Runeforce

[M0RT]

Runeforce

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The land of Kamlesh was once a beatiful and peaceful place, in the times before the Age of Mage. Soon after humans discovered secrets of magic, skilled mages became richest and most powerful amongst humans. In their desire to become rulers over all land, they unleashed a destructive magic war. Countless human lives were lost, and their spirits along with the mana energy released changed the shape of the land forewer. Where once were forests full of life, now the dead trees remain.

Centuries after the Great Magic war, the magic wasteland full of treasures and magic spawns attracts many young and stupid adventurers. Treasure hunters, who only seek wealth are least honored amongst all of adventurers. The Greenforce is a group of druids and asocciated beings, who try to restore the nature of this region. Everyone calls them out of mind, but the Demonic cult is a very powerful organization deticated to bringing the devil himself on the surface of earth. The most feared of all, the Battlemage guild, which gathers most skilled and experienced battlemages, send their newbies here to train them. Players take the role of these faction members and try to archieve their goals.

The leading element of the game is the spellcrafting system. On the first sight it may look similar to Invoker system in DotA (or Spellcraft, which is even older), but this system isn't that primitive.
Instead of using predefined spells, spells will be generated in-game, to fit exactly the requirements of the caster. Every mage has 5 different runes(Fire, Life, Move, Target and Vision), which can be joined together to pairs (25 combinations). The spells can consist of up to 8 pairs, providing huge posibilities for spell creation.

Since the heroes can't attack each other directly, the standart hero attributes are of no use, so they were replaced by Spellcrafting and Willpower (Intelligence stays, but has altered effect), which have effect on the spells, providing further combination possibilities for players.

Feedback and bug reporting will be greatly appreciated, i don't have enough human resources to test every possible situation in the game (though it's a 12-player game, I never played with more than 5 player for longer time (many players leave the game very soon because they don't understand spellcrafting system and are too lazy to read manual))

Status: about 75% of system complete, but playable and enjoyable already
Map Link

 

[Stealth_Unit001]

I've noticed we now have a heal spell. Seems to be around 30 health, is that supposed to be there? No cooldown either. Perhaps are they leading into a special move for each hero?

 

[M0RT]

No, thats some kind of bug, i know about that, but i forgot to remove it.
And yes, i am thinking about differencing the heroes a bit, if anyone has idea, i would appreciate it

 

[Stealth_Unit001]

Well I think that heal should to be able to target other players. I suppose you could have a several abilities you could choose from at the beginning. Might want to let them repick their spell once, but after that they can't change it. Then again you could have an ability special to each hero. Which would you prefer?

 

[M0RT]

I thought maybe a special ability (or abilities) for each hero would be more fitting. But a friend of mine came today with an interesting idea of giving each hero a minor disadvantage (like occasional spell missfires, ultralow movement speed,...), which could be much more fun, but that would make the game even more inbalanced and even harder to understand for new players (which is already the main drawback of Runeforce)

Btw, i solved the healing issue, all of the heroes somehow gained item healing ability, but now it's gone.

 

[greasontim]

how many heros?

 

[M0RT]

I have 16 heroes so far (they all have same game attributes, so i didn't bother making more of them), but if there were any interesting ideas there is no problem adding some more

Btw. I just found a bug, Stamina and Concentration work only on level 1, further levels provide no additional bonus, so don't level them up. The ability (bonus mana/hit points), just don't support the leveling, do if anyone has idea how to fix that, please tell me

 

[Stealth_Unit001]

That would be interesting to see, could just be another mode instead. Or we could have both a bonus and a negative on each hero. XD Oh, the possibilities. I'd also like to point out that creeps really should give a minor amount of EXP in my opinion. And, while I like the idea, when you drain trees that wraith that spawns can be pretty overpowered if you throw in like one power level and the rest AoE. And i think you can charge them further if you lead them on top of a second mana drain rune. Perhaps a hero could have an ability with a minute or so cooldown to destroy a mana wraith? While I do realise this helps the greenforce out more than the cult most of the time, it's rather easy to change trees back to corrupt but its really quite hard to deal with just a mana drake.

 

[M0RT]

I already thought of some drawback of the higher-level creeps, because they are wery hard to kill. Maybe a damage bonus (which would make them "unstable") or negative mana regen, but surely not killing them in a single blow, that would make cult's goal impossible.
About the XP, i just forgot about it, i will add it along with money for killing heroes.

 

[Stealth_Unit001]

Well i just thought with the ease you can pump enough mana into wraith to make it a drake... XD But if you've got something planned like those ideas you mentioned you'll prolly patch it up better than a lazer beam of death.

 

[M0RT]

Thanks for your suggestions, I will use some of them. I am currently working on version 0.8.3, with these updates:
- killing creeps will award experience and killing heroes gold
- finally fixing the thing with fire spells - propably done
- changing loading screen to something interesting (nobody can learn anything from it in the 10 second he has) (any suggestions?)
- changing the terminology and thereby making the spellcrafting more understandable - almost done
- improving terrain (I will provide some screenshots, so you can criticise my poor terraining skills)
- change QQ and QT spell mechanic to sliding instead of teleporting (which doesn't stop unit from moving) - done
- balancing the blue team, once I will have chance to see it in action
- ghost mode after death - to prevent spawning at the exact same spot

I can't promise anything, but you can expect 0.8.3 before Christmas.

 

[Stealth_Unit001]

The only thing I'd like to see for terrain is probably a couple of elevated terrain patches. And still would like to have a anti spawn camp

 

[M0RT]

About the terrain, I am mostly going to improve the look of the map, with minor effects on gameplay. The only thing that will affect gameplay are cliffs, which will be impassable without spells.
And what do you mean by this?

And still would like to have a anti spawn camp

I just didn't understand that

 

[Stealth_Unit001]

Well first of all correction: an anti spawn camp.* :/ silly grammar/spelling. Secondly: you do spawn in the same spot or area after you die? So what I'm asking for if that is true is either a temporary invulnerability and/or invisibility to keep people from just camping your spawn zone.(invis is needed or they can just follow you till invulnerability wears off) I was originally thinking of just throwing a tower down for each team at a fountain, but that would limit you to one fountain per team. And then people could have farmed creeps or lured heroes into it for cheap gold and EXP.

Thats what i meant when i said anti spawn camp. They shouldn't be able to camp your spawn area and just kill you everytime you spawn. Its the sort of thing that makes people hate games >.<

 

[M0RT]

Well, since Invisibility won't work on spells (they can both detect and hurt invisible players), I think i will go with both (of course player can't cast while invisible/invulnerable), spawning player shorter after death as some kind of ghost, which can only move around and wait for resurrection.
Thx for the idea, i will see what i can do about it

I put here a list of hero disadvantages I am planning, you can comment or post some your ideas. I will include them in some future version, along with mode that disables them
Jaina - must dance whenever kills someone (can't move/cast for a while)
Owl - can't see well during the day
Shaman - ...
Ghost - ethereal -> ocassionally will drop items on ground (but they can't be picked by another player)
Murloc - everyone hates him - even team members see him as enemy (and they spells do)
Villager - ...
Tauren - ...
Bleeding elf - periodically loses health (0.5/sec maybe?)
Shade - his spells are cast with randomly modified willpower(-3 to +1)
Werepenguin - will have human form in day, but will turn into penguin on midnight
Deamoness - unholy being! casting Life rune costs her 8 mana instead of 5
Ravager - can hit himself on head with his giant club while casting spells, dazing himself for a while
Ogr - each second spell is cast by stupid head, which has Intelligence by 3 lower

 

[Ardnived]

This looks really fun, I was only able to play with myself though but nevertheless.

Anyways some things I noticed:

Are spells supposed to damage you? it did for me
The starting tips werent up long enough for me to read and understand them


otherwise this looks really fun though a little hard to get the hang of, it took me quite a while to understand how each rune fit together, more descriptive tooltips might be a good idea

 

[M0RT]

By default they will damage you, but you can use TT to make them damage enemies only.

I am working on tips and guide to the game, understanding the spellcrafting mechanic is key to the game and unfortunately it's hard for new players.

 

[Stealth_Unit001]

Can we have the shaman get hit by lighting on occasion? i think we can have the villager have the "Run for your lives the dead have arisen again!" line play and he runs around uncontrollably for a while. That or he could be inept at magic and get a random rune he doesn't want but could we make it have a random power factor? Say it might be weaker or more powerful than a normal rune + or - 2? And just suggesting for the werepenguin might want to just have him be vulnerable for a while during night/day change. And the tauren... Must fear the meat eaters? ok, really I think we might want to have the tauren just have a floating 'MOO!' over his head and he runs over and eats the nearest tree(it'll come back of course(if its not too much trouble xD))

BTW, Huzzah for Jaina dancing for no reason! Are we thinking just a casting animation here or some random running around?

I think what we really really really need to do to get people to understand is give them just a standard hero so they have something to look at reading will not teach said person the game. Visual aids will help enormously if you can light up the corresponding bits of the screen your tips are talking about. I was sort of thinking auto cast could light up the element keys.

The other thing i can think of instead of that is to just give players a chance to vote on going a practice area or not. Give them a -tutorial command so they can have the messages about the tips and how to play bits sent at them repeatedly. And make an enjoyable mini-game or something to entertain the experienced players.

And finally I'd like to bring up the water rune again, I think i brought it up before but i could be wrong. As a main of a spell i think it should still be a defensive type spell start. I recently thought up this idea so I'm sure there's a flaw somewhere I haven't spotted but anyway, As the second in the main rune pair i thought it would be nice if you could summon up a pet element or creature of some sort. This would also provide a target rune main possibility where you could command your pet to attack. The second rune would determine how it would attack probably. These two spells would probably be just a main pair cast spell so this spell might reduce your stats, cost a lot of mana, or something (the summoning in particular commanding probably wouldn't be that costy). Right now I'm thinking mana drain until out of mana and then it unsummons or something. But i keep stacking impossible task after impossible task infront of you, without understanding the limits of your code/language or w/e, so I think ill just keep my mouth shut for a while after this one. Good luck with it all. (just so you know I'm sorta brain dead right now at 4 in the morning but i couldn't afford to lose this idea, this explains why i may have assumed wrong and not seen a mistake somewhere)

As always hoping for great success on the new version. -§

 

[Lord_of_sausage]

Hi M0RT

Just saw your post, and your minimap preview. Took me the freedom to change a little on it. Use if you want, and give credits/rep if you feel like it ^^
PS: Many look more 3D-ish

Hope you like them

PPS: If you got a specific way you want them to look like, just say, and i will try make it.

Edit: Somehow they didn't work, now they do.
Edit 2: Well, i tryed...

 

[Ardnived]

last one looks nice though the blue is ill-defined

 

[Lord_of_sausage]

Okay, so i've tried the map, and.... it is advanced....

I dont think many will play it (was at a LAN-Camp yesterday, we played Runeforce for like 5 min, because the other guys thought it was too difficult to create a single spell).

Some of the suggestions was (Some are a little..... difficult to make... i think):
Having a spellbook wich contains the last 3-5 spells you casted, so if you just made a nice fireball-aoe-damage-healing-whatever spell, you wont have to re-program the "code" for the spell.

Another idea, would be a better description (i agree), i didn't understood much of it in the start.

Also, maybe more modes, so instead of the 4 different victory conditions, there could also be modes where all teams share the same victory condition. So all teams had to change all creeps into super-creeps, or all had to heal trees.
(Btw, i didn't knew how to heal trees, tried to make a healing "fireball", and send it into the trees, but nothing happened.

So: Spellbook, Description, and modes.
Else your map stands for a 4/5 (only 4 for the difficult and advanced gameplay)

 

[M0RT]

Thanks for suggestions, but:
Spellbook will result into spamming a single spell over and over. Instead, for the next version, I plan to decrease overall game speed (starting with hero movement speed), make spells castable while walking (I still have no idea how to do that), thus giving players more time to think/act.

I am still working on description, but I might need some help there, due to my limited english skills and explaining skills. If anyone who understands the principles could write a better guide, I would be most gratious.

There are already modes -dm ( all teams have to kill players) and -gr (all teams have to accumulate money). I haven't included simmilar mods for the other teams, because:
1. It might be hard to detect who accomplished the goal (especially for the blue team)
2. from my personal experience, PvP is most enyojable part of the game, and playing "blue" or "green" modes would allow players to completely avoid it.

anyway, thanks for playing

 

[Lord_of_sausage]

Spells while walking:
Set
Art - Unit cast point to 0.00
Art - Unit cast Backwing to 0.00

Should work. also keep casting time on 0.00.

Else, just base the spell over windwalk or Channel, kinda sure channel can make spells castable while walking.

I agree with mods, pvp is funniest, but you need it to be faster casting a spell. Ill still suggest Spellbooks, but maybe you remove a spell in the spellbook every 10-20 secs, or all spells every minute. That way players can experiment with their spells too.

Btw, found a cool combo on spells:
Casting a 2sec delayed "Move to me" fireball at the target, and then a full out offensive firebal (ff ff ff ff ff ff and so on, i think that is the right code) just after

I like it

 

[M0RT]

Yeah, the cambos are the best. But FF as secondary doesn't have effect, use EF(increase AoE) or EE(increase damage) instead

I have all spells based on Channel, with all the times at 0, it doesn't work. But I found a solution (not very nice): I will store every heroes move-to orders and issue them again whenever they cast a spell.

 

[Lord_of_sausage]

Might have been FF then EE EE EE EE EE etc then

Didn't the Backswing/cast point work?

 

[M0RT]

I am now working on new version, which will include new game guide. It won't be just a load of text, but step-by-step guide, which will show new player how to cast simplest spells.
Also, I would like to include system, which will make some spells last longer (e.g. invisibility - it only last few seconds, so it's not that useful.)
And at last, new combination, TT primary, will allow mages to take control of creeps and confuse other players. That, combined with creep summoning system (presented in 0.8.2) substitutes for classic summon spells.

I am now focusing on the guide, which is the weakest point of this map, like you all mentioned

 

[Lord_of_sausage]

Great That wall of text was a pain

 

[M0RT]

New update is out. I labelled it 8.3.c rather than 8.4, because it didn't bring anything new
However, I found some bugs in the targeting system while I was working on new guide, so I decided to fix them.
Also, you can see first few steps in the game guide. I would appreciate any comments on it, I plan to add more steps. ( I also need some advice on WHAT should be in the guide)
At last, I replaced loading screen with group foto of heroes and the great deamon Demonic cult is supposed to summon. That is just a temporary loading screen, I hope to find something more interesting in time.

 

[Lord_of_sausage]

Okay, i played it through on Bnet, heres what i think:

It was too "naked" in the end. We (Demonic Cult) won, but it was like "They won. End of story". Maybe a warning or something when a team gets close to victory. It was also a pain in the ass to heal that damn Alma owl thing when it kept damaging you half down on each attack

Anyways, it was fun, but damn i hate thoose stupid battlemasters... kept killing our creeps for exp but they got owned by the owl (lol noobs xD).

Maybe there should be a mode, where all teams can get creeps?

Demonic Cult: Increasing level of units also make them on your team. When they are on your team, they will wander around the map, and attack the enemies.

Battlemages Guild: Killed creeps make them on your team.

The greedy bastards: More gold gained, or maybe possibillity to buy the creeps? like for some gold, a target creep turns on your team?

The Tree hugger dudes: When you heal a tree, (never played theese guys ) it can call an animal to help your team.

just an idea

Ps. It was very hard for the new players to understand it, many left, but we ended up with a few guys getting the idea of it.

 

[M0RT]

I am not sure about such modes, I am afraid it would change to game to a battle of creep groups.

About the understanding problem, did you play the latest version with the new guide, or the older one? I really hoped the step-by-step guide would help

 

[Lord_of_sausage]

I played with the newest, with the guide. It's not the guides reason, because 5/12 (or 10?) grabbed it. Some genres just don't appeal to some.


Edit: You also need a text when player leaves.

 

[Stealth_Unit001]

I blame the young-ins these days... why back in my day we didn't have none of this "Auto Re-ChatSpam-Fresh" or "Delay-LagSpikeItUp-Reducer". You had to be patient. Now people won't stay to download if it takes more than two seconds. People just dont have the patience to learn to play. It truly is a rewarding and fun game when YOU BLOODY TAKE THE TIME TO LEARN!!! But alas society is falling apart. We really do need a genius in social correction or we are going to have a horrible incedent with the big red button in a glass contain-a-majigger labled "DO NOT PUSH"...