difficulty now starts lower, but increases more rapidly.

Sylvan Ranger

-Passive carrying capacity bonus increased from 5 to 10.
-Hunter's Mark effect strength increased by 20%. Duration reduced from 15 to 12 seconds and cooldown reduced from 60 to 50 seconds.
-Freezing Trap stun duration reduced from 5 to 4.5 seconds. Cooldown increased from 30 to 35 seconds. Invulnerable characters can no longer trigger the trap.
-Freezing Trap now automatically creates a fake powerup. It can be disabled by holding down Space-Bar.
-Flaming Arrow speed reduced by 10%. Cooldown reduced from 25 to 20 seconds.
-Multishot mana cost reduced from 25 to 20 and cooldown reduced from 30 to 25. Maximum charges reduced from 4 to 3.

Daughter of the Ancients

-Passive acceleration bonus increased from 20 to 40.
-Wall of Roots cooldown reduced from 35 to 30 seconds. You can now change the orientation of the wall by holding down Space-Bar.
-Aimed Shot channeling duration reduced from 1.5 to 1 seconds, and cooldown reduced from 15 to 10 seconds.
-Abolish Magic mana cost reduced from 45 to 25 and cooldown reduced from 30 to 25. Can no longer dispel Auto-Zapper 3000.
-Tranquility cooldown reduced from 75 to 50 seconds. Reduced the time it takes for the first heal to come in.

Sunfury Agent

-Pick Pocket maximum particles stolen increased from 12 to 15. Mana cost increased from 30 to 35.
-Cloak of Shadows no longer protects from wall collision damage. Duration increased from 3 to 3.5 seconds. Mana cost increased from 15 to 20.

Lord of Elements

-Passive changed from revives with +20 mana to revive time reduced by 40%.
-Burn to Ash cooldown reduced from 25 to 20 seconds.
-Blizzard cooldown reduced from 40 to 35 seconds and duration reduced from 8 to 7 seconds.
-Chain Lightning damage per jump increased from 7 to 8. Maximum particle-particle jump range increased from 325 to 350 and maximum particle-character jump range increased from 325 to 391. Minimum forking angle increased from 30° to 36°.
-Chain Lightning mana cost reduced from 30 to 25. The cooldown now resets if the lightning fails to jump to a character.

Mistress of Waves

-Crushing Wave no longer recoils the caster. Mana cost increased from 30 to 35.
-Chromatic Laser knockback increased by 10%. Mana cost reduced from 45 to 30.

Astromancer

-Passive changed from +20 maximum health to 10% reduced damage taken.
-Mystic Nebula mana cost reduced from 20 to 15.

Arcane Prodigy

-Unstable Vortex mana cost reduced from 75 to 70.

Dreamwalker

-Passive changed from +5 mass to +25 maximum health. This does not affect starting health.
-Power Word: Deflect mana cost reduced from 10 to 5.
-Enter the Dream mana cost increased from 25 to 30.
-Starlight Pillar healing amount increased from 5 to 6 per second and mana regeneration reduced from 5 to 4 per second.
-Animal Companion mana cost reduced from 60 to 55, mass reduced from 5 to 2.5, accleration increased from 200 to 225, and Bite stun duration reduced from 3.5 to 3 seconds.
-Control of Animal Companion has been revamped. You can no longer select it, but control it with (Left-Click). The animal companion will now automatically return to her master whenever it is carrying items and is idle.

Gnomish Tinker

-Passive collision radius reduction increased from 10% to 15%.
-Poultrifying Ray duration reduced from 5 to 4.5 seconds.
-Transmute transmutation rate increased from 1 per 0.8 seconds to 1 per 0.75 seconds.
 
Last edited:
Version 2.3 introduces a new hero, the Amani Invoker, who has one of the coolest spells I've made so far. Check this out:


Full Gameplay Video

It also introduces a new character into the "Particle Party universe", Space Jaina, who acts as both the narrator and stuntwoman of the tutorials, and helps the player out as much as she can.
 

Attachments

  • JainaWelcome.mp3
    130.2 KB
Top