Tactical Zombie Warfare Alpha Version

[Jazztastic]

Due to unexpected real life situations, I'm halting progress on this map until further notice. The beta is still available, but don't expect any changes until later

What is Tactical Zombie Warfare?

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Tactical Zombie Warfare is a survival map, but with more of a focus on intellect. Using a plethora of towers and upgrades, you must survive another players determined zombie onslaught. The zombies come in waves, with increasing magnitude and strength. The players must cooperate and use their limited resources effectively and efficently in a struggle to survive.

Tactical Zombie Warfare will have 5 players max in the game. 4 marines, working together to survive, and 1 zombie master, who has control over the zombie spawn.

Tactical Zombie Warfare should have an Alpha version ready by Friday. Depending on feedback and help from my friends, I will release a Beta version to the public soon after. After Beta testing and finalization of the map, I shall make one final checkover of everything and submit to the maps section of THW

Submit ideas for improvement and Beta test it when it is available.

How does the game work?

The simple explaination of Tactical Zombie Warfare:-Survive 25 rounds as a marine, or kill the marines. Build towers and use upgrades to win.

The more in-depth understanding of Tactical Zombie Warfare:-As one of four marines, fight against an ever stronger zombie horde, led by the Zombie Master. The Zombie Master has direct control over the zombies, and can bring forth special units, and upgrade the zombies, and the strength of the marines is their ability to build towers

Screenshots

Please note that features are subject to change! What you are seeing now is simply an appetizer.



Highlights: Detailed multiboard

View attachment 100829
Highlights: Detailed round information, droppable pickup items, title of multiboard changes with round

View attachment 100830
Highlights: Highly detailed tooltip, giving a wide range of info, including units affected and upgrade amount (and total)

Features of Tactical Zombie Warfare

Being built from the ground up by an inspired individual (me of course), the map has the feel of a survival, with a lot more elements mixed in. Filled with features like gangsters get filled with bullets, Tactical Zombie Survival puts the extras in like a fat person puts donuts in (his mouth)

Features:
-25 rounds of multiplayer mayhem, candy coated in a bevy of upgrades and towers
-Detailed scoreboard, shows wave, kills, remaining zombies, important items, and health of marines.
-Customized hero interface, use stamina, speed, and accuracy instead of boring old strength, agility, and intelligence.
-Truly a fight for survival. Health and mana (dubbed "skill points") do not regenerate. Use a streamlined recovery system (killed units drop a small health or mana pick up) or a precious inventory item to regain any lost points.
-Level cap of 100, but levels truly are insignificant in this game. Experience earns you a customized stat bonus, pick-ups grant skills.
-Zombies constantly grow stronger. Marines must use their resources wisely in order to face the threat, buying upgrades for themselves or their towers.
-Pretty tooltips galore! Filled to bursting with info on everything you need to know, the game will easily be more enjoyable with the colored and informative tooltips.
-Able to make custom units, the Zombie Master will have total control over his default units and any specialized ones he purchases. Need a terribly annoying turret gone? Buy a sapper mercenary. Need a unit to lead the attack, with a powerful aura? Look no further than the powerful Death Knight.

Current Project Status:
Terrain: 100%
Units: 80% Ready for Beta
Triggers: 75% Meeeeh
Spells: 20% (Low priority currently)
Items: 35% (Minor Tweaks)

OVERALL: 310/500 About 62% finished.

There are about 60 imported files, but since I'm still in creation stage only about 40% of those will be used. A full list of resources crediting their authors will be available upon map finalization

Update Log

4/14/2011

-Finished Death Knight
-Finished Returned
-Finished Multiboard (but still extra space to add if I want more stuff)
-Terrain update, mostly fire near graveyard
-Massive tooltip touchup
-Added new unit upgrades and abilities
-Added 4 screenshots

Current Project Status:
Terrain: 95% (Nearing 100% completion. Idea finalized, just finishing rough patches)
Units: 65% (Adding more hireable units for the Undead)
Triggers: 70% (Playable, but with rough patches/glitches and not optimized)
Spells: 20% (No change)
Items: 35% (No change)

4/16/2011

-Added upgrades for undead, and finished some custom units
-Made tooltips even better
-A few bug fixes, mostly with new round starting upon villager death
-Made and finished Demo team and Undead Assassin
-Small tweaks to game balance (more hp drops)
-Medkit and grenade changes, no longer droppable
-Began work on implementing abilities through items (more to come)
-Released public beta

Current Project Status:
Terrain: 100%
Units: 80% (Need more units for Zombie Master)
Triggers: 75% (Playable)
Spells: 20% (No change)
Items: 35% (Tweaks to existing items)
NEW-Upgrades: 40% (Need more upgrades for humans and undead)

Want to help in this project?

Click me to find out how

-I desperately need a good triggerer to help revise code and help with spells and 1 or 2 systems. Anyone who would like to be a part of this project, simply PM me and your contribution to the map will be noted in credits (both at end of game and in quest log)
-Leave comments at bottom with any ideas/changes you think should be applied to the game
-Volunteer to Beta test when the Beta becomes available. Easy as downloading, playing, and telling me goods/bads/need fixes

About the Beta

Expect possible bugs or broken abilities in the Beta. Deets about the map right now

-There are no mana abilities
-No items
-Limited Upgrades (will be expanded upon greatly)
-GAME BALANCE! THIS IS HUGE! I have been unable to test in any kind of real game. I have worked purely off of numbers and guesswork for balancing. Some towers/units will be ridiculously good while others are not. That is the main purpose of this beta. Please PM or post below about balance changes that are needed
-There is currently no list of sources. There is a giant spam of imported models, only of which 10 are used. Ignore these. Proper credits will be given upon map release when I have finalized which models will be used and how.
-Please give critical feedback, "MAP IS GOOD " is not useful, neither is "SO IMBA OMG!". Include specifics that need changes. This will help me change the game so it is more fun for you, the player, but also tell me the good things so I can expand upon them.
-I know the triggering is bad, especially on the multiboard. I'm not a talented triggerer but I tried to clear all memory leaks and make as efficient as possible. If you want to help with triggers, go right ahead, but don't bother flaming.

BEHOLD THE BETA! (War! is just a nameholder currently)
View attachment 101005

 

[Jazztastic]

No one at all is posting? How depressing

 

[De.Facto]

No one at all is posting? How depressing

I guess we want to see screenshots and some graphical improvements within your project presentation.

 

[Jazztastic]

I thought map dev section was for unfinished maps. How could I post gameplay screenshots of an unfinished map?

If the map development section was a simple presentation before posting for review, wouldn't it be stupid and not filled at all? With a 54% finished map, what could I really show? This is just the spot for the status updates and progress of my map, which I'm sure absolutely no one cares about/will play, but at the same time I'm going to get this map approved because it will give me a sense of accomplishment, and mean I've contributed positively to THW.

Expect screenshots in the map section, or at way later in development (if the map gets waylaid by weeks)

 

[GhostThruster]

How could I post gameplay screenshots of an unfinished map?

Heard of Pre-alpha, Alpha, and Beta? Usually when someone posts in the map development, they have something to show off. Else this belongs in the Idea Factory.

 

[Jazztastic]

Heard of Pre-alpha, Alpha, and Beta? Usually when someone posts in the map development, they have something to show off. Else this belongs in the Idea Factory.

God I hate how this guy IS ALWAYS RIGHT. I swear he follows me around just to correct me

In all seriousness I tried for a while to upload screenshots, but i couldnt find a button to upload off my computer, so i ported em to deviantart so i could use a link and the link didnt work so i just deleted it. How to correct?

 

[MrStormyZ]

God I hate how this guy IS ALWAYS RIGHT. I swear he follows me around just to correct me

In all seriousness I tried for a while to upload screenshots, but i couldnt find a button to upload off my computer, so i ported em to deviantart so i could use a link and the link didnt work so i just deleted it. How to correct?

Screenshots are uploadable using that attachment thing which is found while posting
and another way is upload it in your Hive profile album then link them here with [IMG*][/IMG]

 

[GhostThruster]

I swear he follows me around just to correct me

Dude, you've been on this site for less than a week. But yeah, I am always right ;]

 

[Jazztastic]

I guess we want to see screenshots and some graphical improvements within your project presentation.

Based off of my description of gameplay/features and my newly added screenshots, are there any areas that immediately seem incorrect or in need of repair? Any ideas for improvement and any constructive criticism would be highly appreciated.

 

[Orcnet]

Well a Zombie/Survival are really a must right now. since team work and strategies are the new battleground for custom maps. anyways your game is intriguing but you could provide us a beta version of your map for us to see some wip in the game.

and for my suggestions, I was thinking if there would be zombie unit levels that will go through in waves. for example, you made 3 zombie levels for the game:
lvl1 - zombie
lvl2 - blood zombie
lvl3 - rot hoar

on each wave, a lvl1 and lvl2 zombies will charge at the players and then on the next wave, different type of zombies will charge in. that way it can somehow ease the game's difficulty instead of making the wave stronger by each level it goes.

My second suggestion about your map is the players, what about the players that wants to be the zombies instead of the marines? well here is what I think.

Those who wants to be the zombies.[maybe 5 zombie players to balance the game mechanics] they would choose there desired zombie that has the ability to disable the marines gameplay and let them loose. maybe undead abilities are good enough except the "Possess" ability

the zombie players will choose there zombie unit[not a hero] in a specific mercenary camp that only the zombie team can see. and if your thinking I'm relating this stuff in Left4Dead, I'd say no because its not good really.
so what do you think? bad or good?

 

[Jazztastic]

About the different zombie wave things, here's what I have with that

Each round it spawns X zombies and X mummies. The mummies are way stronger and there are less of them. Also, a villager spawns automatically every 30 seconds. If a villager dies to a zombie, it turns into a "villager zombie" which are even faster and stronger than mummies.

Player 12 (the Zombie Master) can also recruit mercenary units from his base to help him, fight whenever he wants. These units usually have abilities, such as movement speed aura, slow, or truesight (for mines). These units can be spawned anytime to help with the round.

The zombie master can also research upgrades affecting either his basic 3 zombies or his hired help. Upgrades include abilities like slow poison to simple damage, armor, or movement speed upgrades. These constantly increase in gold value.

The game is designed to progressively get harder. However, sometimes less zombies spawn than last round, so there are occasional less hard rounds.

As far as implementation of turning dead marines into zombies, I didn't think that would be a good idea because the zombie master should already be able to win in a 4v1. Maybe something minor to help him win, I mean taking a 1/4 of the marines out of the picture is already really useful to him.

I really did design the map in mind with a 1v4. Its a 32x32, so there isn't room for a giant ass spam of units. It's supposed to be fast paced turret/dodging action peppered with beautiful tooltips and multiboard.

Feedback on my ideas? Beta map coming soon

 

[Jazztastic]

Public Beta available.

Look under beta tab.

 

[Orcnet]

Excellent Idea lad,
well since yours is better, I will enjoy your map's game play, the Zombie Master is good to me, as well as the marines. good luck with triggers and such dude, I'll be viewing the beta map for a while

 

[Jazztastic]

So you played it and liked it?

The main inspiration for this map was "All the survival maps are bot run, that's silly". So far everythings only about half done, I hope to add at least 3 more tower and 4 more human upgrades, as well as a slew of purchasable items and 2 more undead units and upgrades.

Any suggestions on balancing? I haven't been able to play it with people at all, since I cannot host on b.net and my friends are too busy for lan

I really need the whats what on here. Goods and bads are both important to know, since I want the absolute best map possible.

EDIT: The first beta map has been updated and rebalanced. Download the newest one

And you'll probably want to since the undead don't even have their zombie spawner in the old one