Techtree Contest #14 - Reforge, Don't Refund [Optionally Paired]

[MyPad]

Finally got one of my spells working in the map.

All the models in here are likely placeholders, with model imports coming soon. Showcasing some ideas on what the race is all about:

Spoiler: Save your data

Construction workers:

Infest Ability

Infest Ability in Action:

Spoiler: Questions

Why do I see two Acolytes in the background?

• These are Contractors, who summon the actual worker units. They do not do much other than offering basic infantry services and summoning workers.

What is a Ghoulish Engineer?

• It is basically an undead Peasant, without the ability to gather resources.

Who gathers resources?

• It would be Retireable Shades. They gather gold and lumber a la acolyte style (worshipping the mine). Due to their exclusive functionality, they gather twice as much gold and lumber as any other race.

 

[Yours Truly]

Finally got one of my spells working in the map.

All the models in here are likely placeholders, with model imports coming soon. Showcasing some ideas on what the race is all about:

Spoiler: Save your data

Construction workers:
View attachment 348659

Infest Ability
View attachment 348660

Infest Ability in Action:
View attachment 348661
View attachment 348662

Spoiler: Questions

Why do I see two Acolytes in the background?

• These are Contractors, who summon the actual worker units. They do not do much other than offering basic infantry services and summoning workers.

What is a Ghoulish Engineer?

• It is basically an undead Peasant, without the ability to gather resources.

Who gathers resources?

• It would be Retireable Shades. They gather gold and lumber a la acolyte style (worshipping the mine). Due to their exclusive functionality, they gather twice as much gold and lumber as any other race.

Twice as much gold and lumber? Sounds like corporate scam to me.

 

[MyPad]

Oh, the Undead Corporate is scum, but this isn't a scam.

 

[Leods]

That spell looks great, very complex coding probably, but:
Infest is a 50 seconds automatically kill? And each engineer can cast it?
I think it would be great in a Hero, that spell is a bit OP in every unit.
Suppose you are attacked, and for your good defenses the enemy try to run out the battle. You can use the engineers to kill all units who still alive? And if they dispell the buff a Ghoul will appear? Woah

 

[Wazzz]

I don't think it's supposed to be fair - it is corporate scum shilling you out for every penny

 

[MyPad]

That spell looks great, very complex coding probably, but:
Infest is a 50 seconds automatically kill? And each engineer can cast it?
I think it would be great in a Hero, that spell is a bit OP in every unit.
Suppose you are attacked, and for your good defenses the enemy try to run out the battle. You can use the engineers to kill all units who still alive? And if they dispell the buff a Ghoul will appear? Woah

I'm sure it's balanced out by the midgame to endgame stages, where advanced troops can dispel the debuff. It also has a long cooldown, about 50 seconds.

The Ghoul will reappear once the debuff is removed. This can happen when a dispel is cast or when the target dies. However, when infesting an undead unit, the Ghoul is removed from the game.

Edit:

Right now, I'm working on the Shade's passive, Spectral Phase. It will slow down enemy units it happens to phase through by 40% for 5 seconds. It will be revealed to enemies if it does this 3 times in succession within 5 seconds for balance purposes. (Shade is invisible by default).

 

[Leods]

Ohh... The engineer ghoul dissapears instead the unit dies or a dispel is cast? I thinked the ghoul engineer still in the game, and the spell creates a normal classical Ghoul. So the spell is similar to the Ultimate of the Ghoul hero on Dota? Interesting...

Edit: Well, I think if my unit is just slowed a 40%, I would notice. Or maybe not, I'm not sure.

 

[Yours Truly]

Finished the first hero, the Might of the Union:

This hero is exceptional at tanking and engaging. Going in with Q and soaking up the damage with W is the most optimal spell rotation, though it is recommended to use W when you are low to heal back from the damage you take. You can also knock back the squishy or important targets by Q'ing behind them and then using R to knock them back towards your side.

 

[MyPad]

Finished the first hero, the Might of the Union:

This hero is exceptional at tanking and engaging. Going in with Q and soaking up the damage with W is the most optimal spell rotation, though it is recommended to use W when you are low to heal back from the damage you take. You can also knock back the squishy or important targets by Q'ing behind them and then using R to knock them back towards your side.

That looks like a Hero that can fit into a MOBA. He feels kind of OP in an RTS setting.

 

[Yours Truly]

That looks like a Hero that can fit into a MOBA. He feels kind of OP in an RTS setting.

Yeah, that's what I thought. Right after posting this, I realized how overtuned his kit is. I compared it with the Tauren Chieftan, who's War Stomp does a measly 60 damage, but stuns for a lot longer.
So, his burst damage was nerfed to compensate for the tankiness and crowd control he has.

Q Damage: 80/150/220 --> 50/75/100
(Keep in mind that only the Q stomp deals damage. Knock up does not)

W Damage: 20/30/40 --> 20/25/30
W Duration: 6 seconds --> 7 seconds

R Damage: 150(+10 per Faith) --> 100(+15 per Faith)

 

[Xelos]

please to put Asssssvi as a teammate with me

 

[Daffa]

Me and Directive will have our faction name as The Last Revolt. WIP coming soon.

 

[Vinz]

Noted.
Keep 'em coming, guys.

 

[Mr.Henci]

This sounds interesting, I never really finished any custom race, but this might be the necessary motivation I lacked before.

I will be doing Night Elves where Males/Druids will be the main force, instead of the female Sentinels. They will still worship their Gods/Nature but their ties with it won't be as strong as original Night Elves. Not sure about the name atm.

WIP#1

 

[AMarkov]

Necropolis, Halls of the Dead, Black Citadel are considered 3 different buildings?

 

[MyPad]

Necropolis, Halls of the Dead, Black Citadel are considered 3 different buildings?

Yep

 

[Wazzz]

For the contest, I don't think they did. Although I'm not 100% sure as it's something that carried over from a previous contest.

 

[Kyrbi0]

Yeah, that's what I thought. Right after posting this, I realized how overtuned his kit is. I compared it with the Tauren Chieftan, who's War Stomp does a measly 60 damage, but stuns for a lot longer.
So, his burst damage was nerfed to compensate for the tankiness and crowd control he has.

Q Damage: 80/150/220 --> 50/75/100
(Keep in mind that only the Q stomp deals damage. Knock up does not)

W Damage: 20/30/40 --> 20/25/30
W Duration: 6 seconds --> 7 seconds

R Damage: 150(+10 per Faith) --> 100(+15 per Faith)

You do well to compare it to standard in-game examples, but not just in numbers.

It's also kinda nice that you actually have two data points to compare to: Tauren Chieftain's 'War Stomp' and the Mountain King's 'Thunder Clap'. Both are instant-cast/hero-centered AoE DD & Disable abilities, but on the one hand, the MK deals loads more damage, while the TC gets a full Stun (whereas Thunder Clap merely slows MS & AS by 50%).

Finding a way to fit in that gap is the ideal: since your ability has some extra 'functionalities' (the knock-back(up) & the mobility/positioning aspect of the charge), you'll want to ensure it doesn't also have more damage or a longer disable (if a disable at all).

 

[Riki]

New WIP of my race, also I decided that their name will be Nightscale Tribe.

About their theme, they are a renegade Naga faction that refused to follow Illidan and instead sought a different source of power. Due to this decision, they were forced to abandon Naga's empire and venture to the Ocean's depths, where they embrace the darkness of the site. On land, they feel more comfortable fighting during night, because their senses and magical powers have adapted to total darkness.

Spoiler: WIP 2

Tideguard: Basic melee unit, strong but a bit expensive and slow.
-Capture: Weak autocastable version of Orc Raider's ensnare, can only be used against land units and at melee range.
-Savagery: Stackable movement and attack speed when takes damage.
-Submerge.

Reef Singer: Ranged unit that can change her "Melody" to have a chance of causing different effects on attacked enemies.
-Song of Fantasy: Chance of distract the enemy, causing it to lose it's concentration and miss some attacks.
-Dreams Melody: Chance of sending the attacked enemy into a dream, leaving it out of battle for a few seconds or until it's attacked.
-Ghost Soundwave: Chance of damage enemy's eardrum, causing it to take damage per second.

Darkcrest: Heavy melee unit, excels at tanking but is slower than its equivalents on the rest of factions.
-Resilience: Each few seconds this unit will dispel negative effects that were launched on it.
-Submerge

 

[Kyrbi0]

Cool stuff but I'll just point out that "Dreams Melody" is OP compared to the other two. No reason to select anything but "mini-Sleep"; taking a unit completely out of combat is almost always better than DoT or a Miss Chance.

I like Resilience.

 

[Yours Truly]

You do well to compare it to standard in-game examples, but not just in numbers.

It's also kinda nice that you actually have two data points to compare to: Tauren Chieftain's 'War Stomp' and the Mountain King's 'Thunder Clap'. Both are instant-cast/hero-centered AoE DD & Disable abilities, but on the one hand, the MK deals loads more damage, while the TC gets a full Stun (whereas Thunder Clap merely slows MS & AS by 50%).

Finding a way to fit in that gap is the ideal: since your ability has some extra 'functionalities' (the knock-back(up) & the mobility/positioning aspect of the charge), you'll want to ensure it doesn't also have more damage or a longer disable (if a disable at all).

Holy shit, I just realized how much damage this hero actually has, especially for a "tank" hero. He can deal up to 100 + 210 + 100(+) damage. I have to gut his Q damage, because that was his primary burst tool.

It now deals a miserable 25/40/55 damage, with 40% more cooldown compared to Tauren Chieftan's and Mountain King's AoE CC ability. With this, I can put more power into his W, so that he can actually be a tank. W duration is increased to 8 from 7.

 

[MyPad]

A little bit of progress on the units:

Contractor - Still called the contractor.

Ghoul - Now renamed to Ghoulish Engineer.
Still has Infest.

Shade - Now renamed to Retireable Shade.
Now has a (working) passive that
allows it to slow down enemy units
it phases through by 40% for 5 seconds.

If the shade does this 3 times within 5
seconds, he loses his invisibility for 10
seconds.
​

WIP Images:

Spoiler: Save your Data

Spectral Phase Description:

Spectral Phase Demonstration:

EDIT:

Oops, forgot to remove the debug messages when taking the video.

 

[Kam]

I'm looking forward to reviewing these. =)

 

[Yours Truly]

Here's an early WIP of the training system that made me pulled every inch of my hair trying to make it work properly:

Training structures (e.g: Garrison) will select the nearest available and idle Commoner and draft him into the military. If there is none, the training process will not continue. The unique thing about it is that it allows you to train up to 2 units as well as research upgrades that will not interrupt the training process.

This makes the Seraphic Union a very good early game faction, and the Commoner defense system adds up to the already-strong early game that allows you to fend off enemies with no additional costs.
However, despite these advantages, the Commoners are vulnerable while they are on their way to their drafted building. Should they be killed while moving to their structure, or their structure gets destroyed while training, there will be no returns for the resources you spent on them.

Other than that, you are unable to queue up training processes for more than 2 units, unlike regular barracks and have to manually check on them every few seconds to queue up more training. This is compensated by the ability to be able to train 2 units simultaneously.

Commoners, training or idle, have a 50% chance to survive if their Shanties or drafted building gets destroyed, with around 40-70% health remaining.

 

[knight26]

As an entertainment, I’ll leave you this comic, I hope it will amuse you.
View attachment 348453

What is this meme? Thank you for watching? I feel like this is how meme's would be mande in the time of Looney Tunes.

i beli-beli-beli-belive

Thats All Folks GIF - Find & Share on GIPHY

 

[Xelos]

Ghost shroud ability for admiral: all enemies in area will not be able attack or cast spells. 1. mana cost 100 , area 200, 5 second. 2. 100 mana, 300 area, 10 second. 3. 100 mana, area 400, 15 second.

 

[SgtNutz]

Hi! I just stumbled upon this forum looking fr some tutorials and think this may be fun.

Can I just join in? Dont know if I can finish in time (2 kids and a wife so not many eves on the laptop) but will try.

I'm working on an all troll race. You have a basic structure to start from, but it branches out for more specialized units.
You have to upgrade your Hero Altar into one of three possible buildings:
- A Spring of Spirits to follow the hordes shamanic tribal traditions
- A Well of Wisodm to venerate the elder that cling to the memmory of ancient empires long lost
- A Stream of Souls to embrace the Voodoo and find friends from the other side

Also Kodos are mobile lumber collection sites and will tollerate crafties that piggybag ride. Unless you spike their diet and poke them with pointy sticks till they become rampaging seige monstrosities...

 

[MogulKahn]

New WIP of my race, also I decided that their name will be Nightscale Tribe.

About their theme, they are a renegade Naga faction that refused to follow Illidan and instead sought a different source of power. Due to this decision, they were forced to abandon Naga's empire and venture to the Ocean's depths, where they embrace the darkness of the site. On land, they feel more comfortable fighting during night, because their senses and magical powers have adapted to total darkness.

Spoiler: WIP 2

View attachment 348866

Tideguard: Basic melee unit, strong but a bit expensive and slow.
-Capture: Weak autocastable version of Orc Raider's ensnare, can only be used against land units and at melee range.
-Savagery: Stackable movement and attack speed when takes damage.
-Submerge.

Reef Singer: Ranged unit that can change her "Melody" to have a chance of causing different effects on attacked enemies.
-Song of Fantasy: Chance of distract the enemy, causing it to lose it's concentration and miss some attacks.
-Dreams Melody: Chance of sending the attacked enemy into a dream, leaving it out of battle for a few seconds or until it's attacked.
-Ghost Soundwave: Chance of damage enemy's eardrum, causing it to take damage per second.

Darkcrest: Heavy melee unit, excels at tanking but is slower than its equivalents on the rest of factions.
-Resilience: Each few seconds this unit will dispel negative effects that were launched on it.
-Submerge

I like your idea the most. Good luck!

 

[Wazzz]

Hi! I just stumbled upon this forum looking fr some tutorials and think this may be fun.

Can I just join in? Dont know if I can finish in time (2 kids and a wife so not many eves on the laptop) but will try.

I'm working on an all troll race. You have a basic structure to start from, but it branches out for more specialized units.
You have to upgrade your Hero Altar into one of three possible buildings:
- A Spring of Spirits to follow the hordes shamanic tribal traditions
- A Well of Wisodm to venerate the elder that cling to the memmory of ancient empires long lost
- A Stream of Souls to embrace the Voodoo and find friends from the other side

View attachment 349230
Also Kodos are mobile lumber collection sites and will tollerate crafties that piggybag ride. Unless you spike their diet and poke them with pointy sticks till they become rampaging seige monstrosities...

Of course you can just join, there's no limitation on when someone can join

 

[Riki]

Spoiler: WIP 3

Bloodfang: Melee siege unit with fast attacks.
-Savagery: Stackable movement and attack speed when takes damage.
-Submerge.

Razorback Turtle: Ranged siege unit, lesser range and damage than other siege machines but has a good defense.
-Spiny Shell: Returns a percentage of damage to melee attackers, but loses effectiveness when the turtle has low health.

Greenfin Oracle: Support caster.
-Hydrate: Heals an ally, then continues healing for a few seconds.
-Water Shield: Protective spell that absorbs a random percentage of damage taken.
-Reversion: Dispel all effects on the target and heal nearby allied units based on amount of buffs the target has.

Gorgon: Versatile caster.
-Eye of the Depths: Summons an eye that can explore and detect hidden units.
-Terrorize: Reduces attack damage from target.
-Stone Gaze: Paralyzes target unit and causes it to receive extra physical damage but reduced damage from spells.

 

[Kyrbi0]

Hi! I just stumbled upon this forum looking fr some tutorials and think this may be fun.

Can I just join in? Dont know if I can finish in time (2 kids and a wife so not many eves on the laptop) but will try.

I'm working on an all troll race. You have a basic structure to start from, but it branches out for more specialized units.
You have to upgrade your Hero Altar into one of three possible buildings:
- A Spring of Spirits to follow the hordes shamanic tribal traditions
- A Well of Wisodm to venerate the elder that cling to the memmory of ancient empires long lost
- A Stream of Souls to embrace the Voodoo and find friends from the other side

View attachment 349230
Also Kodos are mobile lumber collection sites and will tollerate crafties that piggybag ride. Unless you spike their diet and poke them with pointy sticks till they become rampaging seige monstrosities...

>Wife & 2 Kids
>Working on a Troll race
>Entering a Techtree Contest
... are you me???

Seriously, though, looking good. Would love to know more about the units (especially that big golem thingy center-right).

~~~

Bloodfang: Melee siege unit with fast attacks.
-Savagery: Stackable movement and attack speed when takes damage.
-Submerge.

Razorback Turtle: Ranged siege unit, lesser range and damage than other siege machines but has a good defense.
-Spiny Shell: Returns a percentage of damage to melee attackers, but loses effectiveness when the turtle has low health.

Greenfin Oracle: Support caster.
-Hydrate: Heals an ally, then continues healing for a few seconds.
-Water Shield: Protective spell that absorbs a random percentage of damage taken.
-Reversion: Dispel all effects on the target and heal nearby allied units based on amount of buffs the target has.

Gorgon: Versatile caster.
-Eye of the Depths: Summons an eye that can explore and detect hidden units.
-Terrorize: Reduces attack damage from target.
-Stone Gaze: Paralyzes target unit and causes it to receive extra physical damage but reduced damage from spells.

Continuing to impress. : )

 

[Leods]

Well, I must say it. There are a lot of troll techtrees, I am overexerting myself with more than 10 heroes and new systems, and I am already loosing interest in my techtree. I'm not leaving out the contest, all my interesting can come back tomorrow. But is probable I can't finish my map with the time I have. If I had obtained a partner, maybe things would be different, but this is to much work, and I am busy.

 

[Wazzz]

I mean, you don't really need 10 heroes for a techtree.

 

[Leods]

I know ... It's what I've planned for my techtree, they are Loas.
Also some of them would be used by the IA (like Goldrinn), so, yes, more work.

 

[Barorque]

This seems like fun, I'll gladly join the contest!
This faction will be one of 5 custom ones for the altered melee map I will work on very soon.

For my entry I shall do the old god tainted Night Elves as the Emerald Nightmare.
- It will be HD only.
- I will stick very close to the lore.
- Have fully custom assets (textures, icons).

Absolutely unsure if 100MB is even possible for an HD project, we will see!

Spoiler: WIP 1

Since I wish not to spam the Contest forum, I'll just post the new unit I just finished texturing here.
Got really inspired by Oxana Che's amazing art, this is my attempt at his nightmare satyr.

Spoiler: Satyr (not WIP)

 

[Spellbound]

Whoah, nice!

 

[SgtNutz]

Thanx Kirbi0!

The golem was reanimated from the ruins of an ancient troll city by the Wise Ones. They used to protect the cities but are now used as a ranged seige golem (throws rocks).
The masked glaive warior are Big Tusks, heavy bodyguards for friendly casters and the siege golems.

The dark ones beneath it are the "friends from the other side" if you chose the dark voodoo path. The lil guy is a blinking scout and the bigger a hero hunter that can voidstep in a party of 8 units. He needs his scout buddy to act as a targeting point though.

The big lizard on the top is a member of the thunder lizard line. The more shamanic priests of the Spirit Spring path tamed them to use as large transport mounts to quickly move troops around. They pair well with the wind riders as a rapid response shock force.

All 3 paths have their own version of a priesty caster and midtier(ish) melee warrior as well as a caster hero that represents the respective paths High Priests.

Tribal green casters focus on offensive buffing, traditional blues are more defensive buffs and dark Priests go for the necro-voodoo

 

[Kyrbi0]

Heck yeah.

 

[Wazzz]

Speaking of troll techtree entries, aren't there, like, only two?

 

[Leods]

Technically there is a orc-troll techtree too. There are so many Hordes...

 

[Wazzz]

No, there isn't. That one dropped out ages ago.

 

[Xelos]

one of T3 units royal guard: his abilitys: defense(model have defence animations)Insiration aura(Increases the attack speed 7% of nearby units. ) Discouragement(Royal guard throw filthy vile orc head to the battlefield. After enemies see what soon happens to them their attack will weaken be 25% for 30 second.) this ability can be used only once

,

 

[Yours Truly]

Great WIPs so far, people! Quite a handful of Reforged entries as well.

Discouragement(Royal guard throw filthy vile orc head to the battlefield. After enemies see what soon happens to them their attack will weaken be 25% for 30 second.) this ability can be used only once View attachment 349348 ,

That's rich


Oh @Mythic, you forgot to link my 5th WIP, which was the training system preview.

Anyway, speaking of WIPS, here's the latest. The second Hero, Abbot General, has absolutely 0 damaging abilities but filled to the brim with support spells, and can serve as a decent tank (not as tanky as the Might of the Union though)

 

[Spellbound]

Dat ult

Also, FRAMEHANDLES! Is someone learning JASS/Lua?

 

[Yours Truly]

Dat ult

Also, FRAMEHANDLES! Is someone learning JASS/Lua?

WELLL, not really.

Tasyen made the framehandles system. I'm just putting it to good use. I still don't know jack shit about JASS

 

[Daffa]

Alright, I and @Directive255 have some early progress as well. Here are some of the units our faction will be having. More to come.

Also, introducing the tier 1 melee unit: Striker. Taken from its official description:
"Fast melee units armed with a blade. Gains 1 damage per unit within 400 radius (capped at 30 damage). Can learn Fatal Strike, giving chance for dealing double damage.

Attacks land units."

Note: The used model in the video is temporary. The actual model will be deployed on later WIPs

This is WIP 1.

 

[Barorque]

I'd like to ask some questions regarding the Contest rules:

1) Is everything required to be done by ourselves, or is there a certain percentage allowed (I'm talking skins, models, effects, triggers etc.)

2) Am I allowed to use like 2 skins I made before the Contest started?

3) Is the use of Blizzard art allowed for the Contest (loading screen, or even for icons)

 

[Wazzz]

@Moonman I will cross reference with @Mythic on this, but I believe this is what's considered acceptable:

1) Downloading existing skins, models, effects and triggers is considered acceptable, so long as the implementation is your own work.

2) Skins made by yourself from before the start of the contest fall into the same category as above, and therefore can be considered acceptable (even if it is not specified in the rules at present, which it probably should be).

3) Yes.

I believe that is what is allowed within the contest for these specific queries, so I hope this helps

 

[SgtNutz]

Changed the build a bit. Still have three specialization paths, but they aren't upgrades to the altar anymore. Hiding unavailable units is easy but the upgrades are a different story. I got rid of the war mill and made the 3 different springs into tech buildings. Whichever you build first is your chosen path for the game, turning the other 2 unavailable.

I stick to reforged and will not be using custom models. I hope that won't be a problem?

Also guess I'll name my tree "Three-Skulls Troll Tribe"

 

[Vinz]

@Moonman Wazzz is spot-on.
@SgtNutz sure, it won't be a problem.