- Joined
- Jun 6, 2008
- Messages
- 51
Okay, I'm finally confident enough that my map is ready for Alpha Release. I present to you
STARGÅTE: The Ancient Conflict
This is at it's core a melee map, but with one important distinction: To get to your enemies and to the computer players, you have use Stargates, Way Gates that are by default are inactive but can be activated and have their destinations set to any other Stargate in game. The Stargates are activated by chat commands and are one way (mostly). The game is a bit RPGish at first, but the endgame (in Two Team mode) is a melee game.
Players can chose to either be part of the Undead Empire or command a human exploration team. There can be 3 Undead players and 3 Human Players. Undead players occupy region 2 of the map and Human Players occupy region 1.
The rest of the map is occupied by computer players of random races. There is one computer player per region in regions 3 and 4, and two per region in 5 and 6. These 6 regions, plus a special 7th, all have Stargates.
Stargate addresses and how players learn them
To learn what chat commands to use to activate and use the Stargates, players have to explore the Stargate Temple (at the opposite side of the region the player starts on) and kill the Giant Satyr Hellcaller inside. It is a Hellcaller with boosted stats, and the temple is full of creeps who like buffing eachother, so doing so could prove difficult. The satyr will drop the first Star key and a Stargate manual/log (Book of Summoning Pedestal) which will provide refreshers on how to use the Stargate when clicked. The address code of your planet will also be added to your team's leaderboard and log. Picking up the dropped key will add the address code of either planet 3 or planet 4 to your leaderboard and log.
There are two hidden Giant Satyr Hellcallers each in regions 3,4,5, and 6 that also drop Star keys which will lead you to the next planet you need to explore/conquer/destroy. Each Hellcaller only shows up for players of a certain team and drops a key specific to that team. I've taken additional measures to ensure one team can't run off with another teams keys and hide them where they are unreachable. Well, I've atleast made it very difficult.
Players will have to explore all 4 alien planets to find the key that will allow them to invade the enemy's planet.
Exploration order and the address codes are randomized so veteran players won't have that that advantage over newbies.
Computer Players: Teh Aliens!!!!
The six computer players are confined to regions 3,4,5, and 6, as mentioned before. These are supposed to represent alien races on alien planets. The races chosen are random, so you might see humans and undead among them. This isn't a problem, since in the TV series this is based on, the are several planets populated with humans not allied with the humans from Earth (few even know Earth exists).
This game has two modes, Single Team and Two Team. In Two Team, the goal is to eliminate the opposing team. In Single Team, the goal is to ally, conquer, or eliminate the aliens.
In two team mode, messing with the aliens is not necessary but doing so will make the game harder to win for the opposing team.
Rewards and Consequences of Being an Intrepid Explorer
The special 7th Stargate I mentioned earlier is the only two way Stargate. It also leads to a very special place(see attachment 1). Its a small place with only the stargate, mana and health fountains, and a shop that let's you enlist the help of ascended beings!
Ascended beings come out of the shop as level 1 heros, but very quickly increase their hero level to 10 .
There is no way to learn the address to this Stargate, so one has to guess their way there. However, its a 1 in 94 chance to get the address right. The universe is a dangerous place, and the consequence of dialing the wrong address is being transported to a planet with a hostile environment! (I found H03Footman47.mp3 in the sound editor and just had to use it)
Additional Miscellaneous Features
I've taken out the melee trigger that limits players to one hero of each type, so you can have an army of archmagi, deathknights, or ascended beings if you wish. The only thing that would restrict you is the tech tree at first, but once your town-hall type unit is fully upgraded, there's nothing to stop you from going hero crazy.
Things that need fixin'
I am happiest with the terraining of region 3. I am still worried about regions 5 and 6, though. I want those terrains to be balanced as possible for the computer players at war there. If there is disbalance, the war will be over before any non-computer players even get to those planets. I want the player characters to step into the middle of a war when they step through those stargates
I haven't terrained regions 1 and 2 at all except for the Temples. I ran out of ideas.
The computer players in 3 and 4 seem to reach a certain point were they ignore the creeps I so generously provided them and want to go after another computer player and get stuck in a corner.
The learning curve of this game may be too steep. A big part of fixing this will be putting instructions into the quest menu, and writing this post has clarified a bit what I need to put in there. Another big part of this will be the terraining of regions 1 and 2. I want the players to be guided toward the stargate then the temple by the terrain.
Hero Unbalance: The archmage hero could give the human side an unfair advantage. The problem ability is Mass Teleport. Is this something that is really unfair? What other ultimate ability could it be replaced with that is still humanish and wizardly? Maybe Starfall?
Memory Leaks: If you find leaks, please point them out.
If any of you looking at my triggers want me to comment my code, speak up.
Map descriptions and anything else mentioned here [THREAD=33717]Aesthetics Thread[/THREAD]
I could only find 2 canon names for the Dark Ascended beings. Anubis the half Ascended Goa'uld and Adria the Orici. The other names I came up with are just plain blasphemous names (lame). STARGATE GEEKS! If anyone can think of Ori-like names, feel free to post them.
Things that need testin'
I've left in some testing triggers for those who want to test my map. Typing in test teams will list who's playing, what teams they are on, and how many units they have. Typing in test arrays will list the address codes of the regions I've been mentioning and that of the 7th stargate.
The triggers that operate the stargates are very important to the game. They are pretty much single player safe, but I want to know if they are multiplayer safe. Test the hell out of them.
Computer player alliances, defeats, conquering, liberation, and hostility: Second most important aspect of the game. Test the hell out of this too.
Have fun!
-------
changes made to the map:
06-27-2008 - put in trees into regions 1 and 2 so that the game is at least playable in multi-player. Sorry guys! Wasn't thinking! The trees are there for testing purposes and do not reflect what the terrain in 1 and 2 will look like in the final map.
06-29-2008 - minor terrain changes and triggers to trick the computer players into doing what I want.
06-29-2008 -vers. 483- Fiddling with some of the neutral hostile units to get computer players to behave better, minor loading screen improvement
STARGÅTE: The Ancient Conflict
This is at it's core a melee map, but with one important distinction: To get to your enemies and to the computer players, you have use Stargates, Way Gates that are by default are inactive but can be activated and have their destinations set to any other Stargate in game. The Stargates are activated by chat commands and are one way (mostly). The game is a bit RPGish at first, but the endgame (in Two Team mode) is a melee game.
Players can chose to either be part of the Undead Empire or command a human exploration team. There can be 3 Undead players and 3 Human Players. Undead players occupy region 2 of the map and Human Players occupy region 1.
The rest of the map is occupied by computer players of random races. There is one computer player per region in regions 3 and 4, and two per region in 5 and 6. These 6 regions, plus a special 7th, all have Stargates.
Stargate addresses and how players learn them
To learn what chat commands to use to activate and use the Stargates, players have to explore the Stargate Temple (at the opposite side of the region the player starts on) and kill the Giant Satyr Hellcaller inside. It is a Hellcaller with boosted stats, and the temple is full of creeps who like buffing eachother, so doing so could prove difficult. The satyr will drop the first Star key and a Stargate manual/log (Book of Summoning Pedestal) which will provide refreshers on how to use the Stargate when clicked. The address code of your planet will also be added to your team's leaderboard and log. Picking up the dropped key will add the address code of either planet 3 or planet 4 to your leaderboard and log.
To use a Stargate, type dial ####, where #### is the connection address code. The first two numbers of the address are the address code of the planet you are standing on and the last two are the address code of where you want to go.
There are two hidden Giant Satyr Hellcallers each in regions 3,4,5, and 6 that also drop Star keys which will lead you to the next planet you need to explore/conquer/destroy. Each Hellcaller only shows up for players of a certain team and drops a key specific to that team. I've taken additional measures to ensure one team can't run off with another teams keys and hide them where they are unreachable. Well, I've atleast made it very difficult.
Players will have to explore all 4 alien planets to find the key that will allow them to invade the enemy's planet. Exploration order and the address codes are randomized so veteran players won't have that that advantage over newbies.
Computer Players: Teh Aliens!!!!
The six computer players are confined to regions 3,4,5, and 6, as mentioned before. These are supposed to represent alien races on alien planets. The races chosen are random, so you might see humans and undead among them. This isn't a problem, since in the TV series this is based on, the are several planets populated with humans not allied with the humans from Earth (few even know Earth exists).
This game has two modes, Single Team and Two Team. In Two Team, the goal is to eliminate the opposing team. In Single Team, the goal is to ally, conquer, or eliminate the aliens.
- Making alliances with the aliens
By default the aliens should treat players as neutral and each other as enemies. Players should also treat the aliens as neutral. This changes, however, if a player negotiates a trade agreement with the aliens. Trade Agreements can be bought at the Peace Hall closest to the alien's start location. One can buy Gold, Lumber, or Food Trade Agreements. Gold Agreements will make it so part of the gold that the alien mines will be added to you gold. Lumber Agreements do the same, but for lumber. Food Agreements lower your food used by ten, which can come in handy if you hit the max food limit. You can't go into negative values, since the game would rather put you way over the food limit if I let it.
Negotiating Trade Agreements will add the aliens to your team and become allies with everyone in it. It will also make them enemies of the opposing team. Negotiation only works with neutral aliens or allied unconquered aliens. - Pissing off the aliens
Attacking an alien will make the attacking player and the attacked computer player enemies. This does not effect what team the alien is on, but cancels any trade agreements between the attacking and attacked players. This hostility lasts 6 minutes after the last attack by the attacker's units. Does not trigger for spells, though
- Conquering the aliens
One can conquer an alien race by killing all their Hero units and their Hero altar. This will add and ally the conquered aliens to the conquering player's team, remove the aliens from whatever team they where on, and make them enemies with the opposing team. It will also cancel any trade agreements the conquered aliens have made and prevent future agreements from being made and gives full unit control of the conquered to the conquerer. - Liberating the aliens
Liberate a conquered alien from an enemy conquerer by killing the conquered race's Heroes and destroying their Hero Altar. Returns the aliens to neutral and cancels any trade agreements the liberated aliens have made. (hmmm, kinda redundant). Removes liberated aliens from conqueror's team. - Destroying the aliens
Kill and destroy everything
In two team mode, messing with the aliens is not necessary but doing so will make the game harder to win for the opposing team.
Rewards and Consequences of Being an Intrepid Explorer
The special 7th Stargate I mentioned earlier is the only two way Stargate. It also leads to a very special place(see attachment 1). Its a small place with only the stargate, mana and health fountains, and a shop that let's you enlist the help of ascended beings!
Ascended beings come out of the shop as level 1 heros, but very quickly increase their hero level to 10 . - Light Ascended Being
Ascended Being that in principle detests treatment as a god. Invisible unit that has True Sight and casts Dispel Magic and Curse. Can learn Holy Light, Chain Lightning, Summon Water Elemental, and Starfall (stronger). - Dark Ascended Being
Ascended Being that demands treatment as a god. Invisible unit that has True Sight and casts Anti-Magic Shell and Slow. Can learn Frost shield, Warstomp, Dark Portal, and Death and Decay.
There is no way to learn the address to this Stargate, so one has to guess their way there. However, its a 1 in 94 chance to get the address right. The universe is a dangerous place, and the consequence of dialing the wrong address is being transported to a planet with a hostile environment! (I found H03Footman47.mp3 in the sound editor and just had to use it
)Additional Miscellaneous Features
I've taken out the melee trigger that limits players to one hero of each type, so you can have an army of archmagi, deathknights, or ascended beings if you wish. The only thing that would restrict you is the tech tree at first, but once your town-hall type unit is fully upgraded, there's nothing to stop you from going hero crazy.
Things that need fixin'
I am happiest with the terraining of region 3. I am still worried about regions 5 and 6, though. I want those terrains to be balanced as possible for the computer players at war there. If there is disbalance, the war will be over before any non-computer players even get to those planets. I want the player characters to step into the middle of a war when they step through those stargates
I haven't terrained regions 1 and 2 at all except for the Temples. I ran out of ideas.
The computer players in 3 and 4 seem to reach a certain point were they ignore the creeps I so generously provided them and want to go after another computer player and get stuck in a corner.
The learning curve of this game may be too steep. A big part of fixing this will be putting instructions into the quest menu, and writing this post has clarified a bit what I need to put in there. Another big part of this will be the terraining of regions 1 and 2. I want the players to be guided toward the stargate then the temple by the terrain.
Hero Unbalance: The archmage hero could give the human side an unfair advantage. The problem ability is Mass Teleport. Is this something that is really unfair? What other ultimate ability could it be replaced with that is still humanish and wizardly? Maybe Starfall?
Memory Leaks: If you find leaks, please point them out.
If any of you looking at my triggers want me to comment my code, speak up.
Map descriptions and anything else mentioned here [THREAD=33717]Aesthetics Thread[/THREAD]
I could only find 2 canon names for the Dark Ascended beings. Anubis the half Ascended Goa'uld and Adria the Orici. The other names I came up with are just plain blasphemous names (lame). STARGATE GEEKS! If anyone can think of Ori-like names, feel free to post them.
Things that need testin'
I've left in some testing triggers for those who want to test my map. Typing in test teams will list who's playing, what teams they are on, and how many units they have. Typing in test arrays will list the address codes of the regions I've been mentioning and that of the 7th stargate.
The triggers that operate the stargates are very important to the game. They are pretty much single player safe, but I want to know if they are multiplayer safe. Test the hell out of them.
Computer player alliances, defeats, conquering, liberation, and hostility: Second most important aspect of the game. Test the hell out of this too.
Have fun!
-------
changes made to the map:
06-27-2008 - put in trees into regions 1 and 2 so that the game is at least playable in multi-player. Sorry guys! Wasn't thinking! The trees are there for testing purposes and do not reflect what the terrain in 1 and 2 will look like in the final map.
06-29-2008 - minor terrain changes and triggers to trick the computer players into doing what I want.
06-29-2008 -vers. 483- Fiddling with some of the neutral hostile units to get computer players to behave better, minor loading screen improvement
Attachments
Last edited:
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