- Joined
- Aug 18, 2009
- Messages
- 4,097
Searching for anyone who's interested. Triggers will be either in vJass or WurstScript but it won't be too dependent on systems (at least not in the early stage). Kind of a fun and inspirational project.
In the age of DotA clones, but even before, there were a lot of 2 team AoS type maps, which might have come with fair technics and complexity, which however often lacked fun and action in my opinion. I think of EotA, AotZ, DoE or newer examples like IID or RoW. Those are not equal to each other but in terms of playability are kind of blunt, although I have to admit that RoW has improved there.
M4L, the old mapper clan of inwc, I also belonged to, had a 3 team AoS called Terpentin, which I played now and then over the years. It suffers from the same problem by making the game too slow and strategic. The popular LoL on the other side does it better. Still, especially in end game or depending on the match ups, stalemates and babysitting occur. This is why we have reflected on how a spicier AoS could look like without denying all of the competiveness. And we wanted to insert some innovations.
Since the problem exists within Wc3, another issue that should be accounted for is the flexibility of the player count. You often do not have enough participants for your favorite map but an AoS has to have some players to enable teaming and epicness. That is one reason to pick 3 teams, to have the dividers 2 and 3, thereby allowing 1on1, 1on1on1, 2on2, 2on2on2, 3on3, 4on4, 3on3on3, even more without computer players. Additionally, the 3 team FFA compensates differences a bit, which is again better to counter leavers.
Take a look at the layout:
The map is not that large, at the moment 128x128. We aim to introduce a lot of movement in particular. As you can see, each base splits into 4 lines, which represent the lanes, albeit the outer ring is not permanently occupied by spawns. Instead, the spawn shifts there. While two sides are in attack mode, the last one is calm (or reversed) and it cycles. Thus a fluctuation appears determining the working time of different players, when they have to deal with minions and when they are free to go for creeps, ganks or shopping. It also means that two-three players are temporarily enough to hold the lanes and it is easier to redirect/swap jobs.
Ganking should be encouraged by the terrain. There is tall grass you can hide in like in LoL. The inner lanes always spawn minions but they merge in front of the bases in order to promote some team defending. It prevents the minions from stacking and overrunning the counterside, which is a scenario I disdain in many AoSes. Of course leads this to less towers, and a tower in the intersection would be of great importance, so make towers weak in general/reconstructable and encourage the offensive instead.
Every player possesses the ability to teleport to allied structures/minions with cooldown and channel time. Warding is highly advantageous considering the grass and the intricate jungle of 3 teams. You are urged to storm the middle for minions and creeps. Therefore, the time to revive is short but the killer is rewarded otherwise.
Yeah, and finally the setting: Father goes camping with his children in the forest and tells them a story of this place. According to that, on each first new moon of a year, the resident ghosts of the forest come forth to partake in a great, masked pageant. So the AoS is kind of a game for entertainment, nobody really dies, perfectly censured. Well, there are different races or better said factions. Orange stands for undeads and mutants (Naga). Lower left corner in green are Orcs and Animals/Bestiary, right side offers Demons/Corrupted in twilight-purple. The creeps are matching them. Imports were not required yet. Unit values are mirrored.
Rather than to concentrate on heroplay only, I am a fan of acquirable extra spawns and upgrades and misc stuff.
That's it so far. Nothing more than this draft, terrain layout, choice of units are done yet. It is not intented to be a major project. One main goal was to have a playground (platform) for individual hero concepts.
In the age of DotA clones, but even before, there were a lot of 2 team AoS type maps, which might have come with fair technics and complexity, which however often lacked fun and action in my opinion. I think of EotA, AotZ, DoE or newer examples like IID or RoW. Those are not equal to each other but in terms of playability are kind of blunt, although I have to admit that RoW has improved there.
M4L, the old mapper clan of inwc, I also belonged to, had a 3 team AoS called Terpentin, which I played now and then over the years. It suffers from the same problem by making the game too slow and strategic. The popular LoL on the other side does it better. Still, especially in end game or depending on the match ups, stalemates and babysitting occur. This is why we have reflected on how a spicier AoS could look like without denying all of the competiveness. And we wanted to insert some innovations.
Since the problem exists within Wc3, another issue that should be accounted for is the flexibility of the player count. You often do not have enough participants for your favorite map but an AoS has to have some players to enable teaming and epicness. That is one reason to pick 3 teams, to have the dividers 2 and 3, thereby allowing 1on1, 1on1on1, 2on2, 2on2on2, 3on3, 4on4, 3on3on3, even more without computer players. Additionally, the 3 team FFA compensates differences a bit, which is again better to counter leavers.
Take a look at the layout:
The map is not that large, at the moment 128x128. We aim to introduce a lot of movement in particular. As you can see, each base splits into 4 lines, which represent the lanes, albeit the outer ring is not permanently occupied by spawns. Instead, the spawn shifts there. While two sides are in attack mode, the last one is calm (or reversed) and it cycles. Thus a fluctuation appears determining the working time of different players, when they have to deal with minions and when they are free to go for creeps, ganks or shopping. It also means that two-three players are temporarily enough to hold the lanes and it is easier to redirect/swap jobs.
Ganking should be encouraged by the terrain. There is tall grass you can hide in like in LoL. The inner lanes always spawn minions but they merge in front of the bases in order to promote some team defending. It prevents the minions from stacking and overrunning the counterside, which is a scenario I disdain in many AoSes. Of course leads this to less towers, and a tower in the intersection would be of great importance, so make towers weak in general/reconstructable and encourage the offensive instead.
Every player possesses the ability to teleport to allied structures/minions with cooldown and channel time. Warding is highly advantageous considering the grass and the intricate jungle of 3 teams. You are urged to storm the middle for minions and creeps. Therefore, the time to revive is short but the killer is rewarded otherwise.
Yeah, and finally the setting: Father goes camping with his children in the forest and tells them a story of this place. According to that, on each first new moon of a year, the resident ghosts of the forest come forth to partake in a great, masked pageant. So the AoS is kind of a game for entertainment, nobody really dies, perfectly censured. Well, there are different races or better said factions. Orange stands for undeads and mutants (Naga). Lower left corner in green are Orcs and Animals/Bestiary, right side offers Demons/Corrupted in twilight-purple. The creeps are matching them. Imports were not required yet. Unit values are mirrored.
Rather than to concentrate on heroplay only, I am a fan of acquirable extra spawns and upgrades and misc stuff.
That's it so far. Nothing more than this draft, terrain layout, choice of units are done yet. It is not intented to be a major project. One main goal was to have a playground (platform) for individual hero concepts.
