• 🏆 Texturing Contest #33 is OPEN! Contestants must re-texture a SD unit model found in-game (Warcraft 3 Classic), recreating the unit into a peaceful NPC version. 🔗Click here to enter!

Rival Dynasties 0.99L

--The shortest description possible, in my opinion, looks like this:

Ever found it strange for an archer to grab a sword and get bonus to damage?
Or, strange for a peasant to be unable to use a sword, an armor, even requiring a research just to grab any item?
Or again, stupid that archers can mount hippogryphs but you can't just find a damn horse and put your footman on it?

Well, if you ever wondered if there was a map where all of this could be fixed/improved, and alot of possibilities added, it exists. Right here.

The even better news is that all you can think of (okay, almost) is not only possible, it's also made simple and automated.
While the type is "altered melee" (doesn't fit that well to me), you are not forced to have buildings and units, you can have a superior hero instead.



--Now to sum it up, this is not just a map, it's a whole new and improved world!

That is made possible by the use of advanced helpful mechanisms made exclusively for this map.

This world resembles real life in many of its aspects such as people aging up, logical possibilities and restrictions, the environment which is living, active and exploitable, the sizes of units and the environment, and so on.
Yet, all the heroic-fantasy lore features are in: that means you can use magical spells, items and effects, there are undeads, demons, and all the various races, etc...


--That takes me to the next point: strategies are unlimited.

You can unlock new Techtrees (Science, Magic, Alchemy, Nature and Darkness) and subtechtrees, creating and using synergies/combinations between them. You can evolve, morph, team up, train, combine your units to get new types of fighters/builders/whatever for your plans towards victory.


--Easy start:

The game comes with a short and helpful introduction, and a minigame tutorial, so that you get the grasp safely, easily and efficiently.
There are also many tips, infoboxes in units, and pop-up help texts to remind you of important things, exactly when you need them.


_______________________________________________________________

Some examples of all this can be found in the details and the screenshots below, but the only way to really get how it feels, is to try it yourself.

(For all of you number lovers, this game uses:
-15 custom doodad-types;
-more than 60 researches, not counting the multiple levels some of them have;
-Over 230 custom unit-types;
-Over 420 triggers;
-More than 750 abilities and buffs.)


_______________________________________________________________



The world

Imagine 12 players scattered over 4 realistic islands of a rich and beautiful country.
-Trees regrow, animals respawn, you can tame them, and make mounted units out of them
-The day and night cycle influences many aspects of the gameplay
-There are at least 4 different ways to make gold out of the terrain, like planting things and selling the spices gathered, among other things,
-You can find neutral things that can be captured to give you various kins of advantages...

Those players all represent their own Dynasty, and came to claim this land as theirs. They shall succeed, or die.
Rules and standards

Imagine that everything they do, unlike in ladder warcraft 3, obeys rules of realism:
-Units don't come out of the blue, they are civilians who were born a house somewhere, got trained at some point or learnt some technology, became a soldier, an engineer, an arcanist or whatever else, then took his gear at the blacksmith before going to battle;
-They cannot hold 2 swords and a shield, since they have only 2 hands;
-Warriors cannot use bows, or rods. They rather get a shield and a sword (or 2 swords), plus some appropriate armor;
-When a vampire is exposed to daylight, he burns to death;
-Heroes do not revive, for a really good reason (see a few lines below);
-All units have realistic size. There is no peasant taller than a house and barely smaller than the biggest trees;
-All units have skills, they can improve them in battle, or by training safely in their city;
-and much more...
Gameplay features

Yet, they were given almost unlimited possibilites, strategically talking:
-They have access to 5 techtrees, not to mention the basic human structures;
-They could theoretically use all of them at once if they please (not spreading too much in the techtrees, to stay efficient, is up to you);
-They can benefit from synergies between those techtrees, to customize their strategy,
-They have to choose from a variety of different weapons, shields, armors, boots and other items,

*-There is a -Solo mode (you could call it RPG mode) where you don't have to worry about units: you only use your Kings. A mode for wanderers, micromanagement haters, assassins or lazy people;

-And the best part, all of this is made fast and simple, by using advanced automated teaching, training, capturing and equipping systems!
For example to turn 5 women into 5 longbow archers equipped each with Arachnian bow, an armor, and Quiver with quality arrows, it takes 2 clicks.
Resources

Due to the rules of realism, there are many resources available:
Gold is gained by:
-Exploiting gold mines;
-Exploiting gems, special precious minerals that must be found by specialized units before exploiting them for great benefits;
-Planting. You then harvest the valuable production of your plants for periodic extra gold income,
-Killing creeps and enemy units. Killing player-owned units also grants a Domination income;
-Trading with your allies, through the use of specific units;

Materials are what replaces wood. Their purpose is almost the same.
Get some by cutting trees, exploiting rocks and whatever else could be used for construction and this kind of works.
The goal

Their only goal in the end, being to destroy all enemy Kings (heroes).
That way their Dynasty remains the only one with a leader able to rule this country, and they win.

Well when you add up all of this, you get Rival Dynasties.


--- --- ---> Screenshots <--- --- ---



Description of heavy sword.
158794-albums2630-picture29736.jpg


Someone's last King just died, and it was the last King of that team. The other team thus won, and you can see their archers celebrating in front of footies from the defeated team, who stopped fighting because they lost their leaders.
158794-albums2630-picture29735.jpg


Teal sends footies with heavy gears and alchemic gears to war.
158794-albums2630-picture29737.jpg


Teal's achemy-gear-equipped footies are assaulting blue's town, and his defenses don't seem capable of handling these guys.
158794-albums2630-picture29738.jpg


This is the ability you use on your Women to turn them into Archers.
158794-albums2630-picture29739.jpg


Here we can see a Beastiary, with tamed horses (and some birds) gathered around it. They will be used to make Mounted Archers, Knights, and such things.
158794-albums2630-picture29730.jpg


Some buildings from the Darkness techtree. I am going Ghost, Death and Demon subtechtrees on this shot.
158794-albums2630-picture29742.jpg


Ghost town
158794-albums2630-picture29743.jpg


Haunted Shack sacrifice
158794-albums2630-picture29744.jpg


The result: i am using just a few haunted shacks there to summon a small army of Ghosts at the entrance of my techtree-less village. I could use them all at once for a massive temporary ghost invasion if needed.
158794-albums2630-picture29745.jpg


Here we see teal's highly militarized kingdom. He dedicated the hill to troop training, we can see many of them with various gears, and a Spirit of the Great Elders watching over the Kings.
158794-albums2630-picture29732.jpg


The detailed -help menu, giving you informations about everything you may want to know.
158794-albums2630-picture29733.jpg


My guys who got killed in front of yellow's fortifications. He blocked the way to his base with walls and placed lancers uphill to eliminate invaders. I'll have to find another way or bring ranged units.
158794-albums2630-picture29734.jpg


________________________________

Some elite fletchers near a blacksmith under construction.
You can see the archery camp that trained them, selected in the background.
Remember that they were women a second ago. He used the training on them, making them longbow archers. Then he used the elite training to get those excellent archers.
The mouse is over a buff given by an achievement legacy.
66246d1253955791-rival-dynasties-0-99i-archery-camp-elite-fletchers-legacy.jpg


Now that the blacksmith is ready, pink uses it to give his elite troops some gear that fits them.
One click is enough to give all the items you can see in the inventory, to All the archers at once. Yea seriously. Enjoy.
Note that this specific blacksmith is specialized in range weapons, so it can provide the best bows.
You can see a wild horse on the left.
66249d1253955791-rival-dynasties-0-99i-elite-fletchers-blacksmith-gearing.jpg


This is a decently big attack of pink's fully geared soldiers (you can probably see their light shields in their hands) on an eastern town.
Light blue's nicely geared army of archers, mounted archers and lancers comes to save the day (in the background).
66248d1253955791-rival-dynasties-0-99i-bigbattle-start.jpg


Turns out pink's army was not correctly equipped to face highly trained ranged enemies.
He can come with anti-arrow coats instead of melee armors next time for better results.
You can see the corpses of pink's footies and some light blue soldiers, on the floor.
You can also see their gear lying on the ground where they died.
That gear disappears after some time like all abandoned items.
66247d1253955791-rival-dynasties-0-99i-bigbattle-over-wreckage.jpg


To optimize his gold income, purple has planted a wide field of spice-producing plants.
The marketplaces automatically harvest the production every day.
The wells provide healing for the plants so that purple's field doesn't need any special attention. That is why there are no women taking care of the plants in this screenshot.
66250d1253955791-rival-dynasties-0-99i-nw-funny-garden.jpg


With all that gold, purple has developed high level Science techtree technologies.
While he still has knights (in the background), you can see his gunners on the left, next to his high tech weapon-producing building.
You can also picture a part of his heavy assault transport (codename Golden Hawk) in the sky to the right.
66251d1253955850-rival-dynasties-0-99i-nw-high-tech.jpg


Somewhere else in purple's base. You can see he's developping multiple techtrees.
Along with Science, he went Magic too: his armored mounted flying spellcasters (codename Seraphims) are training their combat skills in the middle.
There are other bird-mounted fighters on the right.
The Tower of the birds (on the left) allowed purple to capture the birds to get those units.
By now, you may have noticed that wild birds are flying everywhere on the map. They are the neutral passive points over water, on minimap.
The Glorious flag in the background gives them speed and accelerated training in the area around it.
66252d1253955850-rival-dynasties-0-99i-nw-many-mounteds.jpg


On the other side of the map (this battle was East vs West mode, as seen on the rumors board), dark green is training his basic archers to high levels of skill.
You can see the text saying that their class-related basic skill has leveled up (Skill Up) over the heads of 2 of them.
66254d1253955850-rival-dynasties-0-99i-se-archer-training.jpg


Earlier in the game, dark green was training his lancers around there too.
You can see his social builders exploiting a gem for high gold benefits, in front of his mighty but precious King (he's near a grass spot).
66255d1253955850-rival-dynasties-0-99i-se-training-and-gem-exploit.jpg


There you can see a big swamp with many resistant creeps (sludges) heading for pink's captured fishing mechanism (another player can step in the control point to re-capture it).
66256d1253955870-rival-dynasties-0-99i-sludgepit.jpg


That screenie is just there to show how the heaviest sword looks, on elite footies (infantry).
You can also read the global message displayed when a King dies by the sword of an enemy (as opposed to by aging).
66258d1253960205-rival-dynasties-0-99i-heavysword-infantry-king-death-river.jpg


Somewhere in pink's extended town, you can see one of the hidden (from minimap) best shops, the first panda.
He sells fire fire/earth related legendary items meant for [-Solo] players.
You can also look at pink's variety of buildings, each of them serving a precise purpose.
66257d1253955870-rival-dynasties-0-99i-sw-banamin-plateau.jpg


*Sorry for the lack of -Solo gameplay screenies, i only thought about taking shots in that game, and there was no -Solo there.





_______________________________________________________________

This is the result of alot of testing, criticism, fixing and innovation, and months of work (the first version was hosted on battle.net 3 years ago). I have to thank all the beta testers, who help(ed) me with improving this. Beta testing is still in progress, but the map gives fairly enough entertainement to be played and re-played already.

The official forums, if you wish to join the beta testers, to find hosts, to drop suggestions, report bug, or whatever else:
RD at Dj0zmaps.goodforum.net.




**Unit models:
-General frank, Dark Hunter1357, Iristle, kaycei, Ergius, low_kwality, Mephestrial, Cavman, Talon the mage, gassamzed, Olofmoleman;
-Rightfield for Fiery globe model
-donut 3.5 and HappyTauren for Skeleton King
-JetFangInferno for dark force field (zombifytarget) and Grudge aura (Black aura)
-Nasrudin for Dark angel
-communist_orc for Haunted shack
-Sephiroth_VII for FATMAN
-HappyCockRoach for Lotus
** SFX models:
-Mc !, Chriz, Sew, Jo27killed, Evil buddha, Sansui, Whitehorn, Hellish hybrid, xXMephistoXx, Dionesiist, Bob hoil, Warblade, and Ale tuskarr for item models and other stuff, especially Whitehorn for the spinner
-Thrikodius for Lightning shield item
-Kitabatake for Armor16 (dark armor), bag extension model
-BurninRose for the Wind shaman's missile
-Callahan for the lotus' missile
**Icons:
-BlackRockClan, leetslay, GreyArchon;
Dmazzz for the Darkness
RED BARON for Jupiter
**Loading screen:
-Kalis for the mountain king artwork modified for the preview and loading screen
**Miscellaneous:
-Dan van Ohllus, N00byStance, WILLTHEALMIGHTY, Blizzard entertainment, The Hive Workshop, for a variety of things.




)Player-friendliness
-There is now a -roll command.
-Quest menu (F9) more eye-friendly.

-Improved tooltip for Get Out.
-Shortened and improved tooltips for Blacksmith, Barracks, Archery Camps, Sentry Tower, all Kings.
-Sentry shot, Guardian shot and Rain of arrows renamed in more explicit ways.
-Train Archers now mentions the cost per unit at the top of the tooltip.



)Gameplay

-Village center and its upgrades:
Attack speed no longer depends on the amount of units loaded.
Hiding inside it no longer requires a specific unit type (Women).
Foodcost no longer increases for upgrades.
Increased attack speed.
No longer has Battle Stations, Leave the Center.
Now has Enter Structure, Get Out.
Improved tooltips.

-Mud defense post and other tower types:
Using it no longer requires a specific unit type (Man).
No longer have Leave tower, Tower Garrison.
Now have Enter Structure, Get Out.
Improved tooltips.

*Science
-Bow studies:
Renamed. Now only has 2 levels.
Now required for making all arrow-shooting towers.
-Sentry Multishot now requires Advanced Bow & Arrows.

*Magic
-The Mana Mastery school no longer includes "Dispel", it was erased.
-Portal now has an exact pathing map. This means units can no longer walk through the "solid" parts of its model.



)Balance
-Kings now have more HP than their non-hero equals.
-Lowered effect of Evasion abilities.
-Lowered food cap. Interfact updated.

*Darkness
-Flying Dutchman:
Lowered attack speed and max damage.
Increased damage loss per bounce.



)Misc
-Archer (old version) has been replaced by a new one based on Longbow archer.
There is now only 1 type of non-hero foot archer.

-Modified name of Evasion abilities.
-All instances of the word "fletcher" replaced by "archer".



)Cosmetics
-Smoothened edges near water.
-Added fog.

-Improved SFX on Shield of the Dead's effect.



)Bugs/glitches
-Succeeding the Vampire minigame is now possible.
-Failing the Tower Garrison minigame should now be possible.
-Disabled the Importance of Weapons minigame because of a bug ruining the minigames after that one.
-The Exploit Gems minigames should now have the appropriate Exploit Gems ability.




Start
-Fixed the starting camera (it shows your units when it's supposed to).
That means you can once again choose your patriarch.

-Unit for choosing patriarch is now Patriach picker (new) instead of Royal children undercover.
This way you're not shown icons of heroes you cannot get yet.
There are also no longer any useless buttons. As a result, it's much neater: All you see is the 3 icons of the available heroes.



Help
-The -hints command is now -help (now you can -h too). F9 updated.
-Slightly improved some of the periodic tips, and the -help command is now more noticeable there.



Dynasties
-Max food reduced (now 220).



Humans
-House materialcost, build time and hp slightly reduced.
-Marketplace cost and build time reduced.
-Mud defense posts now have the same materialcost (slightly reduced compared to non-royalgrade mud defense post matcost).
-Blacksmith and all its specialized versions have reduced costs.

*Planting (research) no longer requires Nature. You still need Nature to plant Plagueleaves though.
-Plants costs rebalanced, usually lower.
-Gold from every single spice money increased (6 -> 10) and extra gold from autoharvest increased (+2 -> +4). All fields updated.
-Harvest spices aoe reduced: now 1200x1200. Autoharvest is now 8:00 AM instead of 5:00 PM.

-Granturismo and Nosturismo now have " - transport " at the end of their name, and hotkey.

-Social builders no longer randomly stop exploiting gems.
-Find the gems (commitee) now has lower manacost, updated and improved tooltip.

-Modified icon locations for making new Kings.
-Removed the need for a parent of the same class.
That means you no longer need a Chieftain father to make a Warlord son, for example. You only need the appropriate research (infantry for Warlord).

-Improved bird autocapture: unfinished Tower of the Birds can no longer perform it; less memory leak; no longer enforces food limit.
-Fixed bird autocapture tooltip.

-Changed location of marketplace researches and reduced their cost.
-Reorganized build menu for Military scientist.

-Reduced attack speed of Knights and Cavalry.
-Cavalry jump now has a hotkey, reduced cooldown, higher manacost.



Nature
-Hut now has lower materialcost, food production and buildtime.
-Fixed Hut tooltip.

-Wind shamans now less resources, but more food (3).

-Fixed cost and improved tooltip for equip horses.



Items
Fixed tooltips for all rods, fixed & improved tooltip for meta armor.



SFX
-Removed some useless visuals from: Inspiration aura, Triumph aura, Stygian aura, all Village center-type auras, Capital city,



___________________________________________________________

-Repair times and costs fixed (with the formula) for alot of buildings.

-Reduced/Nullified the lag caused by the whole plant system (all leaks (10!) seem removed).
-Reduced/Nullified the lag from bird autocapture (inside-loop leak removal).

-Fixed Capture animals: error message always shows at correct location, materials cost reduced, leaks removed (~6), tooltip updated.

-Minor terrain changes (balance and cosmetics)

-Vampire base damage increased.

-Fixed some grammar.



Start
-Players now start the game spread equally around the center.
That means now, you need to find a spot to build first, then you settle a base.
There are more than enough gold mines for everyone, not to mention you don't absolutely need a gold mine anyways.

-A new triggered mechanism was added to Antirush: player units are invulnerable.
That solves some problems.
-Antirush now has a timer displayed top right of the screen.
-It now lasts much longer (1 day).

-Some start texts that were showing up all at once were separated.

-Moved tutorial area for players who were in bizarre spots.



Terrain overhaul
-The central island is now a neutral town.
It is now directly llinked to all continents.
Most other links between continents were removed.

-Continents are now bigger (hence the new name, they no longer look like islands at all).
-The tiny islands between continents no longer exist (and whatever was on them too).
-The sea/rivers now look much deeper.

-Areas are now much better defined, with fewer and smaller entrances, and usually wide room inside the area.
That makes it easier to build in areas of your choice, and easier+more useful to build walls and towers to defend them.

-Walkable river parts are now much easier to differenciate from impassable ones.

***************
-Grottos and eggs no longer look like shops on the minimap.

-Gold mines can now be exploited by 2 units at once (2 civilians inside the mine at the same time)
-Gold mines now have less gold at start (8000. Now tiggered)
-Time spent in the mine while mining reduced by 25%.
-Mines should now be exploitable by multiple players at once.


Kings a.k.a heroes
-Experience gain is faster: less XP required for levelup, more XP based on enemy unit level given.

-You can now learn aoe damage spells only once every 2 levels.

-Re-synchronized their attack damage and attack speed with the unit they are based off.
This results in noticeably better attack for all of them (vampire the most, the recent rebalance had screwed him up much).

*Chieftain
-Slightly increased Shockwave damage and cooldown. Improved tooltip.

*Archer Kings
-Nerfed Flaming Arrows, now it makes sense compared to the regular unit one. It was totally imba.

*Magus Kings
-Reduced damage, cooldown and manacost of Burning Spear.

*Vampire
-Fixed his spell's manacosts with the new general formula.
-Bat Legion buffed: cooldown lower at all levels, manacost now decreases. Fixed tooltip.
You can now learn it only once every 2 levels.
-Totally rebalanced Dark Wind (except damage).



Humans
-Houses and Royal residence no longer produce any single point of food.
-Marketplace is now a requisite for House and Royal residence.
Marketplace tooltip much improved.

-Bookshelf now requires Council.
You can no longer sell items to a bookshelf.
-Plagueleaves and Well now require Nature.
-Sentry and Guard towers now require Archery camp.
-Council now requires lumbermill.

*Civilian now builds the walls (horizontal and vertical) and Sentry towers.

*Social builder now builds Stacked residences.
-Stacked residences now require town center.

-Walls no longer dissipate blight.
-Fixed social builder armor (now same as civilian, = 0 ).

-Planting and Gem exploitation are now Instant Researches (this is sort of a new concept).

-Politics buttons relocated.
-Ballistics & height renamed: Ballistics.

-Blacksmith evolution buttons relocated.



Science
*Engineer no longer builds: the walls; Sentry tower; Stacked residence.
-Now builds: Guard tower; Glorious flag; The Arches of Triumph.

*Military scientist no longer builds: the walls; Guard tower; Glorious flag; The Arches of triumph.

-Animals storage now has same requisites as beastiary.



Nature
-Naturalist no longer builds Sentry tower.



________________________________________________________

-Updated interface for gold and the day/night cycle.

-Building menu icons relocated for civilians, social builders, engineers, military scientists.

-Improved/fixed many tooltips (vampire...) and stats (buildings...).

-Improved some King animations.

-Removed the lag created by spice harvest.

-Gunner training cost rebalanced.


All other changelogs can be found at the Rival Dynasties subforum in the link provided.

*Protected map.

Keywords:
Rival, Dynasties, Dynasty, King, Empire, Kingdom, Royal, Aging, Age, Realistic, Epic, Vampire, Gear, Tame, Taming, Mounted, Tech, Evolution, Melee, Ev
Contents

Rival Dynasties 0.99L (Map)

Reviews
10:58, 16th Dec 2009 ap0calypse: Approved
Level 19
Joined
Oct 1, 2008
Messages
1,667
v0.99g
  • The loading screen text is still really hard to read, change the colours.
  • The tutorial is still almost impossible to play, the timers are far too short, you should make them at least triple the length...
  • The what happens twice per day thing is just stupid, remove it.
  • Change the name of the Granturismo things.
 
Level 12
Joined
Oct 16, 2008
Messages
514
v0.99g
  • The loading screen text is still really hard to read, change the colours.
  • The tutorial is still almost impossible to play, the timers are far too short, you should make them at least triple the length...
  • The what happens twice per day thing is just stupid, remove it.
  • Change the name of the Granturismo things.
1)Since i guess the white color is the hardest to see because of bright background, i'll change that one, but the others are part of the color code which helps people to get clear informations in the game...

2)What about a tutorial with only one big timer to do it all? So when you finish one tuto, you instantly go on to the next one, but if you don't do anything, you stay in the same one until the big global tutorial time is over?

3)I assume you mean the tutorial one, but just to make sure, you're not talking about creep respawn?
 
Level 12
Joined
Oct 16, 2008
Messages
514
me too i cant start the map!!! it shows in the list but cant play it!!! i have 1.21-1.24 version of Warcraft III.....

Hmm since Blizz changed (more like finished fixing) their coding once again inbetween 1.24 and 1.24b i think you need 1.24b to launch the map.

Since you seem to already know how to run any version of W3 at will, it shouldn't be a problem for you.

I have 1.24b and never experienced any problem with launching the map.
If for you it doesn't work with 1.24b, please make sure to tell me.
 
Level 3
Joined
Jun 27, 2009
Messages
42
must i make lots of market to hav higher people limit ? and, how do solo earn lumber? i think its better if we start at our own place instead of middle, because people might follow and attack after rush timer over ._.
 
Level 12
Joined
Oct 16, 2008
Messages
514
Yes, just like farms are your food source in ladder (so you make lots of them), in RD marketplaces are your food source, so make lots of them for lots of food.
The difference though, is that you can also build other things giving food, like stacked residences.

Solos earn some lumber by killing, but they don't really need it anyways.

About the start, this new starting position is experimental. THe extended antirush should make up for the danger you mentioned.
Also, if they do that, you know exactly what they are going to do so you can just setup a perfect defense against them (like anti-hero mud towers vs -Solos).
 
Level 3
Joined
Jun 27, 2009
Messages
42
hmm... thats good, solos need lumber to buy another hero anyway. maybe put an item in the merchant ? convert 100 gold to 75 material ? or lower/higher cost.

--------------------------------------------------------
edit: make the cooldown of the stock high
 
Level 12
Joined
Oct 16, 2008
Messages
514
That, or i might just remove the lumber cost altogether...

There's strong brainstorming going on at the forums about -Solos, because they will use a major rework in an upcoming version, and about everything in their gameplay will be modified to some extent.
 
Level 12
Joined
Oct 16, 2008
Messages
514
Not much for Rival Dynasties, because Chaos Colossus (my latest map) had been broken by patch 1.24b, but i recently found some time and determination to repair it.

Since months have passed inbetween, where i only worked on RD because CC was down, well now i'm making CC catch up with RD (the link to Chaos Colossus is in my signature, take a look, you could like it :) ).
 
*Spoiler Alert*
Review:

My Ratings value

5/5 for Perfect
4/5 for Really Good
3/5 for Good
2/5 for Fair
1/5 for Bad
0/5 for Horrible
For Overall Rating:
15 - 20 for Perfect/Excellent
10 - 15 for Really Good/Fair
05 - 10 for Bad/No fun
00 - 05 for Horrible/Disgusting
Story:-, Blank

Quests/Objectives:4/5, There are 4 modes to choose, ffa, north vs south etc. and you can also choose if you just want a hero or hero+workers.

Combat:3/5, the hero's skills aren't satisfying, they are just normal edited skills. Some of the heroes also have too many passive skills, which is in some cases not so good.

Sounds/effects/skills/Models/Skins:-, Blank

Terrain:2/5, the terrain isn't well made, there are just some odd hills everywhere with trees around them. Maybe use other doodads too.

Gameplay/Fun factor3/5, the tutorial is excellent, but when your doing those tests, you only have perhaps 10 seconds, that is definitely not good. But the some of the texts are funny, for example chuck norris will fart and will kill the 50 closest units. Yet if you had given the players more time for each phase, then it would have been better. There is also an antirush timer, but there is one problem, your units are invulnerable but the creeps aren't, so you could easily lvl up. The creep placing is also annoying, when you build a structure right next to a mine, then creeps start attacking you from a hill.

Bugs/Hive Description factorN/A, the hive description is acceptable. BUT the loading screen text is not so good, you've used too many colors, change that.

Overall:12/20, well that's a fair rating, because there are still things that bother the player.
Here are my suggestions:
-Give the player more time in the tutorial phase
-Don't overuse colors in the loading screen text
-Custom skills
-Better creep placing
-Better terrain
-Make the creeps invulnerable when the antirush timer is counting

But i guess 12 is not a "bad" rating, yet improvements are always needed. Yet something tells me that your future maps will be better. Keep up the good work:)
12/20: Fair
Comment: "...good and bad..."
 
Level 6
Joined
Jun 14, 2008
Messages
179
Yay at last i have played it....

Kael is right... you must improve the terrain, because there is not enough space for those large buildings, it's either reduce the scale of the buildings and units or reduce the trees, cliffs, hills and some doodads...

Suggestion:
-Make the aging system disable in single player mode, so if i'm experimenting some things or if i just want to see some techs and custom units...
 
Level 12
Joined
Oct 16, 2008
Messages
514
*Spoiler Alert*
Review:

My Ratings value

5/5 for Perfect
4/5 for Really Good
3/5 for Good
2/5 for Fair
1/5 for Bad
0/5 for Horrible
For Overall Rating:
15 - 20 for Perfect/Excellent
10 - 15 for Really Good/Fair
05 - 10 for Bad/No fun
00 - 05 for Horrible/Disgusting
Story:-, Blank

Quests/Objectives:4/5, There are 4 modes to choose, ffa, north vs south etc. and you can also choose if you just want a hero or hero+workers.

Combat:3/5, the hero's skills aren't satisfying, they are just normal edited skills. Some of the heroes also have too many passive skills, which is in some cases not so good.

Sounds/effects/skills/Models/Skins:-, Blank

Terrain:2/5, the terrain isn't well made, there are just some odd hills everywhere with trees around them. Maybe use other doodads too.

Gameplay/Fun factor3/5, the tutorial is excellent, but when your doing those tests, you only have perhaps 10 seconds, that is definitely not good. But the some of the texts are funny, for example chuck norris will fart and will kill the 50 closest units. Yet if you had given the players more time for each phase, then it would have been better. There is also an antirush timer, but there is one problem, your units are invulnerable but the creeps aren't, so you could easily lvl up. The creep placing is also annoying, when you build a structure right next to a mine, then creeps start attacking you from a hill.

Bugs/Hive Description factorN/A, the hive description is acceptable. BUT the loading screen text is not so good, you've used too many colors, change that.

Overall:12/20, well that's a fair rating, because there are still things that bother the player.
Here are my suggestions:
-Give the player more time in the tutorial phase
-Don't overuse colors in the loading screen text
-Custom skills
-Better creep placing
-Better terrain
-Make the creeps invulnerable when the antirush timer is counting

But i guess 12 is not a "bad" rating, yet improvements are always needed. Yet something tells me that your future maps will be better. Keep up the good work:)
12/20: Fair
Comment: "...good and bad..."

Very detailed and organised review, that's really enjoyable.

I agree on heroskills, i admit i didn't make them a priority in that map.
About the terrain well it ain't my strongest field obviously... I'll do what i can.

Tutorial will be made so that the player has all the time he needs.
Loading screen will be made less rainbowish.

About the creeps made invul during antirush, why not.

_______________________________________________________
@Jargalhurts: Well i need to keep lag to a minimum, so i had to put the food limit this low, because when a fullhouse of -kingdoms wages war... you see.

@pomelito: If you are player 1, you can turn age OFF anytime, just do -na (no age).
For the size of buildings, i have already extended the land over water, but i don't think i can (8)go any further than this(8). You have to think large and extend your kingdom over different regions. You can't have alot of building or massive monuments on just one mountain or in a single valley, because that's not how it works ("My great empire, which stands in that small valley hidden behind that little hill"... is an obvious "not" lol).
 
Level 7
Joined
Dec 28, 2009
Messages
170
Awesome Map, Deserves a review?!

Awesome map :p it should be higher rating.

Although It is not perfect so... let me rate this map!

Please Note: I played ffa and kings + units + buildings

First method of rating:

1) Terrain - Excellent (4)
The terrain is awesome, it is very good texture. To get a better rating for this get rid of a few more doodads so we have room to build more buildings.

2) Fun factor/gameplay - Good (3.5)
The game-play of the game is pretty good although there is room for improvement. You start out doing the tutorial, then you choose a hero. Depending on game type you chose depends on what you do. The game can be long and time consuming if you are in building mode or solo mode can be time consuming trying to find the enemies hero!

3) Single player - Bad (1)
Single player is really bad because there is no AI support.

4) AI support - Horrible (0)
There is no AI support :( that part gets a 0

5) Originality - Excellent (5)
This map is very original and unique as it is a one of a kind keep the heroe alive with a twist.

6) File Size - Reasonable (3)
File size is a bit on the small side (This means you have alot of room for improvement) But overall, the file size is reasonable.

7) Internet/LAN Friendly - Excellent (5)
Works very well over LAN and Internet, as it does not crash for random reasons.

8) Balancing - Excellent (4)
You balance this game excellently. As mentioned above, the idea is choose a hero (from what i saw there all balanced) and keep it alive. All units I tested were also balanced, if some weren't I might have missed them as I did not test them all because there was way too many.

9) Credits - Excellent (5)
You list the credits very well and list all the people good job.

10) Theme - Excellent (5)
Keep the hero alive an awesome theme!

11) Description/Information/Detail - good (4)
add a youtube video to the description to make it good and maybe an upcoming update log.

12) Hiveworkshop rules & regulation - Good (5)
Fits all Hiveworkshop Rules!

Overall top rating (49.5/60)


Second method of rating:

Game-play [3.5/5]:
The game-play of the game is pretty good although there is room for improvement. You start out doing the tutorial, then you choose a hero. Depending on game type you chose depends on what you do. The game can be long and time consuming if you are in building mode or solo mode can be time consuming trying to find the enemies hero!


Balance [4/5]:
You balance this game excellently. As mentioned above, the idea is choose a hero (from what i saw there all balanced) and keep it alive. All units I tested were also balanced, if some weren't I might have missed them as I did not test them all because there was way too many.


Visuals [4/5]:
The visuals of the game, the look and feel is just great and here is why. You have some unique models for buildings (get custom models for creeps/ heroes and some of the buildings) Although the terrain is awesome, it is very good texture. To get a better rating for this add a few more custom models and take away some doodads for more building space.

Usefulness of the map [4/5]:
Other then a couple of tweaks and fixes, I would share this game to anyone who enjoys a slow type of keep the hero alive. If you work out a few more tweaks, I am sure you will get a higher grade. This map is very useful/fun.

Other Points [3/5]:
While the idea of the game is very good and suits the map well, although it still has alot of things that could be done to make it look, feel and even be more enjoyable all over. Although on a good point there are no bugs within the game that I have actually found. Overall the game is working, has no bugs and just a few customization issues in need to make it a 5/5 star map.

Stuff to add in future (-2):
  • Add AI support
  • Take away some doodads so we can build more
  • Add a few more creeps around the map
  • Add a warning just before its about to turn to daylight (I didn't notice it was about daylight cuz i was building, so I lost instantly)
  • Add more time to the tutorials, a few seconds doesn't let you do anything.
  • Add more slots to units, so they can get more items

18.5/25 (from above)
minus 2 for the stuff you need to add to make it better
Overall Bottom Rating(16.5/25)


images



Overall with a few tweaks this will be an awesome map,
Lag_Reviews :p


PS: Nice loading screen, custom gameplay,
loved the custom king spells and unit upgrades and loved how you Love how u supply gear to units! Keep up the good work and i'm sure this map will become huge!
 
Level 11
Joined
May 11, 2008
Messages
830
3) Single player - Bad (1)
Single player is really bad because there is no AI support.

4) AI support - Horrible (0)
There is no AI support :( that part gets a 0


Normally I wouldn't place a point if there isn't a AI support, cause it's one of the hardest things to do for a map, normally just don't mention AI support or Single Player at all.
 
Level 7
Joined
Dec 28, 2009
Messages
170
Normally I wouldn't place a point if there isn't a AI support, cause it's one of the hardest things to do for a map, normally just don't mention AI support or Single Player at all.

I have 2 review systems one with the mention of single player and ai and the other without.

I only mention AI and Single Player because some people like to play single player every now and then, also they like to play with AI on Bnet/Lan if they can not get a full house. Plus people us AI to practice tactics.

So, that is why I include it in my reviews.

Awesome map,
Lag_Reviews
 
Level 12
Joined
Oct 16, 2008
Messages
514
Thanks for the very detailed review, Lag_reviews :)
I shall remember all of it when i get back to improving RD, and do my best to fix the bad points.
There is no AI support planned though, because it's really hard to do, especially when the gameplay changes so much from ladder wc3. This game is supposed to oppose human survival instincts in the first place aswell.
 
Level 12
Joined
Oct 16, 2008
Messages
514
@kazajin: "the game defaults"? What is that supposed to mean?

Updated to v0.99L, changelog in main post.
This is the first of a series of simplifying, automating, and finalizing versions, using the more efficient coding i learnt in the meantime.
 
Level 9
Joined
Sep 4, 2008
Messages
603
Hmmm, very good map, altrough maybe you should make some kind of mode that makes so your heroes wouldn't age? Its pretty problematic to explain to noobs how not to die from age.
Or at least make some kind of notification that your hero is old and you must get a new one.

Agreed,maybe the game needs some modes(like tleno's example). Really cool map tough. 4/5
 
Level 12
Joined
Oct 16, 2008
Messages
514
Hmmm, very good map, altrough maybe you should make some kind of mode that makes so your heroes wouldn't age? Its pretty problematic to explain to noobs how not to die from age.
Or at least make some kind of notification that your hero is old and you must get a new one.

Thank you :)
There is already such a mode (-na for No Age), and this is displayed at the bottom of the loading screen.
I wonder why people tend to not see it, any clue?

About the notifications, i guess i can find a way to do that... like 5 years before the King starts having a chance to die from old age?
 
Level 12
Joined
Oct 16, 2008
Messages
514
Hhmm okay i'll add periodic reminders for aging, slow it down, and warn when it's getting dangerous.
*Yet again, you may just disable it altogether as i already said in this page, with -na (No Age).

Solos will be much improved soon.
 
Level 12
Joined
Oct 16, 2008
Messages
514
Income from sites? Why not, it could make the game more conquest-oriented, slightly like a Risk.
If you meant from other sources, not sure, but i'll think about it.
Experience: probably aswell. Birth speed for units also, maybe.
If you can think of other options please let me know.
 

CyberDuelX16

C

CyberDuelX16

Ah sweet, my friend said there was some problem or bug with the vampires cloak ability?
 
Level 1
Joined
Dec 4, 2009
Messages
8
well i have been playing it in single player lately and its a lot of fun but i was wondering if there was a way to summon demon portals bigger then small ones
 
Level 12
Joined
Oct 16, 2008
Messages
514
well i have been playing it in single player lately and its a lot of fun but i was wondering if there was a way to summon demon portals bigger then small ones

Not yet, but this will definitely be added. Glad you like the map :)

Can you give me a screenshot where you select 5 horseback archers with weapons?
Well that sure is precise :D but okay no problem. What for btw?

PS: Now that you ask this and i look at the screenies i've added so far, i'm realizing that alot more of the content should be in the screenshots, like at least all techtrees. I'll fix that aswell.
 
Top