[Aeon of Strife] The Gorge (Alpha)

[Cokemonkey11]

Introduction

The Gorge is a 5v5 combat battleships/AoS map in which teams of players use automatically firing weapons to push the enemy base and overwhelm their opposition.

The Gorge was originally a 2 hour speed map made years ago, which I've decide to extend to what we have today. Thousands of lines of code, custom abilities, a unique weapon system, and more.

Please try it out and let me know what you think.

How to Play

Purchase crew members to fight for you at the main base, and various equipment at the utility port. You can upgrade your ship to improve cargo-hold and other properties at the bay. Get in range of enemy units to automatically attack them, and push to the enemy base to overwhelm them and be victorious!

Screenshots

Last-hit units to get their bounty, providing gold to upgrade your armament.

---

Updated to version 010c. Change log: http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/2527587-post11.html

 

[Kino]

Its hard to say, it being a bare bones showcase with limited content and a lot of raw edges.
I cant comment on the complexity of gameplay or balance since theres a lot of missing content. Aesthetics and terrain cant be judged either since its only a test piece.

What kind of feedback are you looking for anyway? At the moment the only thing I can say is "its like bships but with planes" which isn't a very useful statement.

 

[Cokemonkey11]

Right now the only unique feature is the system which handles crew members; it will work for any arbitrary maximum crew size for larger ships. Of course, as a character designer at heart, all the ships will have interesting unique abilities, and I want to promote trader/hunting/pushing play by having unique trade routes and things like that.

I'm not looking for any specific feedback, just opinions/criticism.

 

[Kino]

Right now the only unique feature is the system which handles crew members; it will work for any arbitrary maximum crew size for larger ships. Of course, as a character designer at heart, all the ships will have interesting unique abilities, and I want to promote trader/hunting/pushing play by having unique trade routes and things like that.

I'm not looking for any specific feedback, just opinions/criticism.

The crew system is definitely the strongest point atm. Since crew members are essentially "characters" are you planning to add more features regarding the crew?
- Being able to rank up crew members for bonuses
- Perhaps unlocking bonus crew types from trade/hunting missions

Just throwing some ideas at you.

I guess you could also have more complex fortifications, the current single tower down each lane is rather easy to focus fire. Throwing in some dud buildings nearby towers to draw fire could also be good. Or you could go with weaker more numerous towers. A balance of both would probably be best.

Lastly, are you in need of any content suggestions?

 

[Cokemonkey11]

Thanks again for your comments.

The crew system is definitely the strongest point atm. Since crew members are essentially "characters" are you planning to add more features regarding the crew?
- Being able to rank up crew members for bonuses
- Perhaps unlocking bonus crew types from trade/hunting missions

Just throwing some ideas at you.

I don't think so. Some crew members will have special aspects (indeed, Sea Witch already has a slowing attack), but I don't want to add upgrading crew members - when to buy and sell weapons in Battleships was, in my opinion, an interesting part of the game, and I don't want to homogenize with all the recipe systems people do. What you can expect in the future though includes bouncing attacks and things of that nature. Only passive effects.

I guess you could also have more complex fortifications, the current single tower down each lane is rather easy to focus fire. Throwing in some dud buildings nearby towers to draw fire could also be good. Or you could go with weaker more numerous towers. A balance of both would probably be best.

I have no problem changing the fortification characteristics - I'm not stuck on having one free-standing defensive tower, but the problem you describe is partially due to imperfect item balance (it's a bit easy to get 5 strong weapons and end the game right now)

Lastly, are you in need of any content suggestions?

Not really, but I won't object if you have the burning desire to mention something.

 

[neo_sluf]

Ok i tried the map and i say it has a LOT OF POTENTIAL.

First of all the system is good. There are lots of ideas that can be made from a simple system of yours.

Its bad that i don't know much about vjass but i say..

This can be epic. If you theme in this one..


Modern Warfare AoS. Helicopters and maybe Jetplanes in a modern themed environement like PARANOIA...

But if you will use the warcraft theme i think its bad.

 

[Cokemonkey11]

Ok i tried the map and i say it has a LOT OF POTENTIAL.

First of all the system is good. There are lots of ideas that can be made from a simple system of yours.

Its bad that i don't know much about vjass but i say..

This can be epic. If you theme in this one..


Modern Warfare AoS. Helicopters and maybe Jetplanes in a modern themed environement like PARANOIA...

But if you will use the warcraft theme i think its bad.

Thank you for your comments. I plan to use all types of aircraft in the map, but I'm not much of an artist so theming the whole map as futuristic is sort of out of my control.

---

I've updated the map in the original post. There are many improvements -

• Helicopter now has a unique ability
• Created multiboard and some basic stat tracking
• Added bounties for pvp
• Fixed numerous bugs
  • Dying no longer drops your items
  • Repair port should be fixed in multiplayer (?)
  • Can no longer drop and pick up items to abuse item sale trigger
  • Many more small issues
• Added two new ships: Skybarge (basic battleship with 10 crew slots) and Zeppelin (basic interceptor)
• Extended music slightly
• Marginal terrain improvements
• Made third tier of weapons (mostly structural change)
• Many more small changes and improvements

I look forward to your thoughts on the latest version and have two small questions:

1. What models/skins would you use for the next ships?
2. If this were your project, what would be your first course of action?

Regards,

 

[neo_sluf]

Thank you for your comments. I plan to use all types of aircraft in the map, but I'm not much of an artist so theming the whole map as futuristic is sort of out of my control.

---

I've updated the map in the original post. There are many improvements -

• Helicopter now has a unique ability
• Created multiboard and some basic stat tracking
• Added bounties for pvp
• Fixed numerous bugs
  • Dying no longer drops your items
  • Repair port should be fixed in multiplayer (?)
  • Can no longer drop and pick up items to abuse item sale trigger
  • Many more small issues
• Added two new ships: Skybarge (basic battleship with 10 crew slots) and Zeppelin (basic interceptor)
• Extended music slightly
• Marginal terrain improvements
• Made third tier of weapons (mostly structural change)
• Many more small changes and improvements

I look forward to your thoughts on the latest version and have two small questions:

1. What models/skins would you use for the next ships?
2. If this were your project, what would be your first course of action?

Regards,

Good updates.

The skins..

There are only few warcraftish models with aircraft theme that's why i suggesting a modern theme.


Also this will be the first Modern Aircraft AoS in warcraft!.

The good course of action.

- Plan the theme
- Find models
- Make the terrain
- Work on the objects/triggers


Hey dude you can open the Starwars Dogfight it is an open source map then you can use the aircraft models there!. Just make sure to know the credits on the map.

Btw that map is editable since the creator of the game permits to do it!.

 

[Kino]

I look forward to your thoughts on the latest version and have two small questions:
1. What models/skins would you use for the next ships?
2. If this were your project, what would be your first course of action?

Whats the point of a paracopter at this stage? The zeppelin is basically the same ship with more health and crew slots.

1) Hard to say, the reason why Bplanes has never been attempted is possibly due to lack of aircraft models. Id definitely prefer an aesthetic theme based around the standard w3 look, taking more its steampunk-esque stuff.

2) A few things
- I would start planning the tactical overlay of the terrain, not the aesthetic details. More of the general paths, lanes shapes, base configurations. Id do this first because gameplay layout is much harder to change later on once more things have been set in stone.

- I would put contracts/trading related stuff in a separate vendor from upgrades.

- Id move the repair station closer to the centre.

- I would make crewmember stats (Fire button, damage) be viewable by directly selecting the crewmember.

- Id remove the annoying wind weather effect.

 

[Cokemonkey11]

There are only few warcraftish models with aircraft theme that's why i suggesting a modern theme.

The map will remain primarily warcraft themed, but that doesn't mean I won't use modern looking models. I just can't afford to do a full conversion mod and prefer to keep filesize low as well.

I did a search through the models for "ship" and found some... decent ones, but nothing jumped out at me. I need something with a muted color scheme and including team color on the skin. If you have anything in particular in mind, feel free to send me a link.

Whats the point of a paracopter at this stage? The zeppelin is basically the same ship with more health and crew slots.

The paracopter is a smuggler. Only smugglers can take trade-related jobs.

I would put contracts/trading related stuff in a separate vendor from upgrades.

I thought about this and haven't found it a problem yet. I may change this later.

I would make crewmember stats (Fire button, damage) be viewable by directly selecting the crewmember.

I like this idea. I may end up doing this but it will take a lot of time. Perhaps later.

---

I've updated the map to version 008c. This version contains many improvements -

• The map has received a large terrain makeover thanks to Kino! Kino has done more work in two days on the terrain than I could do in two weeks. Do check it out!
• Your farm of neutral monsters is now displayed in the multiboard
• A second trade-related job has been added
• Three new tier-3 cannons have been added
• Paracopter now has a unique ability: SL-15 Shroud Generator
• The music has been extended slightly
• Various small bug fixes and improvements

I invite you to test this map in multiplayer mode now that it is becoming reasonably competitive!

I look forward to your thoughts.

Thanks,

 

[Cokemonkey11]

Bump! Updated to 010c:

* Additional terrain improvements by Kino
* More bug fixes and improvements
* Some undocumented/unknown improvements

I hope to get some more feedback from people who have tested in multiplayer. Please let me know how it goes!