TotT 7 & 8

[McQvaBlood]

Hey, everyone!
Just wanted to let you guys know that summer break starts on 15 June for me, which means I will continue working on the remaining two chapters of Terror of the Tides! (Finally, duh.)

I have also decided to go through with my plan for Chapter 8. (The Brothers Stromrage) This will include a slight alteration of the original map. You can see it below for yourselves.

The main idea is that Tyrande's portion of the map is greatly expanded (red parallel lines), so that Malfurion's (blue hexagon) and Illidan's base (purple hexagon) is controlled by Player One and Tyrande's base (teal hexagon) as well as a secondary Naga base (gray hexagon) is controlled by Player Two.
Now, Tyrande's portion of the map will mimic Malfurion's in that there is one base they can destroy (teal & blue arrow) to remove some of the pressure on their bases, while there's one they can't reach (teal & blue square), which will keep attacking them no matter what. There will also be one extra Gold Mine guarded by neutral creeps they can easily expand to. (yellow arrows)

This decision was not easy, so here's my justification.
- First of all, if I were to give Malfurion to one player and Illidan to the other, all the items collected by both of you through seven chapters would go to one player. It seems more fair to give Player One's items from Maiev and Malfurion to Player One controlling Malfurion only in this chapter and Player Two's items from Tyrande and Saithis to Player Two controlling Tyrande only in this chapter. I also don't want to give Illidan any items you collected during the Sentinel campaign.
- What makes this map challanging is that you have to watch two bases at once. Also, once Malfurion succeeds in destroying the undead to the south of his base, there's no real challange in defending, which would result in utter boredom for one player.
- This allows me to create the typical two player feel of sharing your tech, upgrades and resources instead of each player minding his own business.
- This is still a Sentinel map, I want you both to control night elf in this last chapter.
- This is a great excuse to let me create a custom naga hero you can use as a secondary hero in this chapter!

 

[tulee]

Looks good. Also, do you plan on starting the B-elf campaign, or any others for that matter?

 

[McQvaBlood]

I really don't know, I will look into it once TotT's done.

 

[Deleted member 212788]

You should definitely do the "Blood Elf" campaign. You are very talented and your insane mods are really challenging. I once spent 40 mins running from Ilidan and Vashj with just my hero while my friend was building a new base in a forest .And just imagine all the possibilities for a new elven hero and maybe a new naga one too .

 

[Rui]

How old are you, McQva?^^ Classes finish 1 week earlier than that for people who have exams. I suppose you're still sorta young if you don't have any.

By the way, why did Saithis exist anyway, Naisha would have made a good hero. For the escape chapter you could have just made a ghostly version of her like her avatar or something

 

[Deleted member 212788]

By the way, why did Saithis exist anyway, Naisha would have made a good hero. For the escape chapter you could have just made a ghostly version of her like her avatar or something

Yes, Naisha would have been ideal as a ghost but you must keep in mind that you need the second hero for two more maps otherwise it gets unbalanced as player one will have 2 heroes and player 2 only 1 hero. Not to mention that on the fourth chapter one of the players won't have a hero and Naisha running around as a ghost doesn't really fit the story.

 

[McQvaBlood]

Lol at the age comment, I'm 19 , attending university. I suppose the exam periods work differently for the two of us, mine lasts from 15 May to 15 June.
I explained the Naisha thing countless times already. Unfortunately, Blizzard killed her off in a situation where I couldn't come up with a half-intelligent way of introducing a new hero. (Making her run around for another few chapters in ghost form does not quality as such. Not to mention it would ruin the supposed drama of her death, duh.)
Saithis was therefore introduced as a silent deuteregonist. Pretty much how Falric never says a word in the undead campaign.

 

[Rui]

Alright, sorry.
Well, I do believe there are several moments in TheSpoon's works where a player controls 2 heroes while the other controls only 1, doesn't make it particularly imbalanced.

 

[Deleted member 212788]

hmm, I don't recall such a situation. Can you tell me which chapter is that, please?

 

[McQvaBlood]

The only chapter that comes to mind is Frostmoune, where Player 2 has Falric and Muradin for the first 10 minutes until Muradin dies.
It's really not about making the gameplay unbalanced anyway, it's about making either player contribute less to your overall performance when they have fewer heroes.
Frostmourne works like that if you think about it. First, Falric is a great asset to the defence, making player 2 more important as he controls him. But then with Arthas player 1 gets a bit more powerful. It kind of evens out in the end.

 

[Map Designer]

but... Tyrande should not really have a base I guess :/
In fact, I think even blizzard was mistaken since they made her base over power. I think there should be failing condition when Tyrande's base falls...

and, sorry if I was too harsh

 

[Rui]

I think making Tyrande's base super resistant was the objective. Although, for some reason, probably a side effect from patches, Tyrande does nothing after casting Starfall.

 

[McQvaBlood]

I don't think making Tyrande able to fail the level for you would make any sense. There's nothing you can do about it if she is in a tight spot. You have no fliers in this level.
Still, this project requires some hard decisions every now and then this is one of them. It will be for the best in the end, I hope.

 

[McQvaBlood]

By the way, I'm now working on chapter 8 (Although chapter 7 still has some minor things to adress before release.) and I can confirm that Tyrande is meant to be unbeatable: Whenever she would drop below 350 hit points, a trigger sets her life to a random percentage between 50% and 100%.

 

[Map Designer]

I don't think making Tyrande able to fail the level for you would make any sense. There's nothing you can do about it if she is in a tight spot. You have no fliers in this level.
Still, this project requires some hard decisions every now and then this is one of them. It will be for the best in the end, I hope.

No brother. The Naga and I can reach her faster

so, we should move quickly to her rescue. Makes full sense.

Lord Illidan, we have found your missing priestess. She and her warriors fight on against the undead, but I doubt they can hold out much longer.

You'd best hurry if you're to save her!

EDIT: and between, have you inherited the 2p campaign?

 

[McQvaBlood]

So we're basing the map completely on the dialogue. Oh well. Then I would rather highlight this part.

She and her warriors fight on against the undead, but I doubt they can hold out much longer.

I'm free to give her a base.

By the way, Blizzard made it so that:

Whenever she would drop below 350 hit points, a trigger sets her life to a random percentage between 50% and 100%.

So if you're so very bent on making Tyrande able to fail the level for you, you may rejoice, in my version, that's actually possible when her whole base is destroyed. Of course, the health trigger is disabled.

 

[Map Designer]

Not completely on dialogue. she stood in the bridge alone, and fell down the river alone. and by the way, you probably can make her use invisibility at night

 

[McQvaBlood]

Have you ever played chapter eight?
Even in the original, she has an Ancient of War, two Moon Wells, several Huntresses and Archers, even a few Wisps. There's nothing preventing her from building a base.

 

[Map Designer]

I did, but I feel that this is flaw done by blizzard.

 

[Deleted member 212788]

I know I'm only being annoying by asking but When will we be seeing a new chapter ? :3

 

[McQvaBlood]

Well, chapter seven is pretty much complete. I really only need to do one last check on everything and write an upload screen. :S
I'm going to do the upload screen now and the last playtest tomorrow, hopefully.

 

[McQvaBlood]

So I just released chapter seven. Tell me what you think of the difficulty and the map overall! I'm also pretty sure it's bug free, but then again, when is anything reallly bug free?