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- Jul 27, 2007
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Introduction of the Story:
Rupturing the Fire is a single-player RPG/Quest, set in the fictional location of Helvetra. In it, you control the renegade mage Ligus Liarter (or more more accurately an Aquamagus -- mage adept at water and ice spells) that ignored the orders of the Magus Order and traveled to Helvetra to close a crack in the Arcane Field - the force from which magicians draw their powers, much like the magnetic field. However this rupture was caused by beeings, native to Helvetra -- dark, twisted creatures and individuals who are filled with nothing but hatred and desire for perdition.
"So, what's so special?": Control System
The main idea behind RtF is to avoid being just another hack'n'slash RPG with "Bring me X of Y, kill Z of N" quests. To achieve this goal, some aspects have been added to the game.
The most important one is that Ligus cannot attack. That's right, he is able to cast certain spells, but none of them is useful enough for direct combat. To fight enemies, Ligus must use his water elemental, a fearsome liquid summoned being, that crushes enemies with its power. Ligus's job is to control the elemental and order him to attack or use spells.
That's right, you won't be required to "dualbox" the two units in order to play the game. All you need is to select your hero and right-click on a location or an enemy - in the first case Ligus will move to the location, followed by the elemental, in the second the elemental will attack your foes instead of the unable to do so Ligus. Most of the elemental's spells would be able to cast directly from Ligus' control bar, and all of them will have shortcuts so that you won't be required to select the elemental to cast them.
"So, what's so special?": Enemies system & Units classification.
Apart from the different control system, Rupturing the Fire will have a complex enemy system.
Imagine a zerg. Small, violent, yet easy to defeat foe. Imagine a swarm of 100 zergs in a pack. Indeed, the threat that they present is much, much bigger that the threat by just one zerg, but still with a decent AoE spell (or ability, in case of SC), there won't be any problem to transmute into insect bloob.
In Rupturing the Fire, things would be much different. Let's take, for example, one of the most common foes -- the Beast.
The Beast is a being, simmilar to the ghoul or the zerg, with little attack power (around 10), little HP (15), little defense (0), and generaly -- easy to defeat when in smaller groups. However, the beast is a block animal (if it is an animal at all), and as such will get special benefits when in bigger groups -- every other Beast within range will increase its max HP points with 10. Now imagine that thing in a flock of 20. That are 215 HP points for each Beast that is in that flock. And that's the first enemy that you'll encounter!
This system of unit correlations will not be used only for "large groups" systems (I recall Icetroll's campaign, where the Icetrolls had an ability, called "Tribalism" -- it granted them with +2 defense for every other troll nearby). The Heretic is a spell caster, that, like Ligus, can do almost no harm to you; still it gives great powers to allied structures and beings, making himself your main priority when in combat. For more examples of this system, check below.
Beast
HP: 15 / AttP: 9~10 / DefP: 0
Every beast within range increases HP +10
Hound
HP: 100 / AttP: 13 / DefP: 0
Every hound within range decreases player's units MAX HP -10.
Punisher
HP: 250 / AttP: 16 / DefP: 2
Every punisher within range increases AttP and DefP +1
Mite
HP: 30 / AttP: 12 / DefP: 1
Every Mite within range increases AttSpeed +3%;
Every Brood Mother within range increases HP Regen +30%;
Has Lifesteal
Spider
HP: 50 / AttP: 12 / DefP: 2
Every Mite within range increases AttSpeed +3%;
Every Brood Mother within range increases HP Regen +30%;
Brood Mother
HP: 250 / MP: 120 / AttP: 18 / DefP: 2
Every Spider and Mite within range increases HP Regen +1%;
Has Poison
Heretic
HP: 45 / MP: 250 / AttP: 3 / DefP: 1
Every Heretic within range decreases player's units MP Regen -3 p/s;
Every Heretic within range increases MP Regen +3 p/s;
Gargoyle
HP: 360 / AttP: 27 / DefP: 4
There must be a Heretic, that is casting a channeling spell on the Gargoyle; otherwise the Gargoyle turns to statue
Pyramid
For every Heretic, casting a channeling spell on the Pyramid, the Pyramid will spawn 2x Beast, 2x Hound and 1x Punisher every 12 seconds
Hatchling Nest
For every Brood Mother within range, the Hatchling Nest will spawn a Mite every 4 seconds;
For every Heretic, casting a channeling spell on the Hatchling Nest, the Pyramid will spawn a Spiders instead of a Mites for one Brood Mother
Obelisk
HP: 1000 / AttP: 30
To light the light emitters in the area after the Obelisk, the Obelisk must be destroyed, otherwise going any further is impossible;
Once you've entered the Obelisk's range, the Obelisk becomes the only light source until its destruction;
The Obelisk slows and reduces the armor of every unit within its range;
Every 10 seconds the Obelisk will cast Curse, Slow or Sleep upon a unit within its range. The chance that it will chose an enemy unit instead of a Player's one is 70%;
If a Heretic that is casting a chaneling spell on the Obelisk, the Obelisk will attack the player every 5 seconds;
The Obelisk is not able to take any direct damage, but for every unit within its range the Obelisk will use HP -1 every second.
Note on the Obelisk: The Obelisk is one of the more complex foes in Rupturing the Fire, the idea behind it is to create an enviroment where the player will want to keep a constant number of enemy units within the Obelisk range without allowing them to overtake and eventually kill the player. Nearly every Obelisk there will be spawning enemy units to ensure a constant enemy flow and the ultimate destruction of the Obelisk.
The Player will encounter from 5 to 10 Obelisks, some with unique foes that will be encountered only while "fighting" this particular Obelisk. There would be one or two more simillar structures.
I also plan Boss encounters, but they will be less important. You can count the Obelisks as one of them.
Furthermore, there is a classification of the magic types that exist in "Rupturing the Fire". The three branches of magic are: Water & Ice, Fire and Possesed (or Dark). Much like the game "rock - paper - scissors", every branch dominates over another one. The Water magic has great benefits when combating against Fire magic, the Fire magic when battling against Dark, and the Dark -- against Fire. Still, in direct combat those benefits are almost non-existent; the real power that they hold is in the abilities and the spells that the units have. For example, casting Rain upon the battlefield will damage the Fire units, heal the Water ones, and have no effect on the Dark beings.
Moreover these abilities might correlate with other units, that do not fall into those types, as well. Do no be surprised if healing your water units with Rain causes your Mechanical units to be slowed down and take damage over time -- Rust and Corrosion are great enemies of them!
"So, what's so special?": Enviroment Part I
Helvetra sounds evil, and it is as it comes from the Norwegian word for "Hell". A side note: the original name that I had in mind was "Helvetia", but I don't want the map to get banned in Switzerland and criticized by typo-freaks like me.
Helvetra gives us the chilling experience of being in hell without trying to classify itself with labels such as "horror" or "freaky". Let's face it -- it is not only almost unachievable within WarCraft III, but also uneccessary. A half-side note again -- if there is the possibility to turn on and off world light by a script, I have great ideas of implementing this within the game enviroment (so that you can get a pitch blackness and light your way only with a torch). No matter if this thing is possible or not, the end-stage of the game would be set in such an enviroment, where you can rely only on the light emitters to survive.
Well, that doesn't sound as "demonic" for me, right? That's another cliché that I'm trying to escape from -- the hell of Rupturing the Fire would be demonic or undead only to a degree, and only in special areas -- like that lava pool that you'll encounter. Most of the beings there are just pure darkness and evilness, and I do not see a reason why they must fall in any "demonic" or "necromantic" category. To a big degree, Helvetra was inspired by Jazz Jackrabbit planets such as Inferno, Labrat and Haunted House.
"So, what's so special?": Enviroment Part II: It's alive!
Rupturing the Fire does not only have its own unique hell, it has its own unique hell with a vivid, living enviroment. You won't have to face only your foes, you'll have to face Helvetra itself.
Remember those two missions in Azjol-Nerub during the Scourge Campaign in The Frozen Throne? I loved them! I loved them to a such degree, that I wondered why Blizzard decided not to develop the idea further; and I'm sure most of you asked themselves the exact same question. My personal favourite was the Nerubian Ziggurats that you had to destroy by letting water flow the area. If you want to check what they inspired me for, check the short unit list example above.
Furthermore, the enviroment can be full with all source of surprises. A strange light emitter that brightens the next room. Are you sure that it isn't some source of Possesion magic? You encounter eggs. Are you sure that they won't hatch if exposed to a red light? And what's inside them -- a friend, or a foe? All those little things would surely make the game much more complex, interesting and enjoyable.
"So, what's so special?": Quests and Puzzles
As I mentioned, the world of Rupturing the Fire responds to your actions in many ways. One of them are the puzzles from which the "Quest" part in the heading comes. In most of the cases there would be two ways to deal with a problem -- the hard one, and the easy one. The problem would be that the easy one would be so obvious, that it would be almost impossible to think of it as a way to deal with the problem. I would give just one example, not to ruin the surprise -- imagine a situation where you run for your lives to escape from a forest, set on fire. The hard way is to run, trying to break your way out through the hordes of creatures that block it. The easy one is to just turn around and fight the fire with Rain -- eventually it will just turn to ashes and dust.
I want to give one big "Thanks" to OutsiderXE for his kind words and his campaings, which have been a great inspiration source for this idea.
Great, when is it done?
As you've noticed this thread is posted under "Idea Factory" forum. The reasons for this are below.
I can hardly be called a great map maker as I've never actually finished any map for WarCraft III. Though this does not mean that I'm unable to produce anything (I've created a number of maps for Tzar, Celtic Kings, Civilization III and Jazz Jackrabbit to play on them with friends, with some of them actually becoming quite popular in my area -- especially Tzar's ones, as it is one of the most popular games in Bulgaria; thought I've never released them on public), this does mean that I have to learn a lot, mainly about organization and planning out. (I have played around with the WorldEditor, I even had been working on a AoS map and had it done on ~50% - ~60% when it was lost forever after my hard disk was damaged badly. This was around two years ago and it killed my enthusiasm for mapmaking at the time.)
I do have started to try out things in WE, such as terraining, but as far as I can see the only thing I am able to do good enough right now is Data Editing.
Still, I have the potential to learn JASS, and understand triggers beyond the basics, as I have coded in PASCAL, C++, BASIC and Visual C# before.
There are two reasons that I am posting this here: the second one is two share the idea with you so if the project dies out this idea won't eventually be forgotten. However the main reason is to recieve words of criticizm, to exchange ideas and last but not least -- to hear a supporting word from you -- ofcourse, if you think that I deserve it.
Have a great days, guys!
Rupturing the Fire is a single-player RPG/Quest, set in the fictional location of Helvetra. In it, you control the renegade mage Ligus Liarter (or more more accurately an Aquamagus -- mage adept at water and ice spells) that ignored the orders of the Magus Order and traveled to Helvetra to close a crack in the Arcane Field - the force from which magicians draw their powers, much like the magnetic field. However this rupture was caused by beeings, native to Helvetra -- dark, twisted creatures and individuals who are filled with nothing but hatred and desire for perdition.
"So, what's so special?": Control System
The main idea behind RtF is to avoid being just another hack'n'slash RPG with "Bring me X of Y, kill Z of N" quests. To achieve this goal, some aspects have been added to the game.
The most important one is that Ligus cannot attack. That's right, he is able to cast certain spells, but none of them is useful enough for direct combat. To fight enemies, Ligus must use his water elemental, a fearsome liquid summoned being, that crushes enemies with its power. Ligus's job is to control the elemental and order him to attack or use spells.
That's right, you won't be required to "dualbox" the two units in order to play the game. All you need is to select your hero and right-click on a location or an enemy - in the first case Ligus will move to the location, followed by the elemental, in the second the elemental will attack your foes instead of the unable to do so Ligus. Most of the elemental's spells would be able to cast directly from Ligus' control bar, and all of them will have shortcuts so that you won't be required to select the elemental to cast them.
"So, what's so special?": Enemies system & Units classification.
Apart from the different control system, Rupturing the Fire will have a complex enemy system.
Imagine a zerg. Small, violent, yet easy to defeat foe. Imagine a swarm of 100 zergs in a pack. Indeed, the threat that they present is much, much bigger that the threat by just one zerg, but still with a decent AoE spell (or ability, in case of SC), there won't be any problem to transmute into insect bloob.
In Rupturing the Fire, things would be much different. Let's take, for example, one of the most common foes -- the Beast.
The Beast is a being, simmilar to the ghoul or the zerg, with little attack power (around 10), little HP (15), little defense (0), and generaly -- easy to defeat when in smaller groups. However, the beast is a block animal (if it is an animal at all), and as such will get special benefits when in bigger groups -- every other Beast within range will increase its max HP points with 10. Now imagine that thing in a flock of 20. That are 215 HP points for each Beast that is in that flock. And that's the first enemy that you'll encounter!
This system of unit correlations will not be used only for "large groups" systems (I recall Icetroll's campaign, where the Icetrolls had an ability, called "Tribalism" -- it granted them with +2 defense for every other troll nearby). The Heretic is a spell caster, that, like Ligus, can do almost no harm to you; still it gives great powers to allied structures and beings, making himself your main priority when in combat. For more examples of this system, check below.
Beast
HP: 15 / AttP: 9~10 / DefP: 0
Every beast within range increases HP +10
Hound
HP: 100 / AttP: 13 / DefP: 0
Every hound within range decreases player's units MAX HP -10.
Punisher
HP: 250 / AttP: 16 / DefP: 2
Every punisher within range increases AttP and DefP +1
Mite
HP: 30 / AttP: 12 / DefP: 1
Every Mite within range increases AttSpeed +3%;
Every Brood Mother within range increases HP Regen +30%;
Has Lifesteal
Spider
HP: 50 / AttP: 12 / DefP: 2
Every Mite within range increases AttSpeed +3%;
Every Brood Mother within range increases HP Regen +30%;
Brood Mother
HP: 250 / MP: 120 / AttP: 18 / DefP: 2
Every Spider and Mite within range increases HP Regen +1%;
Has Poison
Heretic
HP: 45 / MP: 250 / AttP: 3 / DefP: 1
Every Heretic within range decreases player's units MP Regen -3 p/s;
Every Heretic within range increases MP Regen +3 p/s;
Gargoyle
HP: 360 / AttP: 27 / DefP: 4
There must be a Heretic, that is casting a channeling spell on the Gargoyle; otherwise the Gargoyle turns to statue
Pyramid
For every Heretic, casting a channeling spell on the Pyramid, the Pyramid will spawn 2x Beast, 2x Hound and 1x Punisher every 12 seconds
Hatchling Nest
For every Brood Mother within range, the Hatchling Nest will spawn a Mite every 4 seconds;
For every Heretic, casting a channeling spell on the Hatchling Nest, the Pyramid will spawn a Spiders instead of a Mites for one Brood Mother
Obelisk
HP: 1000 / AttP: 30
To light the light emitters in the area after the Obelisk, the Obelisk must be destroyed, otherwise going any further is impossible;
Once you've entered the Obelisk's range, the Obelisk becomes the only light source until its destruction;
The Obelisk slows and reduces the armor of every unit within its range;
Every 10 seconds the Obelisk will cast Curse, Slow or Sleep upon a unit within its range. The chance that it will chose an enemy unit instead of a Player's one is 70%;
If a Heretic that is casting a chaneling spell on the Obelisk, the Obelisk will attack the player every 5 seconds;
The Obelisk is not able to take any direct damage, but for every unit within its range the Obelisk will use HP -1 every second.
Note on the Obelisk: The Obelisk is one of the more complex foes in Rupturing the Fire, the idea behind it is to create an enviroment where the player will want to keep a constant number of enemy units within the Obelisk range without allowing them to overtake and eventually kill the player. Nearly every Obelisk there will be spawning enemy units to ensure a constant enemy flow and the ultimate destruction of the Obelisk.
The Player will encounter from 5 to 10 Obelisks, some with unique foes that will be encountered only while "fighting" this particular Obelisk. There would be one or two more simillar structures.
I also plan Boss encounters, but they will be less important. You can count the Obelisks as one of them.
Furthermore, there is a classification of the magic types that exist in "Rupturing the Fire". The three branches of magic are: Water & Ice, Fire and Possesed (or Dark). Much like the game "rock - paper - scissors", every branch dominates over another one. The Water magic has great benefits when combating against Fire magic, the Fire magic when battling against Dark, and the Dark -- against Fire. Still, in direct combat those benefits are almost non-existent; the real power that they hold is in the abilities and the spells that the units have. For example, casting Rain upon the battlefield will damage the Fire units, heal the Water ones, and have no effect on the Dark beings.
Moreover these abilities might correlate with other units, that do not fall into those types, as well. Do no be surprised if healing your water units with Rain causes your Mechanical units to be slowed down and take damage over time -- Rust and Corrosion are great enemies of them!
"So, what's so special?": Enviroment Part I
Helvetra sounds evil, and it is as it comes from the Norwegian word for "Hell". A side note: the original name that I had in mind was "Helvetia", but I don't want the map to get banned in Switzerland and criticized by typo-freaks like me.
Helvetra gives us the chilling experience of being in hell without trying to classify itself with labels such as "horror" or "freaky". Let's face it -- it is not only almost unachievable within WarCraft III, but also uneccessary. A half-side note again -- if there is the possibility to turn on and off world light by a script, I have great ideas of implementing this within the game enviroment (so that you can get a pitch blackness and light your way only with a torch). No matter if this thing is possible or not, the end-stage of the game would be set in such an enviroment, where you can rely only on the light emitters to survive.
Well, that doesn't sound as "demonic" for me, right? That's another cliché that I'm trying to escape from -- the hell of Rupturing the Fire would be demonic or undead only to a degree, and only in special areas -- like that lava pool that you'll encounter. Most of the beings there are just pure darkness and evilness, and I do not see a reason why they must fall in any "demonic" or "necromantic" category. To a big degree, Helvetra was inspired by Jazz Jackrabbit planets such as Inferno, Labrat and Haunted House.
"So, what's so special?": Enviroment Part II: It's alive!
Rupturing the Fire does not only have its own unique hell, it has its own unique hell with a vivid, living enviroment. You won't have to face only your foes, you'll have to face Helvetra itself.
Remember those two missions in Azjol-Nerub during the Scourge Campaign in The Frozen Throne? I loved them! I loved them to a such degree, that I wondered why Blizzard decided not to develop the idea further; and I'm sure most of you asked themselves the exact same question. My personal favourite was the Nerubian Ziggurats that you had to destroy by letting water flow the area. If you want to check what they inspired me for, check the short unit list example above.
Furthermore, the enviroment can be full with all source of surprises. A strange light emitter that brightens the next room. Are you sure that it isn't some source of Possesion magic? You encounter eggs. Are you sure that they won't hatch if exposed to a red light? And what's inside them -- a friend, or a foe? All those little things would surely make the game much more complex, interesting and enjoyable.
"So, what's so special?": Quests and Puzzles
As I mentioned, the world of Rupturing the Fire responds to your actions in many ways. One of them are the puzzles from which the "Quest" part in the heading comes. In most of the cases there would be two ways to deal with a problem -- the hard one, and the easy one. The problem would be that the easy one would be so obvious, that it would be almost impossible to think of it as a way to deal with the problem. I would give just one example, not to ruin the surprise -- imagine a situation where you run for your lives to escape from a forest, set on fire. The hard way is to run, trying to break your way out through the hordes of creatures that block it. The easy one is to just turn around and fight the fire with Rain -- eventually it will just turn to ashes and dust.
I want to give one big "Thanks" to OutsiderXE for his kind words and his campaings, which have been a great inspiration source for this idea.
Great, when is it done?
As you've noticed this thread is posted under "Idea Factory" forum. The reasons for this are below.
I can hardly be called a great map maker as I've never actually finished any map for WarCraft III. Though this does not mean that I'm unable to produce anything (I've created a number of maps for Tzar, Celtic Kings, Civilization III and Jazz Jackrabbit to play on them with friends, with some of them actually becoming quite popular in my area -- especially Tzar's ones, as it is one of the most popular games in Bulgaria; thought I've never released them on public), this does mean that I have to learn a lot, mainly about organization and planning out. (I have played around with the WorldEditor, I even had been working on a AoS map and had it done on ~50% - ~60% when it was lost forever after my hard disk was damaged badly. This was around two years ago and it killed my enthusiasm for mapmaking at the time.)
I do have started to try out things in WE, such as terraining, but as far as I can see the only thing I am able to do good enough right now is Data Editing.
Still, I have the potential to learn JASS, and understand triggers beyond the basics, as I have coded in PASCAL, C++, BASIC and Visual C# before.There are two reasons that I am posting this here: the second one is two share the idea with you so if the project dies out this idea won't eventually be forgotten. However the main reason is to recieve words of criticizm, to exchange ideas and last but not least -- to hear a supporting word from you -- ofcourse, if you think that I deserve it.
Have a great days, guys!
