- Joined
- Apr 21, 2004
- Messages
- 46
I want your thought on a map. It's not the most ambitious project on this board, but it's certainly not mapping for pansies. What do you think?
Struggle for Zethos Peninsula
SZP
Concept Summary
-Players on teams are placed on parallel fields with monsters assaulting them. They must fight, using their chosen heroes, up to a goal location and then hold it for a little while. The twist is that their enemies (called hires) are summoned by the opposing team, and it is imperative to kill them as quickly as possible and with minimal injury in order to win the round. By winning rounds the team gains points, and by gaining points they achieve victory, but not before a climactic showdown!
Goals
-Accessible gameplay; easy to learn, hard to master
-Cutthroat, dramatic competition that facilitates comebacks and demands vigilance even if a side seems to be dominating.
-Under 1 MB map size: Yeah, it’s painful to say this when there are so many great resources on the Hive, but it’s so that people can DL it without hassle.
-Game Length of 30-60 minutes: This is kind of fluid, and will require an actual product to perfect, but too long a game is too hard to play. Perhaps multiple modes for multiple styles/lengths of play, though those would come later.
-Measured pacing: Players and their strengths will avoid the exponential growth that you see in many TDs or footmen wars to maintain relative parity between players. Additionally, the gameplay will try to strike a fair balance as far as reflex demands, staying shy of the DotA end of that spectrum.
-Polish and Playability: Smooth play, clear instructions, and crisp presentation should all be priorities.
Specifics of gameplay
Beginning
-There are two equal teams (probably 5 each max, conceivably six)
-Each player chooses a race, which determines what heroes, hires and upgrades are available to them. Each race also has a special asymmetrical ability (totally unlike any other race) to further distinguish it.
-Each player picks a hero
Pre-Round Prep
-Player upgrade/buy items for heroes using lumber, purchase units using gold and food, and purchase power-ups using food and a special resource (henceforth, Srez) uniquely named for each race.
-Players may also buy special hires, avatars, which they control directly (as opposed to normal hires that are like the spawns in an AoS). Avatars are generally quite strong, but only with some degree of intelligent use and micro. They have variegated talents and effects on the battlefield. They require the aforementioned Srez.
Round: FIGHT!
-Each team is placed in an identical but separate field, usually taller than it is wide, and must fight to a goal point on the opposite side.
-To capture the goal, the team must wipe out most of the hires on the field as well as moving to the location.
-Each round, the map’s terrain changes – walls and barricades will change locations, as will the goals.
Post-Round clean-up/evaluation
-The winning team is the one that captures its goal fastest, and gains a hefty gold bonus. However, other factors like hero survival and difficulty of the enemies killed also have their own bonuses – thus, it’s not just a mindless rush for the goal.
-The winning team gains a point. After a team reaches a certain number of points, the game goes into Final Battle mode, wherein the teams compete directly, much as a conventional AoS, and the team with higher points must eliminate their opponents to win.
Miscellaneous
-Sometimes special rounds will include twists on the formula, these could take many forms…
-Certain special units are unlocked only by having a certain number of points as a team, while others unlock automatically with round progression (to measure the pace of the game)
Resources
-Gold is gained through end-round bonus and creep-kill
-Lumber is gained based on the performance of your hires
-Food is measured out in fairly set amounts each round, though the player can do certain things to affect how much they have.
-Srez is gained through a variety of ways, including a meagerly allowance that arrives every round, special bonuses for superb defense or offense, and some other means, especially during the special rounds.
Components of this map to be considered.
-Framework in which everything will fit (background/story, as it relates to mechanics)
-Races (Will be added as time goes by – Race defines heroes, hires, and upgrades)
-Heroes (you defend with these)
-Hero upgrades/items
-Hires (the units you attack with)
-Avatars (Special attack units that are extra-powerful and under your control)
-Hire upgrades
-Offensive/Defensive power-ups (special effects that last a round)
EDIT 1 (2/23/08): Race Concepts
Races
-Empire of Man: A feudal noble republic that has recently undergone violent upheaval and revolution. Only now regaining control, after losing much of its territority, humanity fights to hold on to it’s former dominance. It is ingrained in the beliefs of the Empire to fight ones opponent face to face and with unfettered ferocity on the field.
-Fel-Skull Clan: A group of demons and allied races, the original inhabitants of the peninsula. Long subjugated and forced into the worst parts of Zethos by the Empire of Man, they seek to reclaim the peninsula that they ruled millennia ago. The demon psyche is one of ‘victory my any means’, including the darkest of magics and most brutal of tactics.
-Wanderers: This motley collection of goblins, dwarfs, their machines and their domesticated creatures arrived to Zethos seeking a respite from strife and darkness in their homes, and are shattered to see their place of salvation consumed by war. Nonetheless, they are determined to flee no more, but fight. Both brilliant tacticians and mechanical experts, they will use their minds and their machines to make up for their lack of great numbers or brute strength.
-Oceanic Collective: Controlling much of the sea around Zethos, and now seeking to lay claim to the land, the secretive Ocean Master has sent his hordes of sea creatures and Naga thralls to claim the peninsula. Possessed of numerous unorthodox abilities granted them by their master, these creatures are dangerous on their own and deadly with their brethren.
-Cabal of Orthon: The Cabal is a group of mages and mystics from all over Zethos, mostly human and elf, seeking both to preserve the network of magical wellsprings and connections they have long fostered, and also to assert magician control over the peninsula. Conjuring powerful demons and going into battle to work terrible spells of destruction, they are a force to be reckoned with.
-Druidic Federation: A loose association of trolls, elves, and orcs who have put themselves in harmony with nature, as well as mastered wildlife around them, they have heard the whisper of the trees to ‘kill those who would cut us down’. Wild and determined, they use their powers of transformation and mastery of the very forces of mother nature to wreak havoc on enemy armies.
Struggle for Zethos Peninsula
SZP
Concept Summary
-Players on teams are placed on parallel fields with monsters assaulting them. They must fight, using their chosen heroes, up to a goal location and then hold it for a little while. The twist is that their enemies (called hires) are summoned by the opposing team, and it is imperative to kill them as quickly as possible and with minimal injury in order to win the round. By winning rounds the team gains points, and by gaining points they achieve victory, but not before a climactic showdown!
Goals
-Accessible gameplay; easy to learn, hard to master
-Cutthroat, dramatic competition that facilitates comebacks and demands vigilance even if a side seems to be dominating.
-Under 1 MB map size: Yeah, it’s painful to say this when there are so many great resources on the Hive, but it’s so that people can DL it without hassle.
-Game Length of 30-60 minutes: This is kind of fluid, and will require an actual product to perfect, but too long a game is too hard to play. Perhaps multiple modes for multiple styles/lengths of play, though those would come later.
-Measured pacing: Players and their strengths will avoid the exponential growth that you see in many TDs or footmen wars to maintain relative parity between players. Additionally, the gameplay will try to strike a fair balance as far as reflex demands, staying shy of the DotA end of that spectrum.
-Polish and Playability: Smooth play, clear instructions, and crisp presentation should all be priorities.
Specifics of gameplay
Beginning
-There are two equal teams (probably 5 each max, conceivably six)
-Each player chooses a race, which determines what heroes, hires and upgrades are available to them. Each race also has a special asymmetrical ability (totally unlike any other race) to further distinguish it.
-Each player picks a hero
Pre-Round Prep
-Player upgrade/buy items for heroes using lumber, purchase units using gold and food, and purchase power-ups using food and a special resource (henceforth, Srez) uniquely named for each race.
-Players may also buy special hires, avatars, which they control directly (as opposed to normal hires that are like the spawns in an AoS). Avatars are generally quite strong, but only with some degree of intelligent use and micro. They have variegated talents and effects on the battlefield. They require the aforementioned Srez.
Round: FIGHT!
-Each team is placed in an identical but separate field, usually taller than it is wide, and must fight to a goal point on the opposite side.
-To capture the goal, the team must wipe out most of the hires on the field as well as moving to the location.
-Each round, the map’s terrain changes – walls and barricades will change locations, as will the goals.
Post-Round clean-up/evaluation
-The winning team is the one that captures its goal fastest, and gains a hefty gold bonus. However, other factors like hero survival and difficulty of the enemies killed also have their own bonuses – thus, it’s not just a mindless rush for the goal.
-The winning team gains a point. After a team reaches a certain number of points, the game goes into Final Battle mode, wherein the teams compete directly, much as a conventional AoS, and the team with higher points must eliminate their opponents to win.
Miscellaneous
-Sometimes special rounds will include twists on the formula, these could take many forms…
-Certain special units are unlocked only by having a certain number of points as a team, while others unlock automatically with round progression (to measure the pace of the game)
Resources
-Gold is gained through end-round bonus and creep-kill
-Lumber is gained based on the performance of your hires
-Food is measured out in fairly set amounts each round, though the player can do certain things to affect how much they have.
-Srez is gained through a variety of ways, including a meagerly allowance that arrives every round, special bonuses for superb defense or offense, and some other means, especially during the special rounds.
Components of this map to be considered.
-Framework in which everything will fit (background/story, as it relates to mechanics)
-Races (Will be added as time goes by – Race defines heroes, hires, and upgrades)
-Heroes (you defend with these)
-Hero upgrades/items
-Hires (the units you attack with)
-Avatars (Special attack units that are extra-powerful and under your control)
-Hire upgrades
-Offensive/Defensive power-ups (special effects that last a round)
EDIT 1 (2/23/08): Race Concepts
Races
-Empire of Man: A feudal noble republic that has recently undergone violent upheaval and revolution. Only now regaining control, after losing much of its territority, humanity fights to hold on to it’s former dominance. It is ingrained in the beliefs of the Empire to fight ones opponent face to face and with unfettered ferocity on the field.
-Fel-Skull Clan: A group of demons and allied races, the original inhabitants of the peninsula. Long subjugated and forced into the worst parts of Zethos by the Empire of Man, they seek to reclaim the peninsula that they ruled millennia ago. The demon psyche is one of ‘victory my any means’, including the darkest of magics and most brutal of tactics.
-Wanderers: This motley collection of goblins, dwarfs, their machines and their domesticated creatures arrived to Zethos seeking a respite from strife and darkness in their homes, and are shattered to see their place of salvation consumed by war. Nonetheless, they are determined to flee no more, but fight. Both brilliant tacticians and mechanical experts, they will use their minds and their machines to make up for their lack of great numbers or brute strength.
-Oceanic Collective: Controlling much of the sea around Zethos, and now seeking to lay claim to the land, the secretive Ocean Master has sent his hordes of sea creatures and Naga thralls to claim the peninsula. Possessed of numerous unorthodox abilities granted them by their master, these creatures are dangerous on their own and deadly with their brethren.
-Cabal of Orthon: The Cabal is a group of mages and mystics from all over Zethos, mostly human and elf, seeking both to preserve the network of magical wellsprings and connections they have long fostered, and also to assert magician control over the peninsula. Conjuring powerful demons and going into battle to work terrible spells of destruction, they are a force to be reckoned with.
-Druidic Federation: A loose association of trolls, elves, and orcs who have put themselves in harmony with nature, as well as mastered wildlife around them, they have heard the whisper of the trees to ‘kill those who would cut us down’. Wild and determined, they use their powers of transformation and mastery of the very forces of mother nature to wreak havoc on enemy armies.
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