SIO HD - Stranded in outland

[Gamecrafter_DK]

Hi! i'm making this herodefense, called Stranded in outland, the plot's quite simple:

It's the Night elf, Human, undead and orc, that have been trapped in outland, and long to get home. The undead necromancers is opening a portal, to bring the united forces back home.
There's only one bad thing, undead and demon forces are attacking from all sides, in a seemingly endless amount. luckily, the elves and orcs have a lot of troops, to defend the small isle of protection, the forces have found. The human have, with their structural skill created towers to aid the united troops.
This is where you come in, you are one of the heroes from the regular game, with all abilities set to a level of 10, and an ultimate spell that goes up to level 4. Abilities such as "Far sight" have been removed along with a lot of other spells, that just didn't make sense in this map.
Max level is 150, although i've never seen a hero go above level 50. It is meant that way.

I'm looking for dedicated testers, that either can play by themself, or in a group of people, 4-6 preferably.
I'm also looking for a skilled terrainer, preferably specialized in Outland.

I'm already like 85% done, it just needs to be tested through, and the items is going to be fixed.

Percentage done: 80-85%
Heroes: 85% (planning to add 3 more, maybe 4 - Edit: this will only be implemented in future versions)
Triggering 96% (planning to get some laggreductive and leakreducting scripts, as i can't make myself, and adding the triggered spells, and triggered itemcombining, 95% because i have an incredible amount of triggers.)
Items: 80% (most of the items in the game isn't going to be in the real game, so i'm making a ton - edit: i've made 3/4 a ton items now... i'm considering if i should stop making items.)
Units: 100%
Balancing: Being initiated now. Join as tester!!! Blademasters skills have been more blanced the time of records is over XD

Features:
- 16 Different enemies
- 7 Bosses
- 16 Heroes, the ones from the regular game, all with atleast 1 triggered ability, about 1/3 of them with 2 or more.
- 9 Different types of defending units.
- An opening cinematic
- A respawn system, making dead units owned by the orcs and elves automaticaly respawn in the middle and move out, as long as there are reinforcements. Type -Forces to see your reinforcements.
- Optional "quests" where you e.g. can slay dune worms, i'm maybe implementing a quest to kill Draeneis too, give me ideas!
- All triggering done in GUI, and it is intended to be an open source, so people can learn, use and build on the map, looking for someone to make some leakstuffin'
- A clever item combining system, currently providing 3 levels of these items, this is what i am working on atm.;
Orb of Fire
Orb of Frost
Orb of Venom
Orb of lifesteal
And 5 levels of these:
Claws of Attack
Ring of regeneration
Gloves of haste
Boots of agility
Belt of strength
Robe of intelligence
And combines: Claws of attack + Gloves of haste, Boots of agility + Belt of strength + Robe of intelligence

Everyone can join as a Tester! i prefer some using Paris time CET or +1 GMT zone, or around there. I'm also looking for someone, who can stuff the leaks in my map... there's quite many, and i have a tendency to say; "What the heck, as long as the average user doesn't notice" but that's not good 'nuff for THW!!! ... and i really don't want to learn it myself, right now, as i'm finishing school soon. Anyone who got great ideas on terrain, or suggestions, without wanting to bond as a tester, i will be happy to get feedback! I'm also looking for someone, who eventually wants to do a loading screen, or a preview picture, as i am no good at that either.

Current crew:
Triggerers:
Me, The_Clam (no longer use Gamecrafter_DK)
Testers:
Ninjaen,
Warlord_A_Dog, (not on THW) (and along with him, 3-4 peoples of my Puc-le-dun community)
Cold-Scotch, (not on THW)
EMPerror have started!
Terrainers:
DragonKeeper56 (we have him to be grateful to, for making the extremely good terrain.)
Wraithwynd Giving creative ideas, and helping, he's obviously well known inside Outland terraining, and i guess two mixed styles of terraining will make a chaotic outlandish (lol ) scenery, which i'm looking for.
Happy to work with some of you soon! (hopefully!)

Due to lack of interest, i've decided to release a Beta! (NOW I UPDATED IT) so, here it comes! and some pictures, from the editor.

Everybody! please come with some input on the map!

 

[Zelda.Alex]

The undead are stranded or are they attacking?

 

[bounty hunter2]

I suggest adding screenshots, some spell and hero information aswell!

 

[Nightwish.ger]

The presentation of your project could be better. pls add some screenshots, taht are showing the map well, so we can take a fast look before we download the map.

 

[Gamecrafter_DK]

I will do, although, since we have no terrainer, there are really no pretty things to photograph... i think i will take one of the choosing screen, and the main base... and possibly some of the defense posts...

Zelda - i know that it is a bit confusing... but well... it's more like demons attacking, with control over SOME undead... it's rather confusing, i know. (said it twice because it IS confusing...)

 

[Zelda.Alex]

1.....the starting dialogues are way too fast. I barely read them
2.....Little in game info can help.
3.....Another message is now coming "Time until new....". What's in it?
4.....why are my units being counted? I barely know what i have to defend inside the base exactly.
5.....the terrain can use some more doodads. Don't you agree?
6.....there was a message about a wyrwn. Shouldn't you make a map signal for telling his position. He has been sighted (according to the message that appears) so why not tell the exact place? Meaning a simple signal of his presence.
7.....the terrain can use improvements definitely
8.....i played it in single player & was thinking for the whole time what would this map been like if there was an AI to make sure that the computer also chose heroes to help defend the place.
9......All the things in my base were destroyed but still the game wouldn't end. There were just invulnerable shades still present.
10......When i choose hero the timer should not be going on. It made me hurry to choose the hero.
11......Place some in game info about the abilities of heroes. It will help me a lot.
12......the whole lot of messages that kept telling me about the units although informative made me miss the boss summons.

I used the archmage & was summoning maximum water elemental like hell but still i lost. Is it even possible for me to win this map in single player?

My Rating: 2/5
Mainly due to
>lack of info
>terrain
>the undead are defending & attacking
& some minor things that i mentioned above

 

[Gamecrafter_DK]

well, i'll take all your points into consideration, i'm just doing an english assignment right now, so i'll fix it soon...

about the terrain thing, and the doodads, we're still looking for a terrainer, i know, that it's as ugly as a horses' butt right now. well, thanks for the info! just PM if you want to become a tester...

Edit; to answer some of your things... look below:
points fixed:
1, 2, 3, 4, 12
fixed /Not fixed, but have comments;
4 the units that are being counted is not the units in the game already, it's the reinforcements ready to move out and take the places of the dying, haven't made it all that clear, no...
5 looking for terrainer
6 it have always said "north", "south", "east" or "west" no map ping.
7 looking for a terrainer
8 i might do that... although i've never learned to make a real AI...
9 the game doesn't end instantly if you lose, you gotta wait the timer out, although you have lost, it is to give people a chance to talk about remakes and so, besides, your hero will still respawn, so you can try to beat the forces back, although i doubt.
10 the timer goes, and it actually makes it easier, the enemy units first start spawning 30 seconds after.
11 Planning to update the hero picking system to do just that, but right now, people must settle for the tooltips, and their knowledge about the spells that the heroes from the regular game have.
12 they have been fixed, now any player can just type -forces to make the reinforcements supply appear, this replaced the periodical system.
and your commentary... well... i don't think it's possible, and if so, you gotta nerd a whole lot with the blademaster, as he is the strongest hero in the beta version. Ninjaen supposedly were 15 seconds away from winning with him, due to good use of mirror image, i think. (i haven't actually tested archmage since his spelltriggering remake, before he just made like 54 water elementals with tornado, now it's been capped at 14 i think.)

Edit; Map updated

 

[Dragonkeeper56]

I can do your terrain probably

I play World of Warcraft and know all of the Outland zones well. I personally think Zangarmarsh is the most visually pleasing.

 

[Gamecrafter_DK]

oh yeah, i saw your 5 year map... i wasn't impressed by the terrain, but it's a dungeon like map, where, according to my oppinion, is hard to make a good terrain for, so... give it a try! the newest verision is right there, take it and reterrain it, and then we'll see if you got the job...

 

[White-Lion]

why did you place ashenvale trees in an outland map?

 

[Gamecrafter_DK]

because i wanted some canopy trees, and the Ashenvale trees were first on the list.

To dragonkeeper: it seems i missed half of what you said, and i like the zangarmarsh thing too, but i don't have a zangarmarsh loading screen... so i guess we have to make it a hellfire peninsula - themed

 

[Dragonkeeper56]

Well I worked on the terrain for 2 hours, where do you want me to send it?

 

[Gamecrafter_DK]

jsut post it here, and let me be amazed!

 

[Dragonkeeper56]

Map

Here, I think I attached it right
-I have Zangarmarsh slightly coming in the eastern side of the map
-Path of conquest comnig in from the west

 

[Gamecrafter_DK]

I LOVE IT! YOU'RE ON THE TEAM! but... you gotta fix the borders, and somehow make it look good, while not blocking for the enemies...

 

[Dragonkeeper56]

I'll work on that tomorrow probably, today is my friend's birthday and I also have to fix my brother's network.

 

[Gamecrafter_DK]

That's Okay, dude, my employer, mr. goblin wants me to work anyway, so i'm also taking some time off on the map.

 

[Wraithwynd]

Terrain comments (only terrain).

1. I would darken the walls - blacken them currently they are way too bright to fit in with the landscape. Conversely, use the Icecrown destructible walls, set their tint at say 100 - you get a dark gray color, they are still nicely formed and allow you to place them at 'straighter' angles - you can get a neater appearance. the set comes with broken versions, different end caps, blah.

2. Replace the Ashenvale canopy trees near the center with Barrens or Sunken ruins - darken their tinting a wee bit. I tinkered a wee bit, setting the tinting as:
Red: 255
Green: 75
Blue: 255

Makes the yellow leaves a reddish - semi-dark red - tint, the green leaves become very dark, and the trunks become a mottled red - kind of blending in with the landscape. Using the same tinting on the Barrens canopy tree you get a reddish/purplish color that blends end fairly well with the outland reds.

(Examples of color in image attached)

3. You have a few boarder woodlands of canopy trees (I assume to other regions unseen) I would make then slightly larger, space them out much further and fill in with something else. If you do not want pathing through the woodland, then lay in pathing blockers around the edge.

Ideally canopy type trees should be placed while you are looking straight down from the top. The sides of the canopies should slightly over lap, this will space the trunks out further and from the game angle it will look much better.

4. Lower the large thorns on top of the dividing cliffs, lay in smaller ones around to 'fill in'. Take a Sunken Ruins Environment Vines, cliff side and modify their tinting R: 155 - G: 0 - B: 155 you end up with a purple vine that matches well with the outland plants (the purplish flowery things).

5. You have barrens ruined arch, curved wall, wall, blah - darken them up - perhaps set all the colors to 155. I would increase their sizes to about 2, lay the arch variations in in in a manner that makes some 'sense' architecturally speaking. Maybe stone circle like Stone Henge - just a semi circle. Remove the pathing from the curved wall, this will allow you to place it in any direction, thus you can build something like a 'well' with three of them. Lay in pathing around them to block as needed.

Get the WEU and get more tile variations, Black citadel tiles work rather well with outland tiles. WEU lets you have up to 16 tiles - more variety to work with since you have green grasses for the regions around this area.

 

[Gamecrafter_DK]

I think these are great points, our terrainer will probably take care of this, we need more trees around, preferably canopies, so the Keeper of the grove can use his ability and make treants... i like the tree colour, but i'm hopeless at deciding those myself, due to my colourblindness, which is partially why im not the greatest terrainer. i think the suggestion about the thorns are good, as we are trying to make it look like hellfire peninsula, where there are those great thorn hills.

I want only a small effect on the terrain, as the enemies gotta be send in a fairly equal amount to the middle, but i don't mind big shrooms and so blocking them a little, just not huge cliff plateaus making a defensepoint not get half as many enemies at the other.

With that being said, i guess we'll use some of your ideas wraith... but we'll let our terrainer decide, he's first coming on again tomorrow, as he has personal matters to attend.

~The_Clam

 

[Dragonkeeper56]

Map Terrain finished

Here is my finished product with the border intact while still trying to maintain the Outland feel.

as a suggestion I think you should use actual demons to attack rather than undead units.

+ Just read the posts above and I'm going to try to implement the colors and what not

 

[Gamecrafter_DK]

aye, i will... thanks! i'll look at it now ;D did you use some of wraith's ideas?

LOOKS AUSUMN! well... it's great... we'll use this terrain for now ;P a huge gratz i've redone a couple of places, where units could get stuck, but it's a minimal change.

 

[Dragonkeeper56]

final terrained version

This is the map with the terrain changes suggested

 

[Gamecrafter_DK]

uhh... i've already edited the other version... well... i'll see what i can import...

 

[Dragonkeeper56]

Identities

BTW I'm AKA MikeMatt, Dragonkeeper, Macgyver, Stormwindkeep
-Brother Blackrockspire


(>*_*)>--------()_)

 

[Gamecrafter_DK]

uuhh... pick one to be in the game...

i've added the game as it is now, but i don't know how to use the darkened walls and so, i've only imported the trees... i didn't like the new colour of the walls, you might want to change it to thorns... sorry that you worked a bit in vain... but can you do that cliff thingy? and make the trees look good? i want to know, if i'm to choose between the Keeper of the grove's treant ability, and the tree looks.

Sorry :'(

 

[Dragonkeeper56]

Finished

Finished Terrain

 

[Gamecrafter_DK]

again, sorry well... odd. how did you make it fill less? cwazy... efficient AND a great terrainer

 

[Dragonkeeper56]

Reply

It's okay, maybe you can help me out with some of my maps. I have some that I could never quite finish, and others that I lack the triggering knowledge for; As well as, 3 that crash mid-game.

 

[Gamecrafter_DK]

well, my strength are definitely triggering in GUI... so i'll be happy to help ya I think i'll remove those walls, you know, the vertical ones were pink, and all the others were purple. i'm not THAT colourblind

 

[Dragonkeeper56]

Possible Maps

I'll leave you with some food for thought before I head off to work.

-Battle of the Elements crashes probably due to some imported mods
-Tonk tanks has bad camera work and kinda bad controls- also wanted to implement different types of tanks to pick. The map itself is meant to be expanded after the rest is fine tuned.
-Murloc Island CTF imo is awesome but comes off to every1 else as kind of lame- if you have any suggestions.

 

[Gamecrafter_DK]

i'll take a look at them...

 

[Dragonkeeper56]

Walls

Just an FYI I looked at those walls again and fixed their colors to all be the same if ur interested.
Apparently to get them right I had to mix the models of Sunken ruin walls and Icecrown walls.

 

[Dragonkeeper56]

the posted map

Here's the the modified wall if u do happen to be interested ;0



<-- has too much energy

 

[Gamecrafter_DK]

well... that's odd... i thoguht you were done... i'll look at it... i have a conclusion on your maps;

Bad descriptions / lack of descriptions... you need to tell people what they're going to do 2 to 3 times pr. map... and your murloc thing, it's just a mess, i'm doubting if it is a CTF at all... it seems more like an angel arena... your tonk tanks - i don't know nothing about FPcameras, or semi FPcameras... sorry... i can't help you there... but it seems okay, just no enemies in the map... and finally your "batotelem" map... it's very nice... but you might want to consider to change the workers for fire, atleast, and make more spirit well,s and tell people what they have to do 3-4 times... it's very futuristic.


and no, i don't want to use the walls, i've replaced them with thorns...

 

[Dragonkeeper56]

reply

Well thx for the input, just tell me if you need help with anything else. (heroes ect.)

-Here's my hero arena with 66 heroes for a nice example of what I can do

 

[Gamecrafter_DK]

i'll tell you my review tomorrow, i am going to bed now.

 

[Dragonkeeper]

I have 4.2 out now - my brother just made me aware of an item text error, and I finally got around to making it so rag doesn't sometimes flame strike off que.

 

[MikeMatt]

I just remembered my old password!
-Was now able to clean up the 2004 versions of my maps ;0

 

[Gamecrafter_DK]

OOOOOOOOkay don't know if that's considered double posting XD good... now i can reward you...

And about your map; i felt like i had a dejá-vu when i played it... i'm sure i have played it before... well, the upside is, of course, infinte heroes. ("they're not infinte, Jim, there's 66." "shut up, man! i'm proving a point!") ... don't know where that came from... well, the downside is the creeps, it gets VERY boring to just stand on those narrow paths, slaying small creep after small creep, i suggest a brand new creep environment. and more publicity.

 

[Dragonkeeper56]

Reply

The thing is there are several bosses all over the map, just no1 knows how to get to them or that they even exist but the creators

 

[Gamecrafter_DK]

That just proves my point

 

[Dragonkeeper]

reply

Thx for ur input, I fixed up those maps base on what you said.


I give you Duo Duel Arena 5.0!!!!!!

 

[Gamecrafter_DK]

Kewl... i'll download it... soon...

 

[Dragonkeeper]

Reply

5.0 is an epic failure with bugs (my bad) I've already released 5.1 for all the corrections

 

[Gamecrafter_DK]

Okay, ill use the new one then. I'll also upload the new version of the map, it has major fixes and the new terrain, but actually no actual changes in gameplay. I lost some item in the terraining menace, so i have to rwmake it ... Soon guys

EDIT:

A new map with the new terrain, and items and so have been released! lots of changes.

 

[Zelda.Alex]

SIO-HD
1.....Each alphabet of a sentence has a capital letter. You forgot that in the loading screen & in the messages that appeared.
2.....The starting instructions by the tree named The_Calm is too fast. There were too many instructions & it was too fast. That instructions, therefore, were useless.
3.....You have placed the Dune Worm Quest as a main quest but it is optional.
4.....Place some info of the game in the quest menu. It will be useful.
5.....The Dune worms are Fel Orcs? Odd.
6.....The hero abilities menu tells only about the first 3 levels of spells. Better description of the spells is needed.
7.....Draenie is misspelled.
8.....Some of the bigger monsters do not give gold on being killed
9.....The messages that appear should have different colors. When i looked into the quest log many times i had to look where the message began.
11.....I again say that when the major attackers appears a ping should be made at their positions. In the full horde of the monsters it is difficult to realize where they went. I was playing in single player & some of my time was lost seeing where the big monster has appeared.
12......You had said that you had capped the Archmage's water elemental to 12 but i was able to summon more of them.
13......In the right side of the map there are some summon sites where the attacking creeps were stuck.
14......No defeat condition. Everything destroyed but still no defeat.
15......Whole of my base was destroyed but i was going to re spawn. How?
16......The number of shades present in the map should be equal to the number of players.
17......The vampires started to spawn earlier but the message of their spawning came much later. Same happened with some others too think but in the flood of monsters i did not notice which.
18......Some story about the 4 races being stuck there & why the demons are attacking them will be nice.
19......The cost of the tomb which experience 1 of all 3 attributes is 300 while the cost of the books that increase 2 of each is 290.
20......Start writing versions in the file name. People will know then if there has been an update sooner.

 

[Gamecrafter_DK]

... thanks for the review, but there are some things wrong with it...
my answers:
1: That doesn't make sense? :S whaddaya mean?
2: Know, i'm replacing it totally in final version.
3: Well, that, i will fix
4: haven't put it in, but it WILL come in final version.
5: That's a leftover from the earlier time of the map, will get fixed.
6: the first 3 levels is only to display a tendency, it will get far too long, if it will be all 10 levels, changes WILL occur in the ability descriptions, i hope.
7: ... didn't you too? it IS spelled draenei. it was my terrainer who went nuts XD i'll fix it
8: That have never ocurred to me before... but i guess it is because you killed a demon, they have reincarnation, and therefore don't give gold on first killing...
9: Should have? i don't understand what you said there, either.
10: Missing
11: It is supposed to seem like you have no control of the enemy. besides, the boss is often not ACTUALLY seen on the map, it is just a heads up. i might change the text a bit there too.
12: i said 14 (or meant so). and those 14 is only those who spawn from tornado. you can cast the regular water elementals without bounds.
13: ... thought that i'd found them all... i'll look at it again.
14: You will get a defeat message when the timer runs out. will change it in the final version, it have stayed in of testing purposes.
15: of testing purposes.
16: ... huh? this makes no sense? there's 6 shades, and 6 human player slots.
17: you probably saw the bigger vampire message, there is often a 'small creep' and later a 'big creep' of the same type.
18: aye, i'm currently fighting to get it in some place good.
19: this will be balanced in the final version.
20: the map is NOT released, and therefore there's no versions.

 

[Zelda.Alex]

1: Sorry for that. I had meant to write that

1.....Each first alphabet of a sentence has a capital letter. You forgot that in the loading screen & in the messages that appeared.

6......I also hope that there are changes. It will not get too long. I am only saying that there should be more description in the hero abilities menu so that i can be sure which spell will help me most in the long run.
7: ...Yes i misspelled it. I gave you the spelling that was present in the game.
8: No it happened with many bosses even after getting killed.
9.......Sorry again. I mean that the messages that appear about the various bosses (that is the stronger monsters) should be in different colors.
12.......What spawning by tornado? I don't think that such a thing occurred.
16.......What i was saying that the number of shades should be equal to the number of players who are actually playing the game at the moment.

will explain later. got to go.

 

[Gamecrafter_DK]

1: the first alphabet? the alphabet is ALL the letters, i think you mean 'letter' instead of alphabet, but i am gettin' feedback from my testers on this.
6: yeah, i haven't focused that much on the learn tooltip, no...
8: never happened to me either, it might be, that the bosses are so big, that you missed the gold text.
9: might do that.
12: when you cast tornado, as archmage, you will create (level of brilliance aura) + (level of tornado) level 1 water elementals.
16: yeah, it will be fixed in the final version, just didn't see the need for messing with those triggers ( I HATEHATEHATE them! ) when it is only on the test-level so far.

 

[Zelda.Alex]

Abut the versions i was saying that even if the map is not submitted & is in testing state there should be versions of the map file. Say a0.1 where a stands for alpha. It is only because that way Some people will be able to tell if a new version is present on the thread even if they do not follow the thread.