[Miscellanous / Other] Spy/Sabotage/Subterfuge ability ideas for a Map with no buildings or resources?

[FeelMyRash]

Most such abilities are mostly seen in RTS games with base building and resource harvesting, and usually directly disrupt these (Examples: Sabotage that halts a building's production/training, Thief ability which steals resources from the enemy, etc)

I am currently working on a map that has no buildings or resources involved and is mostly army based, so I hope to get some good ideas from here.

In particular, I am looking for spy/sabotage/Subterfuge/etc abilities for the following types of Heroes:

• A Hero who is meant to hide among the enemy army and disrupt them.
• A Hero who is meant to affect the enemy army from afar without getting directly involved.

I appreciate any help

 

[Pyrogasm]

A Hero who is meant to hide among the enemy army and disrupt them.

• Cause enemy units to deal splash damage to their allies. (rally them to fight so viciously they endanger their allies accidentally)
• Cause enemy units to miss. (pass out booze before battle and now the whole army misses sometimes? distract in an area by shouting confusing orders?)
• Fatigue: apply a hidden debuff on enemy units; each time they deal damage to a unit, further damage that unit deals to that unit is reduced by X%. this effect can stack up to Y times; damaging a different target resets all stacks. (this sort of subterfuge can be avoided by smart micro but this is an otherwise straight debuff against most units, so perhaps large values of X and moderate values of Y are interesting)
• False Identity: for X seconds, target enemy unit becomes allied to your player/team/whatever (and hostile to its previous) under your control. Its damage dealt is reduced by X% and damage taken by Y%. (maybe give it a one time use taunt?)
• Passive: Nearby hostile deaths charge this passive ability to full over time (charges deplete slowly over longer time); once full a fearful/cowering shout is issued from the position of a semi-random hostile unit and all charges are removed; shout reduces damage dealt and movement speed of hostile units in the area for X seconds. (morale break)

A Hero who is meant to affect the enemy army from afar without getting directly involved.

This seems considerably more difficult. Are they a strategist or other member of the combat chain of command? A magic user? A politician/ruler/face-character? Something else? In this map are armies still somewhat analogus to melee armies? More details probably helps get a better answer, here.

 

[FeelMyRash]

This seems considerably more difficult. Are they a strategist or other member of the combat chain of command? A magic user? A politician/ruler/face-character? Something else? In this map are armies still somewhat analogus to melee armies? More details probably helps get a better answer, here.

They are a politician (Corrupt King)

It's basically a Risk-type map like Azeroth Wars, so you'll have large armies scattered around the map but can't train anymore units.

 

[Fleck]

False Armistice Proclamation: Units in the targeted area are unable to attack for (x) seconds.

You can achieve this by modifying the Dark Ranger's Silence ability.

 

[cleavinghammer]

no buildings or resources involved and is mostly army based

So are there no resources whatsoever, or do you get a fixed amount of resources every turn that you use to improve spawns, upgrade units, etc. like most Risk/LOTR maps?



False Alarm: Targets a player's unit. Plays a warning message (under attack, ally under attack, etc.) and ping over a unit belonging to the player.

Turncoats: Targets a player's unit. During the next unit spawning, X of the player's units actually belong to a neutral player allied to both caster and target with full unit control, using the target's team color. Once the turncoat attacks a unit belonging to the target, they become part of the caster's army and change team color.

Corrupt Bureaucrat: Creates an invisible unit that passively siphons a small amount of the closest player's income every turn. Must be within a very short radius of an enemy player's unit for the effect to work. Can steal more money with an active channeled ability, but becomes visible to do so.

 

[FeelMyRash]

False Armistice Proclamation: Units in the targeted area are unable to attack for (x) seconds.

You can achieve this by modifying the Dark Ranger's Silence ability.

Great idea! Thanks!

So are there no resources whatsoever, or do you get a fixed amount of resources every turn that you use to improve spawns, upgrade units, etc. like most Risk/LOTR maps?

I haven't decided on that, to be honest. These ideas are still great either way, they may just need some manipulation depending on what I decide...

 

[cleavinghammer]

This could be useful:

Replicating Red Alert Spy Disguise

GOAL This tutorial aims to allow you to replicate the disguise ability used by Spies in Red Alert 2 and Red Alert 3. This also extends to Saboteur and Infiltrator from Mental Omega. KNOWLEDGE REQUIRED Basic Knowledge of Trigger Editor Basic Knowledge of Object Editor Some of your time TOOLS...

www.hiveworkshop.com

 

[cleavinghammer]

Hidden Assassin: Targets an area. Gives Invisibility to all allied units in the area. Alternately, gives them the Wind Walk buff.

Make Martyr: Targets an area. Gives Kaboom to every allied unit in the area (spell's damage increases or decreases depending on the unit's cost/damage/hitpoints/level).

Sabotage Supply Lines: Targets an enemy. Enemy spawns fewer units during the next spawn cycle.

 

[Daffa]

Maybe this?

Mind Control Field v1.1

Mind Control Field "Thou's heart is thee to possess." ABILITY INFORMATION: Controls all units in 600 area below or equal to certain level cap. Cannot control hero or structures. Lasts 15 seconds. Level 1 - level 3 cap. Level 2 - level 4 cap. Level 3 - level 5 cap. INSTALLATION GUIDE: 1...

www.hiveworkshop.com

 

[cleavinghammer]

Imposter (active): Targets an enemy hero (infinite range). Creates a hero unit with the same model, name, color, level and stats as the target (but has no inventory), but replaces all hero abilities with unit versions/gives completely different abilities/has various redirection abilities/belongs to a player neutral to the enemy and controllable by the caster.

Spymaster (active): Grants vision of all enemy units. Pings the location of any Move or Attack-Move orders given to enemy heroes.