Techtree Contest #19 - Warcraft Commanders

[Kyrbi0]

Little WIP here. Units are almost done, with their roles and abilities, now it's time for heroes.

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yoooooooooooo Trolls mah boi!

Can't wait to hear all about them. ^_^

 

[MogulKahn]

yo, that troll ballista looks amazing ♥

Yea, we need it!

 

[Vinz]

 

[FlameofChange]

Quick reload free tree destruction is very strong for my taste.
Heavy air armor is also quite broken, since it no longer receive x2 from piercing attacks.
If this unit is not at least 7 food I eat my helmet.

... wait I don't have a helmet.

"That's for test purposes"
No, let me sperg my way through this forum !

 

[Vinz]

Ah, pretty old vid, more of a mechanic showcase than anything. It has light armor now.
Tree damage from attacks has also been reduced significantly since. It's mostly aesthetic at this point.
And the dive ability has a 40s CD outside test mode.

 

[Wazzz]

Very nice to see so many active participants in another Techtree Contest, a lot of great ideas going on (some greater than others, of course). With such lively participation long before the end of July, maybe we'll finally have a contest that doesn't require a month's extension? I suppose time will tell, we'll know for certain by about November, I'm sure

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View attachment 538891

Wow I love this Vale Guardian's design, the rolling boulder is such a nice touch for an air-to-ground attack - although did the angling go a bit off for the Blue Vale Guardian when it came from the side? Either way, it looks like an interesting concept, certainly an unexpected approach for a Warcraft 3 unit

 

[Vinz]

The boulder rolls in the direction of the primary target, which is why it rolled behind the Vale Guardian when the centaur ran behind it.

 

[Superfrycook]

Frostbite Passive for Jaina co-op:

 

[FlameofChange]

New WiP with a bunch of new content. The minimal version is almost finished. There would remain some extra abilities, juice, better UX, the three secondary elements and their features. Don't hesitate to read the design document.
☼ The balance is much better, but exploiting poor AI becomes boring
☼ The two next heroes are done
☼ Added two units : Salavamander and Fire Giant
☼ Added Ember Points, generated by Heat canals and by picking up heat remains ; each point increases slightly the attack speed of all faction units and buildings
☼ Added a global action bar (or works like an action bar) accessible with F4 ; giving abilities costing ember points
☼ Added Ignition to Wisps

Fixes
► No detection yet unit wise The Flare ability in the action bar is cheap enough to be used so
► Lesser Reignite and Combustion have the same order id (inner fire) ; so right clicking it in the same group also touches the other one Changed the base ability for Combustion from inner fire to bloodlust
► No sound when gold is nearly empty Added event sounds
► Quest log still show only 4 lines at a time Fixed
► I suspect one music doesn't want to be played, so the playlist might have a blank from time to time Changed the frequency of all musics to 44.1kHz to be extra sure
► Meteor shower is bugged, it doesn't throw a unit (WHYYYY) and it may make a unit disappear indefinitely Fixed

Known issues
► Orb is still placeholder and can be bought tier 1
► 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
► May mine from an occupied goldmine by another player, or undead/night elf if yoinked before
► You can target enemies with Reignite
► [NEW] Seismic Toss can trap the thrown unit in water, trees and cliffs
► [NEW] Reign of terror does not reset correctly the height of the Fallen God the first time when finished
► [NEW] The attack button of the Fallen God disappears when its Reign of Terror finishes
► [NEW] You can farm ember points by damaging a unit in your base manually and letting heat canals cast their heat remains
► [NEW] Reality rift is disabled until done completely
► [NEW] You can stack Tunnels on top of each others
► [NEW] Music playlist is not random
► [NEW] Wisps don't seem to drop when the main building is destroyed
► [NEW] Crust grinder SFX doesn't seems to be removed when killed

 

[Wazzz]

Frostbite Passive for Jaina co-op:

I'm a little confused, what is the Frostbite passive?

 

[Superfrycook]

I'm a little confused, what is the Frostbite passive?

Slows movement and attack speed.

 

[Riki]

Doing some testing and I decided to post an early in-game WIP

 

[Kyrbi0]

Heck yeah, nice update

☼ Added two units : Salavamander and Fire Giant

Good adds, though again I think "Salavamander" is a little too cute/silly. "Salamander" is all you really need here.

 

[Wazzz]

Slows movement and attack speed.

Oh very nice, is that a triggered ability?

 

[Superfrycook]

Oh very nice, is that a triggered ability?

Yes

 

[GhostThruster]

finally managed to finish off the design of my heroes... man 31 July is approaching fast

Spoiler: naive puppe-- ***Champions*** of Gul'dan!

Hero	Description	Abilities
Black Chieftain	Warrior Hero, effective at leading ruthless attacks against enemy forces. Fight initiator. Has abilities orientated at either dealing damage or increasing damage output of allies. Lore: I imagine this guy to be a clan chieftain that Gul'dan has groomed to be a frontline puppet, akin to Blackhand.	Hellish Slam: deals damage in a line with a burn after-effect. Warcry: increases the attack and speed of nearby allies Incursion Aura: increases attack rate, also adds bonus damage vs buildings Blood Haze: gains bonus HP, attack power, and a super-Vampiric mini-aura
Ogre Sorceror	Mystical Hero, exceptional at unleashing destructive magic. Whether you play him as a nuker or more of a support role, he excels at inflicting damage. Lore: clearly inspired by Cho'gall, this guy is a fellow disciple of Gul'dan with a particular lust for void magic.	Shadow Beam: instantly drains life from a foe and transfers it to the weakest ally nearby. Bloodbath: sacrifices a unit to deal AoE damage around it, based on its HP. Enfeeble: reduces attack and armor in a target area. Twilight's Hammer: calls down waves of void-infused thunder. Basically a point-target Starfall, but punchier.
Assassin	Cunning Hero, adept at eliminating enemy units with stealth and trickery. Like a Blademaster, but hotter. This Winter Soldier quote inspired me: "Infiltrate, assassinate, destabilize. They can take a whole country down in one night, and you'd never see them coming." Lore: she's Garona, but I'm pretending Gul'dan has his own Black Widow-esque organisation for which she is one of many graduates.	Backstab: teleports behind a ground unit and deals immense damage to it. Shadowstep: creates a puff of smoke at a target location and blinks inside it. Fights better while inside the smoke. Deception: goes invisible while spawning an illusion. Insurrection: disables a target building, deals damage to it, and spawns Insurgents around it to harass foes.
Deathstrider	Mystical Hero, proficient at disrupting enemy armies. Has abilities that encumber, distract, and disempower enemies. Lore: look, I'm not innovator of the year. He's Teron Gorefiend, but there's already a "Death Knight" in Wc3... so Deathstriders are elite lieutenants who excel in death magic, or something.	Whirlwind: summons a controllable mini-Tornado that slows foes and drains their HP. Spectral Ward: a Pocket Factory that spawns ranged specters. Touch of Darkness: passive, attacks steal mana Black Sabbath: summons swaths of ghosts in a target area that heal allies (or encumber foes) they fly into.

 

[Kyrbi0]

finally managed to finish off the design of my heroes... man 31 July is approaching fast

Spoiler: naive puppe-- ***Champions*** of Gul'dan!

Hero	Description	Abilities
Black Chieftain View attachment 539942	Warrior Hero, effective at leading ruthless attacks against enemy forces. Fight initiator. Has abilities orientated at either dealing damage or increasing damage output of allies. Lore: I imagine this guy to be a clan chieftain that Gul'dan has groomed to be a frontline puppet, akin to Blackhand.	View attachment 539946 Hellish Slam: deals damage in a line with a burn after-effect. View attachment 539948 Warcry: increases the attack and speed of nearby allies View attachment 539949 Incursion Aura: increases attack rate, also adds bonus damage vs buildings View attachment 539965 Blood Haze: gains bonus HP, attack power, and a super-Vampiric mini-aura
Ogre Sorceror View attachment 539943	Mystical Hero, exceptional at unleashing destructive magic. Whether you play him as a nuker or more of a support role, he excels at inflicting damage. Lore: clearly inspired by Cho'gall, this guy is a fellow disciple of Gul'dan with a particular lust for void magic.	View attachment 539951 Shadow Beam: instantly drains life from a foe and transfers it to the weakest ally nearby. View attachment 539955 Bloodbath: sacrifices a unit to deal AoE damage around it, based on its HP. View attachment 539953 Enfeeble: reduces attack and armor in a target area. View attachment 539954 Twilight's Hammer: calls down waves of void-infused thunder. Basically a point-target Starfall, but punchier.
Assassin View attachment 539944	Cunning Hero, adept at eliminating enemy units with stealth and trickery. Like a Blademaster, but hotter. This Winter Soldier quote inspired me: "Infiltrate, assassinate, destabilize. They can take a whole country down in one night, and you'd never see them coming." Lore: she's Garona, but I'm pretending Gul'dan has his own Black Widow-esque organisation for which she is one of many graduates.	View attachment 539956 Backstab: teleports behind a ground unit and deals immense damage to it. View attachment 539957 Shadowstep: creates a puff of smoke at a target location and blinks inside it. Fights better while inside the smoke. View attachment 539958 Deception: goes invisible while spawning an illusion. View attachment 539964 Insurrection: disables a target building, deals damage to it, and spawns Insurgents around it to harass foes.
Deathstrider View attachment 539945	Mystical Hero, proficient at disrupting enemy armies. Has abilities that encumber, distract, and disempower enemies. Lore: look, I'm not innovator of the year. He's Teron Gorefiend, but there's already a "Death Knight" in Wc3... so Deathstriders are elite lieutenants who excel in death magic, or something.	View attachment 539960 Whirlwind: summons a controllable mini-Tornado that slows foes and drains their HP. View attachment 539961 Spectral Ward: a Pocket Factory that spawns ranged specters. View attachment 539962 Touch of Darkness: passive, attacks steal mana View attachment 539959 Black Sabbath: summons swaths of ghosts in a target area that heal allies (or encumber foes) they fly into.

I mean they're basically perfect, as I would expect from you. Very straightforward, nothing crazy, clearly-designed. At least half of your icons are good, and nearly all the names.

Highly approve of the "generalizing hero classes out of named legendary characters" conceit; Not!Blackhand, Not!Cho'Gall, Not!Garona & Not!Teron is basically exactly what I'd expect to see, and still makes perfect sense.

My few notes:

((Black Chieftain))
- Don't love this name (he's not even black ), but "Chieftain" is a no brainer. Except maybe if that's too singular, maybe e.g. "Warlord"?
(Hellish Slam)

• great ability. Don't love this name either, but then again it's hard to think of better alternatives ("Fiery Slam"? ). Effect is similar to BoF but hey.
• icon is meh (too 'soft' IMO)

(Warcry)

• perfect. "increases the attack"... damage/power? "...and speed"... movement/attack?
• good icon

(Incursion Aura)

• lovely
• interesting icon, don't hate it; modified? I recognize the runes in the back I think...

(Blood Haze)

• great ability but again the name; good but this one is a bit underwhelming for an Ultimate. "Berserkergang"? "Bloodrage"? "Brutality"? "Bloodthirst"? "Savage Heritage"? "Barbarity"? "Demonic Ichor" (retheme it as a Metamorphosis-esque receipt of demonic power/imbuement)
• good icon

((Ogre Sorceror))
- perfect, no notes
(Shadow Beam)

• fascinating. I'm not sure where the 'beam' fits in; does it come from the enemy to the ally ('beaming' the HP over to them?), or from the hero to either the target or the ally (& if one, (how) is the other acknowledged visually?)
• meh icon.

(Bloodbath)

• excellent name. great ability. synergizes with Shadow Beam, perfect icon
• cool

(Enfeeble)

• great. Maybe strong (I've found there are few AoE debuffs among heroes?).
• Also again, "reduces attack..." damage/power? speed?
• OK icon (WoW-fathered in).

(Twilight's Hammer)

• cool name. not sure what 'punchier' means in this context, but a point-target Starfall (... Monsoon?) is just fine.
• Icon is somewhere between "perfect" and "meh".

((Assassin))

• again, perfect. maybe a touch simple for a hero (I'd call a unit "Assassin" without blinking). But it's hard to think of good alternatives ("Manslayer"? "Executioner"? "Insurgent"? "Murderess"? "Slayer"? "Bounty Hunter"?)
• this lady better have one of her proper names be [[Massacre Girl]], I swear!

(Backstab)

• perfect, no notes.
• Icon WoW-fathered in, a bit complex but...

(Shadowstep)

• very cool idea... but that name & icon have me totally confused. I don't see how it's a shadow-step much beyond the blink? Why not just "Smoke Bomb"? Or make the smoke bomb into a "shadow realm/walk through shadows" thing instead so it fits?
• "fights better"? how?
• two positional/teleporting abilities??
• Icon WoW-fathered in (not one of my favorites though)

(Deception)

• perfect, no notes.
• meh icon, hard one to find for

(Insurrection)
- a fascinating take on an Assassin Ultimate... there have been many good ideas bandied about, but I think yours is very intriguing. Obviously also a cool ability (though maybe a little useless if you're not fighting in the enemy base/expo... but then again as we've discussed, there are a number of "useless"/limited-in-context Ultimates so ). Icon is a bit busy/complex.

And the best for last!

((Deathstrider))

• DEATH KNIGHT
• DEATH KNIGHTTTTTT
• BABY IT'S THE DEATH KNIGHT HE'S BACK & DEADER THAN EVER
• Gotta say, I love the moxy of you just witnessing years of debate about "what to name Wc2 DKs in Wc3", largely from yours-truly, just to plop down "Deathstrider ". I mean... it kinda works. I don't love it. But I have literally struggled with this for years so I have no advice
• OK so am I the only one that's gonna point out that you've literally given this guy 3 summoning abilities, yet that doesn't show up anywhere in his description/tooltip? I mean listen I think it's more or less the right way to implement a Wc2-style DK into Wc3 as a Hero, but it seems like it should 'show up' somewhere (if it was intentional).

(Whirlwind)

• I'm sad this isn't the Ultimate. but then again, it's solid & useful & unique.
• good icon... but C'MON MAN, the OG "call to shadows" is right there! With the purple swirly skull tornado on it! Plz.

(Spectral Ward)

• Lovely, love a mass-spawner. Ranged ghosts instead of melee bots is cute. I'm confused why he has a 'ward'; just making it a big animated gravestone or summat seems more straightforward.
• where'd you get that icon? I can't decide if I like it or not but it's at least very interesting.

(Touch of Darkness)

• the OG is back. perfect reference, great name, solid/synergistic ability, synergizes with the rest. Great OG icon as well.
• It could maybe be juiced up a tiny bit? Like, 'restoring X mana if you kill something with ToD', in addition to the ~~life~~mana-steal?

(Black Sabbath)

• alright FINE, you win xD. The name is so strange to see, and yet it's hard to argue against it. Heck, early Blizzard was a bunch of metalheads with computers & degrees, so if anything this might be the perfect fit. Still might be a bit tongue-in-cheek.
• not sure about the mechanism for summoning, nor "encumbering" (??), nor "fly into". But it's a neat-sounding ability. Is this what Wc2 Death Knights were about?