[Techtree Contest #19 : Commander] Black Legion (Ragnaros)

[GhostThruster]

Found some time to do another playthrough and list out my thoughts. I'm aware this is still WIP and you know a lot of the issues especially as it pertains to QoL

Good

• Unit abilities, while a bit more complex than I'd prefer in a Wc3 faction, are fun to play with and generally well thought-out. Some highlights:
  
  • Basically all of Mantleress's abilities are awesome. Solidification is visually and functionally very unique.
  • Fuel Transfer on a high HP unit with negative armor is an interesting idea
  • Once I figured out what Heat Remains were, they were pretty neat as an idea.
• Unit and building assets were great. Special effects ranged from decent to great.
• Wisp wood-harvesting is not revolutionary, but novel. It's a good counterbalance to the fact that Wisps die on constructing anything. I only wish there was some special effect, and if you could do away with the chopping sound / anim.
• Complexity aside (I'll touch on that later), the global menu's abilities were cool and reasonably well-balanced. The [E] is a standout that I used often; it's simultaneously powerful, but also has drawbacks (lots of Ember Points, and is kinda wasted being used on weaker units). It's like a more clutch Holy Light.

Lacking

• Important QoL missing
  
  • I eventually figured out a decent build (3 wisps in gold, 1 on lumber for 5 seconds, 1 building altar), but the lumber cost of Heat Canals and Black Legions makes getting a smooth build order up a bit trickier than the other 4 races'. I think both could be 5 / 10 lumber cheaper respectively.
  • Wisps not being able to be loaded / unloaded individually, and entirely while you're teching up, is an issue. They also don't come back if you cancel construction, which seems unfair.
  • When the Gold Mine collapses, all Wisps inside of it dies.
• I don't believe your race has any detection aside from the global [Q].
• It's clear you're not aiming for a "5th race"-style faction. This techtree is one which you love the more you play… but on the flipside, it's really overwhelming early on - and I've done 3 playthroughs already. Contributing factors:
  
  • The balance of active and passives is good, but the sheer abundance is a lot to track. Many abilities also have long descriptions and multi-layered effects. The global menu + Ember points was the cherry on top in terms of complexity, but each ability on it is at least a bit easier to understand.
  • The number of upgrades is overwhelming. I thought this was just my vibe and unfamiliarity at first, but then I went into the World Editor and saw you have 37 upgrades! That's more than double Undead's! This is not just a design preference, but actually will impact late-game balance. A faction with many upgrades will mean that in the ultra-late game when they're all researched, they'll be OP.
  • I understand that some upgrades are mutually exclusive, e.g. the Aspects, Deepr Canals vs Additional Vents … this is just another layer of complexity.
• The faction feels like a vague industrial fire cult, but does not feel tied to Ragnaros.

Nitpicks

• Salavamander starts at 0 mana. Not sure if it's intended
• "Heat Remain" sounds wrong; remain is typically not a noun. Something like "Leftover Heat" or "Residual Heat" makes more sense.

 

[FlameofChange]

Oh yes, that's the stuff I was waiting for. Walls of text for the waller of texts !
More seriously.

I eventually figured out a decent build (3 wisps in gold, 1 on lumber for 5 seconds, 1 building altar), but the lumber cost of Heat Canals and Black Legions makes getting a smooth build order up a bit trickier than the other 4 races'. I think both could be 5 / 10 lumber cheaper respectively.

My build order is the following, if that can help you :
☼ All 5 on gold
☼ 6th altar
☼ 7th heat canal
☼ 8th gather 5 lumber then build a Ground Maw
☼ Next wisps on lumber
☼ Fallen God + 4-5 black legions
☼ Foundry
☼ 2-3 cinderlings + fuel transfer
☼ Get a shredder ASAP
☼ Expand
☼ Etc

Wisps not being able to be loaded / unloaded individually, and entirely while you're teching up, is an issue.

That's one of my main concern about this faction, as I would need to code by hand a whole workaround... However I may trivialy add a single drop button (that's on my TODO list). I also started some fancy visual animation but kept for later due to lack of time.

They also don't come back if you cancel construction, which seems unfair.

It is a strategical drawback I wanted to assume, making errors and denies more hurtful in the short term as it is a long term faction.
Even if they die at building finishing, that would be too close to Night Elves. The Water Aspect can alleviate that if you seek flexibility.

When the Gold Mine collapses, all Wisps inside of it dies.

That is very strange and unintended. All wisps are dropped and they smart the rally point of the main building. Maybe you were rallied on trees and your wisps just took a breather in the Barren Forests. Unless it is a wild bug who sneaked in just before uploading this version !

I don't believe your race has any detection aside from the global [Q]

☼ Permanent Glow upgrade in the Astral core giving supply and tower detection
☼ Usurpress [E] passive
Unit wise I don't think I'll add detection, since the Q does the heavy lifting by itself. Maybe I'll nerf the flare a bit since it's too effective at its role.

I only wish there was some special effect, and if you could do away with the chopping sound / anim.

This is a bit outside my capabilities, because detecting harvesting is quite tricky. Also I don't know how to approach a custom based lumber harvesting, which would be sensibly time consuming regarding my schedule and the remaining time. I do however sought to imitate NE Wisp animations but threw in the towel quickly. Who knows I'll gain a breakthrough and implement it in a fancy way ?

The faction feels like a vague industrial fire cult, but does not feel tied to Ragnaros.

That is mostly because I haven't finished the resource description I wanted to circumvent the obvious choice and directly flip the table. Ragnaros here is more a horizon than a core, which avoids redundancy. Gods and cults are numerous in the world of Warcraft, so it could be perfectly witness the birth of heresies amid different sentient species. Here is a faction centered around humans harnessing creatures from the earth crust ; believing in the representation they make of Ragnaros. In the perspective of coop-commanders it makes more sense to put humans at the center of the design so it have better relationship with the other humanoids. Furthermore it removes the omnipresent fire/magical aspect by mixing it with neighboring concepts (flint, lava, meteor, sun, plasma, ash, steam, etc) and does not overlap with the existing Fire Lord. They can coexist with a true faith Ragnaros faction and brawl each others. Religion wars aren't quite exploited in the game.
So yes, I put a heavily industrial fluff on top of it to glue all of this together ; yet more you advance in the tiers, more you bump into fire centered units. Finally you can summon a Ragnaros Avatar at tier 3.

Complexity aside (I'll touch on that later), the global menu's abilities were cool and reasonably well-balanced. The [E] is a standout that I used often; it's simultaneously powerful, but also has drawbacks (lots of Ember Points, and is kinda wasted being used on weaker units). It's like a more clutch Holy Light.

While the Ember cost won't be spend for other stronger abilities, I'm considering nerfing it a bit. This is sacrificing 1% global attack speed bonus for 1000 HP healing tho, so in late game it can make some difference. Maybe reducing the healing to 600-800 HP.

Salavamander starts at 0 mana. Not sure if it's intended

There's two (three) main reasons
☼ Heat treatment is very strong so I don't wanted to make it able to cast it once or twice when freshly trained
☼ Its passive can suck mana on enemies when attacking them, this pushes the Salavamander to actively seek juicy heroes/casters instead of waiting for the mana to come
☼ The upgraded passive grants it a flame aura and increased damage while being over the max of mana ; so it makes this power spike a bit later
Yet setting its starting mana is a balance leverage. I'm also considering a rework of its upgraded passive.

"Heat Remain" sounds wrong; remain is typically not a noun. Something like "Leftover Heat" or "Residual Heat" makes more sense.

That is a good point nonetheless. It is tricky for me to find both coherent and exclusive names for my heat based stuff.

It is clear you're not aiming for a "5th race"-style faction. This techtree is one which you love the more you play… but on the flipside, it's really overwhelming early on - and I've done 3 playthroughs already.

On the other hand I cannot remove elements since they are needed, nor fusing them at the risk of cranking the complexity even higher.
I made this faction to let players compose their army with different combos. The bread and butter is Black legions, Cinderlings, Crust grinders, supported by Black Summoners. You can even go wild by going full Steamlings, or full Fire Giant, or Full Juggernaut/Fury, or full Harbinger, or Full Crust Grinder, etc.
Furthermore a lot of the abilities are passive/auto to concentrate the micro on the heroes and main casters ; else it would be indeed much worse than my previous contest entry (ADHD).

The number of upgrades is overwhelming. I thought this was just my vibe and unfamiliarity at first, but then I went into the World Editor and saw you have 37 upgrades! That's more than double Undead's! This is not just a design preference, but actually will impact late-game balance. A faction with many upgrades will mean that in the ultra-late game when they're all researched, they'll be OP.

Like you said later, even taking in account the exclusive upgrades this is on the upper limit of Warcraft 3 scope (to the point of hindering clarity, I concur). I also wanted to experiment a Age of Mythology minor god system on Warcraft 3. Maybe I'll add the 4th Aspect of Fire and regrouping existing secondary upgrades in it ; which will both nerf the overall faction and synthesize it further. Late game OP is another concern of mine. I'm still testing doomstacks but even Insane AI can be exploited... I am interested however on how you would simplify things.

While I was expecting this kind of feedback, mostly because I also bumped into the same problems, it is always a pleasure to get my blind spots covered by good insight. Let's see what a half dozen updates would do. Don't hesitate to send replays by the way.

 

[GhostThruster]

This is a bit outside my capabilities, because detecting harvesting is quite tricky. Also I don't know how to approach a custom based lumber harvesting, which would be sensibly time consuming regarding my schedule and the remaining time. I do however sought to imitate NE Wisp animations but threw in the towel quickly. Who knows I'll gain a breakthrough and implement it in a fancy way ?

Riki's faction does it so you can reference it. To my mind, it's not too difficult to do if you can use a custom Gather ability based off Channel that only targets trees. Then you'll need to trigger the fire FX, green floating +1, removal of HP from the tree, and auto-recast after the tree dies.

While the Ember cost won't be spend for other stronger abilities, I'm considering nerfing it a bit. This is sacrificing 1% global attack speed bonus for 1000 HP healing tho, so in late game it can make some difference. Maybe reducing the healing to 600-800 HP.

I just played another game, and do agree it needs to be nerfed. The synergy with Fallen God is a bit much. I previously suggested making the benefit and cost more dynamic, e.g. heals up to 1000HP, and costs 2 ember points per 100HP.

On the other hand I cannot remove elements since they are needed, nor fusing them at the risk of cranking the complexity even higher.
I made this faction to let players compose their army with different combos. The bread and butter is Black legions, Cinderlings, Crust grinders, supported by Black Summoners. You can even go wild by going full Steamlings, or full Fire Giant, or Full Juggernaut/Fury, or full Harbinger, or Full Crust Grinder, etc.
Furthermore a lot of the abilities are passive/auto to concentrate the micro on the heroes and main casters ; else it would be indeed much worse than my previous contest entry (ADHD).

I think you probably shouldn't remove any units and their abilities, but upgrades have a lot of room to streamline. For example, does your faction really need upgrades for building HP and regen? You could probably also remove a bunch of the global abilities.
As I predicted though, this faction definitely grew on me as I played it more. The units are somewhat esoteric in design, and the techtree vast and complicated - it makes it difficult to understand what everything is, but the more you do the more you appreciate the quirks in each unit.

Attached is a game vs Insane AI I played. The main new things I found from it:

• Think in general the faction is a bit overtuned. The global heal as mentioned, but also think Awakeners are a bit too strong early on. A flying caster with good DPS straight out of T2 is asking for a bit of trouble. I lost both heroes this game in dumb ways, but ended up rolling over the AI.
• I tried using the main caster, but their abilities feel quite low impact. Magma Pillar feels very weak for a T3 spell.
• There's a bug sometimes when the gold generation just stops. Not sure what causes it but I had to unload and reload wisps at one point.
• Heat Canal heal might be a bit too strong.
• It seems very hard to accumulate enough points to summon Ragnaros. It's also a huge opportunity cost, given you need to not use other global abilities instead to save up 100 Ember points.
• Some floating text n/5 for n-number of wisps in the gold mine would be handy, if not borderline necessary.

 

[FlameofChange]

I just played another game, and do agree it needs to be nerfed. The synergy with Fallen God is a bit much. I previously suggested making the benefit and cost more dynamic, e.g. heals up to 1000HP, and costs 2 ember points per 100HP.

I'm gonna cook something to circumvent that.

Awakeners are a bit too strong early on. A flying caster with good DPS straight out of T2 is asking for a bit of trouble.

For a 4 food unit they have 19+1D3 every 2 seconds, which is comparable to a bit more than two standard casters. On the other hand they don't have the raw punch of a T3 heavy magic air.
They benefit from attack and armor upgrades, although I'm gonna throw in some tweaks.
☼ Cost increased from 220 70 to 225 75
☼ Armor reduced from 2 to 1
☼ Attack cooldown increased from 2 to 2.4
☼ Caster upgrade cost increased from 100 50 + 100 to 125 75 + 100
☼ Caster upgrade also increases its attack speed by 10% per level

I tried using the main caster, but their abilities feel quite low impact. Magma Pillar feels very weak for a T3 spell.

Its spells are there to stack with other bonuses, but I'd say the Plasma ring is the least elegant aspect of my faction by my standards.
The Magma Pillar can block the path of enemies and getting several of them assures you get the full +30% bonus damage. The enemy might also waste micro and DPS destroying these. Black Summoners are spammable so you can fill the map with Magma Pillars lol.
+25% attack speed from Lesser Reignite, +25% for picked up Heat Remains, up to +60% with Flint Aura, +150% from Steam Shot, +10% from Cooling Systems, ~+5% from Ember points, +10% from Artificial Sun, all of that could shred a lot of things.

It seems very hard to accumulate enough points to summon Ragnaros. It's also a huge opportunity cost, given you need to not use other global abilities instead to save up 100 Ember points.

There's two (three) tricks
☼ Bonk your units in your base so heat canals can use their passive ; Deeper canals increases this generation by 50%
☼ Upgraded Heart of Magma can scatter a lot of small heat remains if you use Crust Grinders in the front
☼ Picking Flow Stabilizer early can scatter more heat remains to pick up
I'm gonna also add a cheatcode to give Ember points if you want to test.

Heat Canal heal might be a bit too strong.

I'm gonna cook something too.

Some floating text n/5 for n-number of wisps in the gold mine would be handy, if not borderline necessary.

That could work indeed, but depending on the other custom factions around there's a hardcoded limit for floating texts. I'm gonna make it in the meantime.

 

[FlameofChange]

1.0.1 uploaded
Fixing some stuff, more is yet to come !

Spoiler

Action Bar
☼ Tier 1 abilities have 3 levels, improved at Tier 2 and 3
☼ Tier 2 abilities have 2 levels, improved at Tier 3
☼ The levels can retrograde if the player loses its last highest main building tier
Flare
☼ AoE changed from 2000 to 500/1000/2000
The effect was too strong and accessible in the early game. The Tier 3 matches the previous power
Artificial Sun
☼ Set hour changed from 12 to 12/9/6
☼ Updated tooltip to reflect the Ember Point reduction cost through Aspect of Sky bonus
☼ Attack speed bonus increased from 5% to 8%
Since it lasted for only 6 hours for 5% attack speed, it was more interesting to increase its duration with levels.
Remember it only affects faction units, heroes and buildings
Greater Reignite
☼ Heal reduced from 1000 to 600/800/1000
☼ If the target is under the effect of a Heat Remain, half of the healing is replaced and converted by attack speed duration
Tunnel
☼ Level 2 tunnel cost reduced from 30 to 20 Ember points
☼ Level 2 tunnel gain +50% HP
Redirection
☼ Base Damage increased from 250 to 250/300
☼ Damage nearby main buildings still 125/125
☼ Updated tooltip to reflect the Ember Point reduction cost through Aspect of Sky bonus

Wisp
☼ Turn rate increased from 0.6 to 1
☼ Training time reduced from 15 to 14 seconds
Matches a bit more NE Wisps, the turn rate has been increased to make it a bit less awkward to use and gather.

Black Legion
☼ Projectile model made smaller
Awakener / Harbinger
☼ Cost increased from 220 70 to 225 75
☼ Armor reduced from 2 to 1
☼ Attack cooldown increased from 2 to 2.4
☼ Projectile arc reduced from 0.15 to 0.05
☼ Caster upgrade cost increased from 100 50 + 100 to 125 75 + 100
☼ Caster upgrade also increases its attack speed by 10% per level
☼ Adjusted shadow position and size

Harbinger
☼ Attack animation is faster (doesn't change DPS nor damage point/backswing)
☼ Tweaked the model to remove the attack sound and particles
☼ Projectile launch Z reduced from 60 to 0
☼ Shadow changed from unit to flying
Like @GhostThruster said, it was a bit too threatening to have a magic damage at T2. Its attack speed have been reduced and compensated through upgrade to match the previous T3.
Juggernaut
☼ Adjusted shadow position and size

Fury
☼ Adjusted shadow position and size
☼ Shadow changed from unit to flying

Hub
☼ Can now drop wisp one by one
☼ Goldmine can also make the hub drop wisps

Fallen God
☼ Attack cooldown increased from 3 to 3.25
☼ HP reduced from 200 to 100

Heat Canal / Geothermal Station
☼ Cost increased from 145 45 to 150 50
☼ Repair cost increased from 170 45 to 180 60
☼ HP reduced from 650 to 625
☼ Ember point generation increased from 0.1 to 0.5 per minute
☼ Ember point generation reduced from 0.5 to 0.1 for 30 seconds when using Heat Source, reset at each new occurrence

Geothermal station
☼ HP reduced from 800 to 775
The healing was a bit too strong for this cost, and the player was incited to bonk their units to automatically generate Ember Points. The Deeper Canals upgrade would have a bit less impact
Bug fixes
☼ Adding a 6th or more wisp in a hub pauses the gathering Fixed
☼ Geothermal station doesn't reduce Ember Point generation when destroyed Fixed
☼ Impaler Tower doesn't reduce Ember Point generation when destroyed Fixed
☼ Reign of Terror form gain +2 armor Fixed, wasn't intended

Known issues
► Starting construction may kill another nearby wisp instead. In most case it's just the same equivalent consequence, but keep an eye on it
► There could be a bit of blight remaining on rare case when finishing a building
► You don't see how many wisps are working on the mine
► You can target enemies with Reignite
► Reign of terror does not reset correctly the height of the Fallen God the first time when finished
► The attack button of the Fallen God disappears when its Reign of Terror starts/finishes
► You can farm ember points by damaging a unit in your base manually and letting heat canals cast their heat remains
► Music playlist is not random
► Additional Vents icon placeholder
► Goblin Shredder might attempt to deposit lumber to a wisp
► A goldmine can be harvested by multiple Hubs (aka main building) at the same time in some cases
► Avatar of Ragnaros needed a Fireorb like ability to deal AoE damage around the target, so its damage is reduced by 25 while the orb add 25 AoE damage
► Exoarmor make the attack disappear from the UI, as well as sometimes putting the wrong scale ; it comes from Warcraft 3
► The Multiboard may not show for other than Player 1
► Reverted Quest log UI back to default to avoid desync issues
► Solar Winds may also take effect at night instead of just during day
► Credit list WiP

Planned next
Within my abilities and remaining time
► Add the 3 secondary elements with their respective content
► Make Fire Giants receive extra damage from Feedback based abilities
► Edit the skins to replace yellow plating by red-orange magma-like texture ; and golden wings by magma wings Needs some tweaks
► Replace the placeholder icons
► Make gold and lumber gathering fancier
► Make heat remain pickup more precise
► Custom sounds for building
► Custom voicelines for events
► Design special items for each secondary elements
► Custom icon for the Fallen God (right now it's a green vanilla Hydra)
► Add hero glow to heroes Added through ability

 

[FlameofChange]

1.0.2 uploaded
More fixes and balance

Spoiler

General
☼ Artificially added team glow is now colored more reliably
☼ Adjusted buildings shadow textures
☼ Better placeholder icon for the Greater Embers Upgrade
☼ Goldmine has some sight range

Additional Vent
☼ Made more reliable on building application
☼ Movement speed bonus AoE increased from 900 to 2000
☼ No longer add Heat Source to all buildings
☼ Now reduces the Ember Generation penalty from 40 to 15 seconds
This rework should make the application less chaotic and more synergized with ember generation, as other buildings would tend to be busy doing stuff instead of healing.

Action Bar
Flare
☼ Detection range changed from 1000 to 500/1000/2000 to match the vision
Tunnel
☼ Level 1 no longer able to load units level 5 or more
☼ Drop period changed from 0.125 to 0.15/0.1
☼ The drop period is now dynamic depending on if the tunnel owner is tier 3 or not
Avatar of Ragnaros
☼ Melee range reduced from 250 to 225
☼ Base damage reduced from 63 to 58
☼ Bonus damage reduced from 25 to 20
☼ HP reduced from 4000 to 3000
Ragnaros Wrath
☼ New ability
☼ Slow nearby enemies for 4 seconds and deals them 150 damage
☼ For each hit enemy, increases the attack speed of the Avatar by 25% for stacking 3 seconds.
Burst
☼ New ability
☼ Fires one projectile per enemy within between 250 and 700 range, dealing 100 mana burn, in quick succession
☼ Can only target enemies with at least 100 mana
☼ Each projectile costs mana
☼ Max 10 projectile, or until mana depletion

Awakener/Harbinger
☼ Armor type changed from Unarmored to Small
Heat Canal / Geothermal Station
☼ Base Ember Generation reduced from 0.5 to 0.25 per minute
☼ Ember Generation reduction duration increased from 30 to 40 seconds
It was too strong, the player could just print abilities.

Mantleress
☼ Slightly edited the model to tweak the green glow into red
Magma Mantle
☼ HP per second reduced from 25/33/40 to 25/30/35
☼ Damage per second increased from 10/12/15 to 10/13/16
☼ Mana cost increased from 100 to 105
☼ Cooldown increased from 10 to 12 seconds
This ability was too strong on light units at level 3, and a bit too spamable from a high intelligence hero. The role of the ability stays the same, but to compensate its damage was increased slightly.
Solidification
☼ Attacks against the targets now sound like stone

Fallen God
☼ New icon (might evolve again)

Bug Fixes
☼ Meteor damage not upgraded at Tier 3 Fixed
☼ Artificial sun hour doesn't upgrade with level Fixed

Known issues
► Starting construction may kill another nearby wisp instead. In most case it's just the same equivalent consequence, but keep an eye on it
► There could be a bit of blight remaining on rare case when finishing a building
► You don't see how many wisps are working on the mine
► You can target enemies with Reignite
► Reign of terror does not reset correctly the height of the Fallen God the first time when finished
► The attack button of the Fallen God disappears when its Reign of Terror starts/finishes
► You can farm ember points by damaging a unit in your base manually and letting heat canals cast their heat remains
► Music playlist is not random
► Additional Vents icon placeholder
► Goblin Shredder might attempt to deposit lumber to a wisp
► A goldmine can be harvested by multiple Hubs (aka main building) at the same time in some cases
► Avatar of Ragnaros needed a Fireorb like ability to deal AoE damage around the target, so its damage is reduced by 25 while the orb add 25 AoE damage
► Exoarmor make the attack disappear from the UI, as well as sometimes putting the wrong scale ; it comes from Warcraft 3
► The Multiboard may not show for other than Player 1
► Reverted Quest log UI back to default to avoid desync issues
► Solar Winds may also take effect at night instead of just during day
► Credit list WiP

Planned next
Within my abilities and remaining time
► Make Fire Giants receive extra damage from Feedback based abilities
► Edit the skins to replace yellow plating by red-orange magma-like texture ; and golden wings by magma wings Needs some tweaks
► Replace the placeholder icons
► Make gold and lumber gathering fancier
► Make heat remain pickup more precise
► Custom sounds for building
► Custom voicelines for events
► Design special items for each secondary elements
► Custom icon for the Fallen God (right now it's a green vanilla Hydra) New icon but needs rework
► Add hero glow to heroes Added through ability

 

[FlameofChange]

1.0.3 uploaded
Even more fixes and balance

Spoiler

General
☼ Fury upgrade now requires Tier 3 and Factory
☼ Impaler tower upgrade now requires Foundry
☼ Steam Engine upgrade now requires Factory
☼ Tier 2 and 3 specify it improves the action bar abilities
☼ Tier 2 cost increased from 240 210 to 320 210
☼ Tier 3 cost increased from 210 210 to 360 210
This would make things a tad more logical

Action Bar
Spawn Fire Giant
☼ Cannot longer spawn a Fire Giant if there's not enough supply

Launch Pad
☼ Attack damage against air reduced by a third
☼ Removed the impact VFX against air
☼ Build time increased from 35 to 40 seconds
☼ Level increased from 3 to 4
With its access to numerous upgrades compared to other siege weapons, as well as its high AA punch made it too rewarding when massed. Hence the risk was increased without changing much its role.

Mantleress
☼ Hero Glow now directly on the edited model rather through an ability (thanks @General Frank for the tutorial !)

Fallen God
☼ Hero Glow now directly on the edited model rather through an ability (thanks @General Frank for the tutorial !)

Metalmorph
☼ Attack cooldown increased from 2 to 2.1
Metallic Flesh
☼ Fixed typo
☼ Bonus damage reduced from 10/15/20 to 8/12/16
☼ Bonus armor reduced from 3/5/7 to 3/4/5
The Metalmorph was hitting a bit too hard for a mana-free passive ability. This also nerfs Lashing Strike indirectly a bit.
Bug Fixes
☼ Trapper Shredder may get paused indefinitely after finishing shredding Fixed
☼ Tunnel level 2 tooltip not updated Fixed
☼ Heat Source tooltip not updated Fixed
☼ Cooling Systems tooltip doesn't mention Trapper-Shredder Fixed
☼ Additional Vent movement speed bonus ability required Deeper Canals Fixed

Known issues
► Starting construction may kill another nearby wisp instead. In most case it's just the same equivalent consequence, but keep an eye on it
► There could be a bit of blight remaining on rare case when finishing a building
► You don't see how many wisps are working on the mine
► You can target enemies with Reignite
► Reign of terror may not reset correctly the height of the Fallen God the first time when finished May have disappeared somewhat
► The attack button of the Fallen God may disappear when its Reign of Terror starts/finishes May have disappeared somewhat
► You can farm ember points by damaging a unit in your base manually and letting heat canals cast their heat remains Is now less of a problem
► Music playlist is not random
► Additional Vents icon placeholder
► Goblin Shredder might attempt to deposit lumber to a wisp
► A goldmine can be harvested by multiple Hubs (aka main building) at the same time in some cases
► Avatar of Ragnaros needed a Fireorb like ability to deal AoE damage around the target, so its damage is reduced by 25 while the orb add 25 AoE damage
► Exoarmor make the attack disappear from the UI, as well as sometimes putting the wrong scale ; it comes from Warcraft 3
► The Multiboard may not show for other than Player 1
► Reverted Quest log UI back to default to avoid desync issues
► Solar Winds may also take effect at night instead of just during day
► Credit list WiP

Planned next
Within my abilities and remaining time
► Add the 3 secondary elements with their respective content
► Make Fire Giants receive extra damage from Feedback based abilities
► Edit the skins to replace yellow plating by red-orange magma-like texture ; and golden wings by magma wings Needs some tweaks
► Replace the placeholder icons
► Make gold and lumber gathering fancier
► Make heat remain pickup more precise
► Custom sounds for building
► Custom voicelines for events
► Design special items for each secondary elements
► Custom icon for the Fallen God (right now it's a green vanilla Hydra)
► Add hero glow to heroes Added through ability

 

[The Nightmare Book]

Note: I had played the race just on the very first version, so probably my impression will be somewhat outdated.

OVERALL, I liked this custom race. At first, I thought that you would create something like we see in Firelands or one of the latest WoW raids - Amidrassil, all that army with flame worms, dragons, and dozens of unusual fire elementals. Then I read that you created a "cult of mortals", so I immediately thought about Twilight Hammer, but styled in red.

Your idea surprised me, at least. I especially loved that "building finished" animation - how nearby land burns down to ashes, cool!

In terms of BALANCE, I thought that Ember grew very slowly, even when I started to build more farms to accelerate its grow tick. I hardly imagine that you could have 100 Ember at some point of the game on this map, especially in a 1 vs 1 battle.
Am I right that the Teleporter idea was inspired by the Age of Mythology Hades teleporter building?

Heroes are strong enough, especially that flame knightess. Overall Ember mechanic allowed me to quickly regenerate the desired weakened unit back to normal in a short time, its so bizzare and cool.

In the end, I want to say that this Ragnaros interpretation have its right now exist - mysterious, everburning, and with cool ember mechanic.
Like!

 

[FlameofChange]

Thank you for your feedback.

In terms of BALANCE, I thought that Ember grew very slowly, even when I started to build more farms to accelerate its grow tick. I hardly imagine that you could have 100 Ember at some point of the game on this map, especially in a 1 vs 1 battle.

In all versions each picked up level of heat remains also give 1 ember point.
For example if your level 10 hero dies, it drops a level 10 heat remain which gives 10 points when picked up. Units are however constant.
Heat canals can also give level 1 heat remains.
In later version I increased the Heat Canal generation but nerfed the ember point farm through Heat Canal.
1v1 or not it should have roughly the same generation since it is tied to your base and how your units are bruised. This faction doesn't encourage to sacrifice units at all (because XP feed to enemy heroes...) but makes setbacks and coming back a bit smoother. You may just also keep stacking ember points to be overwhelming. On a side note I'm planning on tempering somewhat excessive stacking ; maybe after 100-150.
[EDIT] I forgot to mention Orb of Magma and upgraded Heart of Magma (Crust Grinder).

Your idea surprised me, at least. I especially loved that "building finished" animation - how nearby land burns down to ashes, cool!

Well long story short I just wanted to change the tiles direcly in a random yet cosmetical effect. However thank you Blizzard any direct changes in the terrain is reflected on the minimap, which will spoil building location in the fog of war ! So I had to be creative. Spawn blight then remove the blight generation. Tadah ! The rest is just some free to grab eyecandy.

Heroes are strong enough, especially that flame knightess.

After numerous tests I tuned them down a bit. The Fallen God tanked way too well and the mantleress healing was too interesting at level 3.
The Flint Knight role is to support the frontline and apply the logic of "hit on me and find out". The Flint aura can stack really well with heroes and tanking units constantly being healed, but that implies being actively involved in combat. While being a warrior heroine she's not a super tank like the Paladin, Fallen God or Tauren Chieftain.

Overall Ember mechanic allowed me to quickly regenerate the desired weakened unit back to normal in a short time, its so bizzare and cool.

Remember it sacrifices attack speed to heal a bit. I recently nerfed it a bit too, since it was intended to be an emergency trick.

Note: I had played the race just on the very first version, so probably my impression will be somewhat outdated.

Yep it is a bit. I'm surprised you haven't bumped on the old softlocks. Well the new version I'm flooding doesn't bring groundbreaking changes however it makes less and less rough around the edges.

OVERALL, I liked this custom race. At first, I thought that you would create something like we see in Firelands or one of the latest WoW raids - Amidrassil, all that army with flame worms, dragons, and dozens of unusual fire elementals. Then I read that you created a "cult of mortals", so I immediately thought about Twilight Hammer, but styled in red.

I'm am not fond at all of the WoW extended lore, even less knowledgeable about it.
I wanted to make a twist, starting by "what if humans worshiped Ragnaros in their own way, would that be heresy ?" and then continued into this fluff. By no means my stuff is cannon but it could be. I find the "roar grr I am the big bad evil fire lord of the flame" trope completely stupid. So I used my actual grown up world builder skills to cook something really good. Well it is a one shot due to the contest context.

Am I right that the Teleporter idea was inspired by the Age of Mythology Hades teleporter building?

Yes and no. I can't remember if I got inspired by it consciously or not. However there's multiple aspects inspired from Age of Mythologies : spawning a titan, fire giants, global abilities, units having passive/automatic abilities to mess up the fight, and most importantly selecting a secondary element (minor god) which gives exclusive upgrades/unique units/buildings.

 

[FlameofChange]

1.0.4 uploaded
Even more fixes and balance (even though deepy don't like the version spam).
Ember points was significantly nerfed, and made the tech printer going less brrrrrrr

Spoiler

General
☼ Added the cheatcode -fireitup XXX to add XXX ember points, only enabled if there's only one user in the game (don't put aberrant values as it would hurt Warcraft 3 itself)
☼ Made Ember point generation timer events a bit more secured to avoid division by 0
☼ All exclusive & aspect techs now also cost Ember points (in red in logs)
☼ Reinforced/Regenerative Granite costs changed from 100 100 45 to 50 75 35 5
☼ Cooling/Overburst Systems now costs an additional 15
☼ Additional Vents/Deeper Canals now costs an additional 20
☼ Heavy Plating/Coal engine now costs an additional 20
☼ Each aspect now costs an additional 25, their secondary techs 5 by default
☼ Steamling tech, Harbinger tech, Fury tech costs 15 instead
☼ Base generation reduced from 1 to 0 per minute
☼ After 100, half of the surplus is converted into 0.01 HP regen instead ; for example
► 0 to 100 : +0 to +10% attack speed (like before)
► 101 : +10.05% attack speed, +0.005 HP regen
► 150 : +12.5% attack speed, +0.25 HP regen
► 200 : +15% attack speed, +0.5 HP regen
This makes Ember Points more like a 3rd resource which will nerf its usage without having to compensate the power creep of techs by making them more expensive in gold and lumber. The overstacking attack speed is also another concern. Thus its bonus was converted into a bit of HP regen. Early to mid game should not be changed.

Cinderling/Steamling
☼ Added team color through model

Crust Grinder
☼ HP reduced from 875 to 825
☼ HP bonus from Heavy Plating reduced from 100 to 50 (other units unchanged)
With Metal Aspect they were still too cost effective. This will make them weaker against AoE spells without increasing their cost. Having +2 armor and +11% hp was quite daunting for 150 150 ; now the bonus HP is only 6.5%.

Trapper-Shredder
☼ Now affected by Coal Engine
☼ Coal engine also reduces the cooldown of its ability by 10%

Great Hub
☼ Expanded tooltip
☼ No longer deposit gold (can still deposit lumber)
☼ No longer restricted by goldmine distance for placement
☼ Spawns a bit closer to the goldmine
☼ Ember generation increased from 0 to 1/2/3
This makes expanding a little more rewarding, while being whipped out makes the global generation more logical.

Bug fixes
☼ Heavy Plating mentions not Trapper-Shredder Fixed
☼ Impaler tower attack is disabled when fully charged Fixed
☼ Mantleress cannot attack air Fixed

Known issues
► Starting construction may kill another nearby wisp instead. In most case it's just the same equivalent consequence, but keep an eye on it
► There could be a bit of blight remaining on rare case when finishing a building
► You don't see how many wisps are working on the mine
► You can target enemies with Reignite
► Music playlist is not random
► Additional Vents icon placeholder
► Goblin Shredder might attempt to deposit lumber to a wisp
► A goldmine can be harvested by multiple Hubs (aka main building) at the same time in some cases
► Avatar of Ragnaros needed a Fireorb like ability to deal AoE damage around the target, so its damage is reduced by 20 while the orb add 20 AoE damage
► Exoarmor make the attack disappear from the UI, as well as sometimes putting the wrong scale ; it comes from Warcraft 3
► The Multiboard may not show for other than Player 1
► Reverted Quest log UI back to default to avoid desync issues
► Solar Winds may also take effect at night instead of just during day
► Credit list WiP
► [New] Cinderling glow sometimes blinks a bit
► [New] No UI feedback when not having enough ember points for techs and abilities
► [New] Redirection may not deal damage when nearby main buildings

Planned next
Within my abilities and remaining time
► Add the 3 secondary elements with their respective content
► Make Fire Giants receive extra damage from Feedback based abilities
► Edit the skins to replace yellow plating by red-orange magma-like texture ; and golden wings by magma wings Needs some tweaks
► Replace the placeholder icons
► Make gold and lumber gathering fancier
► Make heat remain pickup more precise
► Custom sounds for building
► Custom voicelines for events
► Design special items for each secondary elements
► Custom icon for the Fallen God (right now it's a green vanilla Hydra)
► Add hero glow to heroes Added through ability, but some are direct model edits.

 

[FlameofChange]

1.0.5 uploaded
More polishing in the juice and UX. It got closer to the shape I have envisioned.

Spoiler

General
☼ Permanent Glow cost reduced from 100 100 45 to 50 50 30 to match the equivalent Magic Sentry upgrade
☼ New UI for the faction (worker idle button still vanilla)
☼ Made Gold gathering fancier with wisp VFX moving back & forth (just cosmetic)
☼ Dropping wisps will move them according to the position of their VFX instead at the hub
☼ Added Remove one Wisp to main building and gathered goldmine
☼ Added Remove all Wisps to gathered goldmine
Now the player can unload wisps more precisely and even when the main building is upgrading

☼ Added custom UI sounds and messages for the following events
► Reality rift started
► Reality rift destroyed
► Avatar Finished
► Avatar destroyed
► Avatar resummoned
► No direct vision for Action Bar spell
► Target point not walkable for Action Bar Spell
► Not enough Ember Point
► Not enough food for summon
► Not enough food cap for summon
► Goldmine low/collapsed
► Reality Rift available (if was bellow 100 ember points)
☼ Flow Stabilizer damage to the wisp reduced from 100% to 75% of its max HP when starting construction

Action Bar
Reality Rift
☼ Avatar of Ragnaros now counted as Giant
☼ Avatar of Ragnaros has now Hard Skin
☼ Avatar of Ragnaros Transported Size increased from 1 to 8

Heat remains
☼ Pickup range reduced from 50 per level (intended) / 50 + 50 per level (actual) to 50 + 25 per additional level
☼ Pickup range detection margin increased to be a bit more precise
☼ VFX on the ground size increases slightly less per level
☼ When a building is finished, it will push away the heat remains outside so units can pick it up
☼ If the picker was already under the effect of the heat remain, it gives one (1) less ember points (minimum 0)
☼ Heal and time appears as floating texts when picked up
☼ Changed the VFX when spawning a Heat remain
☼ VFX are more transparent and darker if they are enemy
☼ Starts to decay after 5 minutes, losing 1% of its values per second ; its VFX and area also get smaller as it decays.
Farming ember points was too strong with magma orb + flow stabilizer.
On the other hand the QoL improvements should soften UX when there's too many scattered heat remains everywhere, friend and foe.

Cinderling/Steamling
☼ Changed attack and death sounds
☼ Removed heavy step sounds
☼ Turn rate increased from 0.6 to 1
☼ Orientation interpolation reduced from 3 to 0
Fuel Transfer
☼ Cannot longer target buildings, except for mana if they can
☼ Prioritizes units over buildings
☼ Is no longer instant, instead it will launch projectiles which heals the target on impact
☼ The projectiles have a timeout of 3 seconds, after which it is wasted
☼ Heal impact VFX is more transparent to reduce visual overloading

Cinderling
☼ Fixed the blinking team color glow by removing the shadow aura VFX

Steamling
☼ Rescaled the model

Crust Grinder
Heart of Magma
☼ Max charges increased from 20 to 40
☼ Attack speed bonus threshold increased from 10 to 20 charges
☼ Charge VFX made closer
There were an issue where the conversion was either unpractical or too strong. The compromise was to increase the max to make the overcharge less frequent ; it also increases the number of charged projectiles ammo.

Trapper-Shredder
☼ Transported size increased from 1 to 4

Fire Giant
☼ Transported size increased from 1 to 2

Mantleress
☼ New icon and scorescreen icon

Fallen God
☼ New scorescreen icon
☼ Added heavy footstep sounds to the base form
☼ Slightly sped up the walk animation speed of the base form
☼ Slowed the walk animation speed of the Reign of Terror form
☼ Reign of Terror form now has hero glow
☼ Transported size increased from 1 to 2

Metalmorph
☼ New scorescreen icon
☼ Selection size reduced from 1.5 to 1.35
☼ Slightly moved the model downwards
☼ Added attack sound
☼ Added hero glow

Usurpress
☼ New scorescreen icon

Heat canal
☼ Slightly edited the model to remove the spikes

Bug fixes
☼ Meteor dealt ridiculously low damage Fixed
☼ Metalmorph keep finishing its previous order before starting the new one when selected in a group Fixed
☼ Multiboard is only displayed for the first player Fixed
☼ Orb of Magma can spawn heat remains on structures, summons and illusions Fixed
☼ Astral core model details were bouncing Fixed
☼ Wrath of Ragnaros dealt no damage Fixed

Known issues
► Starting construction may kill another nearby wisp instead. In most case it's just the same equivalent consequence, but keep an eye on it
► There could be a bit of blight remaining on rare case when finishing a building
► You can target enemies with Reignite
► Music playlist is not random
► Additional Vents icon placeholder
► Goblin Shredder might attempt to deposit lumber to a wisp
► A goldmine can be harvested by multiple Hubs (aka main building) at the same time in some cases
► Avatar of Ragnaros needed a Fireorb like ability to deal AoE damage around the target, so its damage is reduced by 20 while the orb add 20 AoE damage
► Exoarmor make the attack disappear from the UI, as well as sometimes putting the wrong scale ; it comes from Warcraft 3
► Reverted Quest log UI back to default to avoid desync issues
► Solar Winds may also take effect at night instead of just during day
► Credit list WiP
► [New] Heat canals upgraded Geothermal Station may not be able to use Heat Source

Planned next
Within my abilities and remaining time
► Add the 3 secondary elements with their respective content
► Make Fire Giants receive extra damage from Feedback based abilities
► Edit the skins to replace yellow plating by red-orange magma-like texture ; and golden wings by magma wings Needs some tweaks
► Replace the placeholder icons
► Make gold and lumber gathering fancier Gold now fancier, lumber remaining
► Make heat remain pickup more precise Better now
► Custom sounds for building
► Custom voicelines for events Cannot replace most of vanilla ones, but it's there
► Design special items for each secondary elements
► Custom icon for the Fallen God (right now it's a green vanilla Hydra) Custom icon added, could be better
► Add hero glow to heroes Now done

 

[FlameofChange]

1.0.6 uploaded
This is the official contest entry !
We have here a lot of visual polishing, removing the details which bothered me the most.
Still, some work is left if I want to fully release it, but for the contest I guess it's enough.

Spoiler

General
☼ Added custom sounds for all buildings
☼ Adjusted death time for all units and buildings
☼ Added extra sync safety when playing local sounds
☼ Standardized birth animation for all buildings, based on the Black Dragon building pack (Thank you @General Frank for your tutorial and help !)
☼ Additional Vents new icon
☼ Starting Great Hub has now the finished building eyecandy

Cinderling
Fuel Transfer
☼ HP reduction changed from ability to directly the unit stats
☼ Tooltip updated with bonuses of the Cinderling Upgrade

Crust Grinder
☼ Changed Gutz texture

Black Summoner
☼ New icon

Usurpress
☼ Slightly edited the model to show more TC
☼ Projectile launch Y increased from 64 to 96

Bug Fix
☼ Fuel transfer never reduces HP regen of the caster Fixed, could be from 2.0.2 bug
☼ Fuel transfer researched by default Fixed, forgot to remove it after test
☼ Upgraded Fuel transfer also increases the mana by 25% Fixed, it should only increase HP as intended ; steamling HP cost is also taken in account, so it costs 22.5 HP to give 12.5 HP and 10 mana.
☼ Wisp have magic immunity even without Flow Stabilizer Fixed

Known issues
► Starting construction may kill another nearby wisp instead. In most case it's just the same equivalent consequence, but keep an eye on it
► There could be a bit of blight remaining on rare case when finishing a building
► You can target enemies with Reignite
► Music playlist is not random
► Additional Vents icon placeholder
► Goblin Shredder might attempt to deposit lumber to a wisp
► A goldmine can be harvested by multiple Hubs (aka main building) at the same time in some cases
► Avatar of Ragnaros needed a Fireorb like ability to deal AoE damage around the target, so its damage is reduced by 20 while the orb add 20 AoE damage
► Exoarmor make the attack disappear from the UI, as well as sometimes putting the wrong scale ; it comes from Warcraft 3
► Reverted Quest log UI back to default to avoid desync issues
► Solar Winds may also take effect at night instead of just during day
► Credit list WiP
► Heat canals upgraded Geothermal Station may not be able to use Heat Source
► [New] Usurpress ribbons still have white remains

Planned next
Within my abilities and remaining time
► Make Fire Giants receive extra damage from Feedback based abilities
► Edit the skins to replace yellow plating by red-orange magma-like texture ; and golden wings by magma wings Needs some tweaks
► Replace the placeholder icons Done
► Make lumber gathering fancier
► Custom sounds for building Done
► Custom voicelines for events Cannot replace most of vanilla ones, but it's there
► Design special items for each secondary elements
► Custom icon for the Fallen God (right now it's a green vanilla Hydra) Custom icon added, could be better

 

[deepstrasz]

Approved based on Techtree Contest #19 - Results The gameplay does not need to be fast but not a drag either. Complexity is fine if properly executed but when thrown all at once on you (as opposed to for instance per tier level or something) it can frustrate. I feel some thinking for making the thing funner rather than overly diverse would do well.