Rpg Battle Siege v.1.0a

[Moderator]

13:46, 3rd Apr 2013
Orcnet: with the genre of building structures for defenses and the attackers training units, this game is a good play with friends or online

 

[Blood_Knight]

Alright here is my second project adding to the HIVE's massive inventory. I will be getting back to my MTG map (for updating) after this smaller project is final. I am looking for any FEEDBACK in regards to this map whether positive or not. Also looking for individuals who enjoy playing this map to join me on Garena if time allows for testing and updating the map. Your name will be added to the top of the credits if you choose to do so. Enjoy!

 

[Mech_Warrior]

Hello Blood_Knight. Wow, I'm surprised nobody has given feedback yet! This map is pretty promising.

The concept itself is simple, but pretty well done, considering that it's a beta. 1/2 players defend, while 2/4 players attack. In my first test game we played 2v3 (didn't have a 6th person) and it ended up not very balanced; I will omit balance suggestions for now, seeing as we did not play the recommended matchup.

I do have some suggestions, in general, though. First, for Defenders (I played on Defense), it seemed that Gold is very VERY scarce at first, and later becomes abundant. It seems to me that this is because of two things: First, the worker income amount versus the unit costs of various units (for instance, it only takes 3 incomes from a worker to get a basic offensive unit). Second, the worker cost versus the worker return on investment rate (200 Gold for a worker, +6 income per worker), given the fact that we each start with only one worker.

I think there's a fairly easy fix to this that doesn't involve revamping the Gold mining mechanic. First, give us 2 workers to start, instead of 1. Second, lower the Worker cost from 200 -> 150. And third, lower the starting amount that Workers mine from 6 -> 4, and then gradually increase the amount by increments of 1. For instance, on Day 1, workers mine 4 Gold, on day 3, they mine 5, etc.

I think the above recommendation would smooth out the gameplay a lot near the start. I will play the game more to test it, and next time I will be on the attacking team.

One other suggestion: You might want to play more with the "Day" cycle thing. I would advise making it into: "Survive 4 days and 4 nights," and then having certain unit / hero abilities rely on the day/night cyclical mechanism. For instance: most unit's vision could go down during the night, except for one particular unit who can not only see further, but can also reveal Invis during the night in a small AoE around them (just a random idea), etc.

Some other things I noticed:

- My ally used the ability Return while his Assassins were on the South bridge, and they did not return (ability didn't work).
- My dwarven airships could not be repaired, because it costs Lumber (I don't think you use Lumber for anything?).
- The tooltip for Arrow Tower should clarify that it's anti-air only (right now it only says "Attacks air units" in gold letters; I read over that and assumed it was for both, because it said "Primary defensive structure.")
- My splash damage affected my own units; not sure if this is intentional, but I hate accidentally killing my own units, personally. It also changes strategies potentially, because players won't want to use siege + melee for fear of killing their own units.
- There needs to be a greater variety of ranged ground units. I had 0, my ally had 0 as well. Even adding a Dwarf Archer or something would help.
- The perma invis assassin units for my ally's Elves caused a lot of confusion among the enemy. I would suggest revamping the day/night system as mentioned above, and make them perma invis only during the night.

Thanks for reading my feedback.

-Mech

<Edit: Okay, I just tested a bit more as the attacker. Here are some recommendations:

First, the Walls are too strong. They are just very hard to kill. To demonstrate the point, a friend and I went into a 2v0 game, and it still took us almost into Day 2 to finish off one section of the wall, without any defender's resisting! I think you should either take away one section of the exterior walls, or reduce the overall Armor or HP. Unless of course the goal is a 1.5-2 day Grace period for the defenders, in which case it's fine... but it will frustrate a lot of new players to feel like they can't even get past the default computer Walls and it's Day 2-3.

Second, I would say the Arrow Towers should have a weak anti-ground attack, perhaps also Piercing, with maybe 1000 Range. You could experiment with giving them a Phoenix Fire based ability, or a weak secondary attack.

Also, I noticed that the anti-camp towers for the Attackers do not have True Sight. They should, imo. We were able to harass attackers with perma invis elf Assassins, right next to their anti-camp tower, and they were totally confused as to what was going on (people are used to True Sight on towers).

Additionally, we noticed that the Mana Regen upgrade for the Spires does next to nothing. I believe this is because of the way Mana Regeneration is done in wc3. Your "35% increased Mana Regen" does not truly increase the base Mana Regen by a %, but rather gives the Object Editor value of +.35 in Mana Regen.. so it's doing considerably less than you would think. For instance, I had level 5 Mana Regen researched, while my ally had it maxed. We both only used our Spires to create an extra worker two times (-400 Mana each). After 4-5 more minutes, we compared our spires, and his literally had 6 Mana more than mine. I would possibly reduce the cost for this upgrade to a flat 100 per upgrade, or buff it considerably in later levels.

I would also perhaps revamp the Gold system for attackers, although adding an extra Worker with every Day that passed seemed good to me. Perhaps start the attackers with only one Worker, but their workers constantly gain 6 Gold per income, as opposed to the defenders who gradually gain more over time (+4/+5/+6)?

Anyway, that's all for now.>

 

[Blood_Knight]

Mech,

I have to also say WOW as well... Thats one heck of a feedback let me tell you! And all of it is much appreciated, believe me. You have definately intrigued me with the day/night ideas, I use many day/night mechanics in my MTG map but never really thought of applying them to this map much, but you got me thinking about it, I'll be honest and we may see some of that implemented soon.

In response to your feedback;

Full response to Mech's feedback:

Hidden

You have hit it dead on with gold being fairly scarce in the early stages of the game, and an ample but useless abundant supply in the later stages of the game. I myself have also come across this same issue in my numerous stages of testing. In regards to adjusting the income rate, I will put some thought into that, and if my new idea still seems to fail I may move in that direction by adding workers and either reducing or increasing the cost of the different units, and/or income rate.

Although in reference to the abundant gold for attacking players it is suppose to be divided across a choice of upgrades, hero items, and the new option that the Mercenary camp has (in the updated version which I posted v.0.9) In regards to defender abundancy, I may plan to add more upgrades, or some kind of handicap by the end of each day that must be paid or a worker unit gets removed. Forcing a margin of gold to be gathered and unspent and then lost by each day end. But these kinds of things will really confuse newer players and info descriptions will be required and hopefully read if this happens... But it seems most successful mutli-player maps are very mindless games with very minimal reading and minimal micro management... The more I add just risks newer players getting turned off... So we shall see.

In regards to many of the minor adjustments;

- repairing units
- unit descriptions
- targeting land and/or air
- splash on allied troops
- abilities not working properly
- attacking player's camp tower

Many adjustments have been made and/or corrected, and will hopefully improve overall game play.

In regards to a scarce income rate during the early stages of the map, some things have been added to improve with this issue for the attacking players.
Although the concept is suppose to make the defending players fall behind very quickly because of applied pressure by attacking players. So defenders will have to make a choice. Either purchase defensive units to relieve applied pressure, or risk adding additional miners to mass defenses for later game. Or trying to make a balance of both.

Although this above concept will very much so fail on a few occasions. Obviously with a game full of new players that are learning all of their available options, will unfortunatley result in a static begining. Hence a game of noobs will likely be an easy victory for the Defenders because they are given time to aqcuire builders before any serious pressure is applied. It may also fail, if every attacking player chooses to wait before launching their assault to either improve their numbers, and/or load up on heavier troop choices or upgrades... Again giving the defending players that opportunity to focus on additional builders and massing defensive structures...
But I have added some new additions that should hopefully assist with income rate and income use. But we shall see, and please feel free to give more feedback regarding the issue.

Regards to permanent invisibles, I am well aware its a bit of a foreign thing in the War 3 world... and will likely create confusions... especially for the newer players. I have nerfed assassins a bit, and may eventually move them into a Shadow Meld or Windwalk kind of style possibly forcing defenders to use them during those night hours or create more mirco with a windwalk/attack method. But not just yet. The Elementals (attacking race) also have perma invisibles as well, even 1 of their HERO's. So this debate is still up in the air, but for now the Camp Towers at the rear part of attacking player ramps have been adjusted; They now have true sight, and a healing aura.

The spires have been quite handicapped for some time, but with good reason. The new version offers an ability to add spire mana for gold. You will see it in the Merc Camp... So we shall see how that fairs to help with the mana issue. But I will likely cap the spire mana regen rate upgrade cost, it was just there to help consume resources for the bland point the map was at. I will mod that in the next version.

In regards to a ground based attack on Arrow Towers that poses a serious problem for the Shadow Elemental hero in the Elemental race. If I choose to add this... I will have to likely rework that hero, or at least change, re-do, or add to his abilities to keep him ahead of that curve. But I do like that idea of those towers giving some ground support.

The basic idea of this Mini-game is the Jewel Throne. The Structure at the middle, whether your attacking it or defending it... Its all that matters. As players learn more about their different options, they will find see that each attacking race (other then Ogres) has ways of getting to the Throne by completely avoiding the walls. Now the wall avoiding options are not cheap options and realistically those options are available by mid game at best, unless you focus right on them, and perhaps you can utilize them by late day 2 or day 3 with decent effects if you enjoy doing nothing for 10-20 mins of gaming. Not to mention all that wasted time allows defending players to ramp up their road blocks for that indirect journey to the throne.

Lastly... I am still in balance testing stages... But I hear you on the Wall situation. I am thinking of reducing the walls even more. They orginally started at 15,000 hit points and 25 armor! They are gradually coming down... But this is an area I am still testing, But you will see changes in the walls very soon.

On that note, I am now uploading the 0.9 version, it has many new additions and will hopefully have better balance, but we shall see. In this updated new version you will find...

I have put a lot of time into developing fully operational AI for the defending slots. The AI is a bit overpowered and very wealthy at this point, but it proves a nice challenge (or learning opportunity in single player mode) as an attacking player. The P1 slot is very aggressive, and the P2 slot is more of a supporting AI that will advance more strategically. If you choose to use only 1 AI defender, the P1 slot will give you a harder challenge, where as the P2 slot would be more of a normal difficulty. At this point I have created nearly 100 triggers just for the AI portion of play, but more will be added to create skillful maneuvers and preserving their troops. For all update info, check the change log in the map description.

 

[Blood_Knight]

Hey Mech,

Thanks again for the feedback +rep. I have decided to go ahead with a few of your suggestions.

- Walls reduced by 2500 hit points (may reduce them more, we shall see)
- Arrow towers now have a mild ground attack as well as their anti-air
- Magic Spire upgrade improved, better description, and gold cost capped
- Camp Towers now have True Sight, and HP healing aura

A few other things re-worked as well, check change log for full info.

Lastly, I really like the gold income rate idea you have presented but I may flip it, and reduce the amount of gold defenders get as the days pass instead.
But income is something I am currently testing, especially for the defenders. But we will see changes soon enough. But I really appreciate the support, and the time you have taken thus far has awarded you credit in the map. Check under the credits.

EDIT**

Looks like your right Mech... Defenders now have 2 miners but only get 4 gold. Seems smoother... Might adjust income again later. Thnx again

 

[Mech_Warrior]

Hey Blood_Knight,

Sweet! I love the update.

I did, however, notice a problem. I was playing 2v4 just yesterday, and two of my friends would constantly disconnect from the game. We tried hosting the newest version, it happened 3x (both of them would disconnect right after they press the "Click Any Key to Continue"), so we tried the old version, and it happened again. We thought it might be my bot, so we had a few different people default host, and it happened again anyway, over and over. We tested on different maps, and everything was fine.

I think there may be something in your init trigger, or else custom imports that are causing certain people to crash immediately. It would be awesome if you could look into this further and we could help you test it more.

They claim what happens is that after they press any key to continue, wc3 completely freezes, until finally it crashes altogether and they have to restart wc3.


<Edit: Okay, I played some more today, and have some more comments.

As far as the actual metagame, it's pretty smooth. There are some things that I would consider re-looking at, though.

First, for attackers, when your hero dies, you lose all your stuff, and are basically eliminated. I think it would be a lot better if you just lost your hero forever, and couldn't revive him. This already gives a huge disadvantage, to not have a hero... when we played your current version, everyone kept their heroes camped at the anti-camp towers so they wouldn't accidentally die from sudden focus. Well... demon and I did, the other two attackers used their heroes and were eliminated in Day 2/Day 4. We ended up winning, but it was 2v2 at the end. I think this should be changed because many players don't like it (particularly new players), and it gives too much punishment for losing a single unit.

Second, I think the collision on most units should be a bit lower, maybe in the 8-12 range. This way more units could attack something at the same time, rather than getting stuck (this happens a lot to us), and splash would counter it more effectively should people choose that route.

Last, we thought that it might be cool, because of having excess gold at times, to have an option where you can "fund" the computer slot on your team, and it will autosend troops for a duration based on its current Gold. Like for instance, I give 200 Gold to our computer, and it sends 2 units on each lane to auto attack. This is purely optional, just an idea to throw out there.

Thanks again

Mech

 

[Blood_Knight]

Glad you like some of the new mods. In regards to a percentage of players crashing, I am also finding that same problem... It usually occurs with labtop users for some reason... I have researched the issue online and have come to a simple discovery that is likely a custom model, or doodad that is causing this problem. The map currently is using 0 doodads, and I do not use MAP INIT triggers. Anything that would normally be a map init* is instead a 0.03 to avoid these very such problems. So likely it is one of the custom models. So I have now removed each model that dated prior to 2008 and replaced them with new models that all date 2010 or later. Please let me know if the crash some of your friends experience is still happening or not. I did notice a slight lag/glitch in the the frame rate once I used -cam 4 option, and I have now noticed that the slight skip is gone with the new model updates, so let me know. Must have been one of the 2004 models I was using. Either the dwarf, the goblin, or perhaps the Energy Elemental hero. Anyhow changes made, hope it works. One down side to the new custom models, the goblin I am now using doesnt have a corpse animation, only a pool of blood. But the model creator says he will update that soon and I will as well once that happens. On another bright side the map size was shaved significantly... hopefully speeding up some player DLs as well

Response to new feedback:

Hidden

On another note, it is funny how we think alike. After more vigorous testing I noticed as an attacker you do have that abundant gold still. I solved it slightly be shaving a full day. But you still tend to build a heavy pool of money in the later portion of the game; day 5/6/7. I could shave another day, but I was thinking of introducing an Auto-Barracks option something similar to what you were thinking. OR perhaps a Mercenary Barracks that auto sends on one of the 4 ramps. Being able to purchase little war parties to auto attack using a combination of units from different races. Or increasing the upgrades to 8-10 lvls instead of 5. Something will be put in place to deal with that excess of gold very soon.

I have already invested a bit of time in the collision ratio of all the units because I have tested how many units should be smacking on a single wall depending on the race to maintain the destruction balance already. Forcing players to spilt their theme if they want to apply more pressure on a single wall unit. Otherwise gold will become far too abundant.

In regards to dying heroes, well I hear you, it has caused quite a few tears from the newer players especially. But as you have already stated, you were still able to win 2v2 at that late game point. The thing is numbers will always prevail in most situations regardless of the map, or its layout. As I am sure you have noticed, even while an attacking player has been eliminated, quite a bit of defender resource is poured into making that happen, and with the new options of keeping a healthy mana rich spire, it is already difficult to defeat a hero to begin with. Not to mention as a defending player I feel you need a bit more to aim for then just survive the time... I may add a simple text as hero is selected... "Do not let your hero die, otherwise you are eliminated" or something at the begining point of game, that should place focus on important micro in regards to your hero. I am considering (but its only a thought at this point) allowing a Hero revive option, coupled with giving the defending player a large bounty for making a hero kill, and disabling the player from sending units until their hero is revived, but for a cost of course. I think it would make a reasonable solution, but it I have to consider each point of this, and I am feeling pretty hard headed right now about this hero situation. I would like to wait till I get more feedback before I make a move on this hero death thing.

I will make a few more changes, and heads up for the Fortress turrets which will be in place very soon. Defenders will have a pair of big guns on each wall side that will be a timed activation option to help shoot down masses on a target bridgeway.

Thnx again for the interest, new changes will again begin once I can solve the crashing problem some people are experiencing.

***Edit in regards to game Crashing***

I have seeked out some advice from the Hive experts, and here is what user Dr Super Good has to quote:

"Seeing how this is the year 2013 and WarCraft III is slowly approaching 10 years of age, one should be able to assume everyone is running the game at maximum settings. If not, they are either very stupid or very unfortunate to be using a >10 year old computer.

Tell them to make sure their graphic drivers are up to date and also that they are running in highest quality mode. Laptop graphic drivers are notorious for not working well."

In addition to this quote please try the following if you are experiencing crash issues with this map:

1. Load Warcraft 3
2. Click on the game 'Options'
3. Click on 'Video'
4. Make sure every option is set to 'High' quality
5. Try running the map

Hope this information helps.

 

[Railto]

dwarven melee units bashed my hero to death = = while the return from the spire was on cd..
anti rush tower is pretty much useless since elven archers got 1000 range
why do dwarf champions got defend , runed shields(god like def upgrade) and Structure type defense?
map crashed when a friend used AoE atack from the ogre catapults
a friend builded around the throne structure like 20 human garrison and i couldnt atack the throne
never allow a tower to bash even if its atackspeed is slow because thye got 1500range and 30% chance i think?
human spire kicking enemies on the throne room is really op i really mean it because he fortified the throne room by building over it humans garrison (really spammed em) and my goblin prince jumped onto the throne and i was hitting it kinda bug that lol and he kicked me outside.

 

[Blood_Knight]

dwarven melee units bashed my hero to death = = while the return from the spire was on cd..
anti rush tower is pretty much useless since elven archers got 1000 range
why do dwarf champions got defend , runed shields(god like def upgrade) and Structure type defense?
map crashed when a friend used AoE atack from the ogre catapults
a friend builded around the throne structure like 20 human garrison and i couldnt atack the throne
never allow a tower to bash even if its atackspeed is slow because thye got 1500range and 30% chance i think?
human spire kicking enemies on the throne room is really op i really mean it because he fortified the throne room by building over it humans garrison (really spammed em) and my goblin prince jumped onto the throne and i was hitting it kinda bug that lol and he kicked me outside.

This post really seems like someone who rage quits when something goes wrong. Now I wasn't present in the games you played, and its nothing personal but the fact that the defending players were able to spam garrisons, and/or achieve their ultimate upgrades, cleary indicates you are newer to the map and allowed the defender/s far too much farming opportunity with minimal pressure applied. If thats the case, you probably deserve to lose. The very reason the map is designed 4 attackers vs 2 defenders is to avoid some of these things you mention. That aside, being incredulous in regards to specific units is a much better way to critique. But if your going to make comparisons, well yes its true some things may seem weaker or stronger depending on what you choose to compare against. Sure the tower may seem uselss next to the range of an elf, but if your dwarves every inch of range from those towers is that much more important. The map is designed to be more or less challenging depending on which races square off, and the wall choice the defenders make. Some games may be longer, or shorter because of this unique race selection process.

In regards to the bash % that seemed high, it has now been reduced. The bash was designed to help balance the 2 player deficit. But I agree it was a tad too much. I appreciate the heads up and it is now lowered. But I still recomend you replay the map, going through each race and you will learn how difficult it really is massing the kind of defenses that you are claiming you squared up against, and spires can usually help tilt the balance, but again they are not fully complete, and I always had the idea of adding more structure damaging or disabling options to assist with areas spammed with defender structures. Although I am bit puzzled that bash dominated you if you were goblins... Its very easy to spam masses against a defending player using the goblin race, and bash shouldnt even be an issue. But if you were playing a 1 v 1 game, well I hate to break to you, but the defender will have a lot of advantage against only 1 attacker, regardless of the race selections.

In regards to your friend crashing, yes it was an issue with the Demolish ability & Attack Ground ability being attached on the same unit. It seems the game doesn't have the necessary programming to calculate, or remain stable while the damage from 'Attack Ground' combined with 'Demolish' takes place. War 3 is known to have many flaws... Thanks for the warning on that bug. It has now been fixed.

Regarding stacked garrisons I will have to re-examine that... But realistically, this situation should rarely occur, where a defending player would be able to even construct a number as great as you claimed. Anyhow... pending.

 

[Blood_Knight]

Fixed the bug with Ogre Demolisher, reduced the bash % on many units. Kudos to Railto.

Working on a new Attacker race; Rogue Mercenaries

Keep me informed of any other issues, feedback, or map ideas. Looking for assistance with new spire abilities if anyone has ideas?

 

[Railto]

i didnt rage quit i stayed till the last day i mean second but i think its really bad to be able to spam over the throne lots of buildings since if manage to break the defenses you will be delayed by who knows? the buildings are hiding within other buildings.. i just said it because it seems imbalanced and my game was 1 on 1 lol because we were testing your map and we played a lot of rounds.
and its kinda true that i let him amass the garrisons i was playing goblins and he was dwarf but lol i couldnt just break through so i decided to rush by a side with the zepelin and go for the throne and found That.

 

[Railto]

undead global stun low cd? lol i used it 3 times on a row after they 1minute or 40secs cd and i won easily. ahh money buys everything even the win buyin mana too cheap at day 4

 

[matt5556]

Pls make this ai

 

[Blood_Knight]

Pls make this ai

This map already has a functioning AI for the defender slots. Their is over 250 triggers which creates a decent resistance for newer players learning the map. Although if you are a veteran player at this mini game, well like any AI you will find its flaws and weakness. Truth is the AI for the defender slots is only about 75% complete. It needs a little more work for specific situations and balanced upgrading. But you will get a good fight none the less.

On another note, unfortunately their is NO A.I. for the ATTACKING player slots. I may develop them later on, but right now I am reworking my other map MTG Magus. But I do appreciate the interest, and I will return to continue working on this map in the near future. It still needs some more balancing, and I do agree full AI for every slot would be very nice for this map.

 

[tomblord69]

thanks

this is one of the best siege maps I have ever played thanks

 

[Blood_Knight]

this is one of the best siege maps I have ever played thanks

That's a very kind post tomblord and appreciate the vote. Keep an open eye for an update in the next few days. I am adding another attacking race. But on another note it's nice to find fellow RTS fan. It seems the more successful multiplayer maps are usually mindless TDs with minimal or no micro. Hope a few others get motivated to DL and try this out. Still open to new suggestions for improvement as well.

 

[tomblord69]

yer more races would be nice but I think the ogres are a bit powerful I beat a elf defender with them nearly with just the ogre battle master
maybe a new defender like golems or something like that I don't know it would make a defender tuff like the ogers

 

[Blood_Knight]

yer more races would be nice but I think the ogres are a bit powerful I beat a elf defender with them nearly with just the ogre battle master
maybe a new defender like golems or something like that I don't know it would make a defender tuff like the ogers

Well the Elves are unfortunately the weakest choice against the Ogre race. I have already covered that in race descriptions. A smarter elf defender would utilize assassins, air, or the defender power cannons for taking out Ogre players otherwise they are in for a rough late game, especially if the walls are breached. The truth is Ogres are designed to be a very powerful melee race, and newer defenders will find problems warding them off if they are not familiar with all of the defender options. Unfortunately I can not control the skill level of players that will join any given game. People will pick whatever race they like for whatever reasons, but unfortunately the selection process for this game may cause longer, or shorter outcome depending on which races square off. All of this is also covered in the map descriptions as well. I will continue to test the Ogre balance, and you may find them nerfed a bit in the near future. I will be introducing a new version early next week, a lot of work has been put forth in creating a new attacking race; Rogues. But I will put forth effort into additional rebalancing as well. Your idea for an additional defender race... Golems is interesting, but if you play as Ogres and square off against a moderate skilled dwarf defender, you will probably have the exact reverse outcome of what you describe here. You might not even breach the walls at all with Ogres if a decent dwarf player stands in your way.

 

[Wazzz]

when i go to play the map, it crashes warcraft for me
i am trying to play it on the latest version


EDIT: just read that post you made with regards to it, i am also a laptop user, so i fall in that demographic... i hope this gets solved, i like the sound of the mod and would love to see your take on an Elemental race in particular

 

[Blood_Knight]

when i go to play the map, it crashes warcraft for me
i am trying to play it on the latest version


EDIT: just read that post you made with regards to it, i am also a laptop user, so i fall in that demographic... i hope this gets solved, i like the sound of the mod and would love to see your take on an Elemental race in particular

Hey Wazz,

Appreciate the interest your showing. Although unfortunately I have done pretty much everything I can to improve the success rate of crash prevention. If you re-read through all of the previous posts for this map, you may or may not find a solution. Beyond that, the only thing I could possibly do at this point would be remove and/or change all of the custom models once again, but all my sources have been pulled from the Hive Workshop, and I have re-dated all of the models to be newer choices. The truth is (and it may not be the solution your looking for) but labtops are a very poor choice for online gaming. They are far from proper design for smooth gaming. They are designed for students and/or business people. Macs are even more notorious for a pile of problems when it comes to online gaming. So if your using a MAC... well sorry dude I got nothing for ya. The best advice I can leave you with is investing into a custom desktop gaming machine. If you do all of your gaming will be much smoother, not just War 3. On another note, I am not a labtop gamer, but I have had confirmation from 2 users that were in the same situation, once they tested the map on a desktop the map ran fine. Hope this helps.

 

[Wazzz]

I'm operating off of a window's system and have tried playing the map in singleplayer to get a feel for what it's like
also, i think some screenshots would be nice

 

[Blood_Knight]

Screen shots have always been a problem for me. War 3 takes screen shots as TGA.file type. For some reason I have tried opening them with 3 different photo editing softwares and they always come up as blank screens. Not sure what to do in regards to screen shots at this point. I will have to look into it more. It would be nice if I could somehow control the file output of the screen shots instead of having to play around with blank .TGA files. IF you could shed light on this, I would gladly put screen shots up.

In regards to the crash issue with this map I was thinking it may just be the loading screen. But I have not found any evidence suggesting loading screens would cause a crash... IF you continue to have problems and cant find a solution let me know, I will dumb down the map as much as possible via; remove custom models, custom loading screen, etc. let me know if your interested in the such.

 

[Wazzz]

.tga files can be opened up in Photoshop

but if you were taking screenshots using Print Screen, you should be able to copy and paste the last screenshot you used into any photo editing program such as Paint and then save it as a JPG or whatever format you want

'cept for TGA. unless you're using photoshop.

 

[cleavinghammer]

Tried it a few times in single player, thus far my only gripe is that it's far too easy for the hero to get killed by accident (for example, when the enemy troops are teleported behind him at the gates, blocking off all escape). I saw the spire has a teleport spell, but it's not quite as enough. Perhaps you could make hero respawning an option (I took out most of the defenders by keeping the skeleton king in the base so he could heal the dragons I was attacking with, probably not as fun for multiplayer).

Also, for some reason enemy troops will sometimes vanish when their spire upgrades, and sometimes don't.

Got a crash while playing against the elves, I suspect it was that thunderbolt spell of theirs.

 

[Blood_Knight]

Tried it a few times in single player, thus far my only gripe is that it's far too easy for the hero to get killed by accident (for example, when the enemy troops are teleported behind him at the gates, blocking off all escape). I saw the spire has a teleport spell, but it's not quite as enough. Perhaps you could make hero respawning an option (I took out most of the defenders by keeping the skeleton king in the base so he could heal the dragons I was attacking with, probably not as fun for multiplayer).

Also, for some reason enemy troops will sometimes vanish when their spire upgrades, and sometimes don't.

Got a crash while playing against the elves, I suspect it was that thunderbolt spell of theirs.

Hammer,

Appreciate the feedback. Although the single player experience will be nothing like the way the map is suppose to play out with human players unfortunately. I am sure you will find this map far more enjoyable in a full human game, I only begun adding AI trigs more for a learning experience. But there is many custom options on both sides as a defender or attacker that the AI will not utilize at this point. Instead many AI triggers are in place to keep the AI wealthy with an abundance of units instead. Human players numbers will be far less in most cases, with less upgrades, or more selective upgrades. I am slowly implementing more and more triggers for AI to try and create a more stable day to day battle that replicates human vs human. But most importantly this map is not designed to be played 1v1 whatsoever. IF played 1v1 the defender will have a tremendous advantage, specially in the early stages of the map. Likely anyone new to the map will have their hero butt smacked before they can figure out whats happening. Defender units disappearing from time to time is actually part of defender strategy and is no bug or glitch at all. If you examine the defender side you will see an option to jump out onto bridge ways to engage in melee and/or aerial assault on an attacking player. There is also a magical effect to recover all units (like hero return) sent out in this way to ambush attackers if they come again. But AI numbers will usually tend to be a bit heavier then human player troop count. I will add more triggers and work on a better balance formula for the AI as time passes, but I highly recommend trying map 2v1 or 4v2 as its designed for.


Response to Crashing and Hero Revival feedback:

Hidden

Hero revival is something I have been unable to really make a decision upon. Perhaps in single player I may implement it, but in a full human game it is not necessary, and playing as a defender slot you need goals to aim for. In a full 4v2 match up, eliminating a hero shifts the odds in defender favour, but the match is far from over. A very experienced attacking player alone can wreak havoc even for great defenders. And their is an option to move your troops from bridge to bridge shifting your attack from wall to wall if defenders build too much on one of the 4 fronts. Besides a late game hero is very powerful and a maxed out spire ... making them nearly impossible to get. Killing a hero early on is the ideal aim for a defending player, but Human players will not have the same troop count as AI in the early stages of the game, so its quite tough.

Regarding crashing, there is a couple of things I can mention. You will find more info upon crash issues in previous posts as well. Unfortunately LABTOP gamers will tend to crash with this map, especially MAC users. I have discovered that it is likely a specific model, and it may perhaps be the lightning model used for Lightning Storm, but honestly I have tested the map countless times and already remodeled all older models into newer ones. And I have not had a crash issue from anyone in awhile now. Although if you are interested in continuing with this map and upon request I will send you a version with the lightning model changed if you want to try that way? But it might not fix your crash issue, but Ill try to help,
Let me know.

 

[cleavinghammer]

Yeah, I didn't see the mirror image effect until today.

I feel the long-range mana burn could be a problem with human players, though as you say, I can't judge on the PVP aspect.

I tried the goblins, some interesting mechanics there. I would suggest expanding them to all races, both having the option to autospawn their minions, and have them start patrolling to the throne as soon as they're on the bridge, with an on/off switch switch for both.

The defender isn't told what the difference between the walls are.

Regarding hero revival, maybe allow the player to continue playing without a hero? The defenders only need to kill it once to greatly reduce the threat posed to them, but the attackers find themselves at a disadvantage.

 

[skelguardian]

That's a very kind post tomblord and appreciate the vote. Keep an open eye for an update in the next few days. I am adding another attacking race. But on another note it's nice to find fellow RTS fan. It seems the more successful multiplayer maps are usually mindless TDs with minimal or no micro. Hope a few others get motivated to DL and try this out. Still open to new suggestions for improvement as well.

I looooove RTS games. Just downloaded it right now, and gonna try it now.
Great that you added AI aswell! It's hard to find other players that want to try out new maps / RTS games / maps that aren't legion TD or dota with me

 

[Blood_Knight]

I looooove RTS games. Just downloaded it right now, and gonna try it now.
Great that you added AI aswell! It's hard to find other players that want to try out new maps / RTS games / maps that aren't legion TD or dota with me

Unfortunately the video gaming world has spread out over so many different channels and options in the last decade. War 3 is old news and that's just reality. But you could download Garena and find the RTS group/channel. That's where I would find players to clash with in variety of RTS games like this one. Other people may know more spots as well?

If your reading this post and know of any other RTS war3 spots please shout it out