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Level 8
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Nov 5, 2005
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I'm making this thread just to show people what's progressing, since it may appear to some people that no progress is being made.

I'll edit this first post every few days, depending on how much there is to report.

(Team, if you have something to add to this, PM me.)


-12 August-
Mainly focusing on incorporating lore into the tooltips of units, which I don't feel should take particularly long. Also trying to create more variety in the races, and working on balancing; by which I mean adding new upgrades, abilities and units, and editing some existing ones. Right now the focus is the Arachnid team, which (this may just be the way I'm playing) appear to be too underpowered.
Working on an idea to utilize critters into gameplay. So far this is achieved through the secondary use of items.
Implemented a difficulty setting recently. Settings are Easy, Normal, Hard, Warfare and Antipathy. Each setting causes enemies to grow more powerful, presumably making it more flexible to player skill.

-14 August-
I've finished the tooltip lore for all races excluding the Beast race. Still working on expanding some of the races for balancing, but lore is still the most immediate concern.
Dialogue changes appear to be coming along nicelly.

-17 August-
Beast tooltip lore is also done now. Added a Sadism difficulty setting, which is the equivilent of Very Easy and makes enemies weeker than otherwise possible.
Currently working on extending each race to make them seem less similar; I'm planning out an unlockable sub-storyline, but haven't thought out the details yet so probably not going to put anything into the map.

-22 August-
Haven't been able to do much recently, swamped with work that I really dont want to do. Although, I have made a few changes to teams and added a mode which I call Rage Mode. In this mode heroes gain mana when attacked but lose mana when they attack. Most likelly an unlockable.

-25 August-
Procrastinating on unrelated work... I'm gonna suffer for this soon. But, I have now added a substory which I am currently calling Prisoners of War, which introduces crystal-like cells to the story which contain living victims of the Elementals. Why they are taking prisoners into these cells is unknown. The players find these cells and release the captives to solve the mystery.
Also added the Wisdom Mode. This simply displays the names of abilities cast above the casters briefly.

-1 September-
Kjiverx has sent me the revised dialogue (cheers).
I have begun work on another substory, this one is currently called The Castle on the Wind. I've only got it set to work on the first level right now, but if I get it working right it should turn out quite well, it's quite a bit more...impacting than the previously done Prisoners of War. If I make strong progress on it I'll report again, if not then I'll probably just stop mentioning it. Still making minor expansions to teams, which I'm doing constantly so it would be safe to assume each update that that is an implied inclusion.

-19 September-
Haven't posted in a while, been very swamped but now that I have a break I'm hoping to get alot done. Let's see, what have I got done...I've continues work on The Castle on the Wind's system briefly, but nothing major; I've started redoing the second level, which is an indoors dungeon, because I really found the original to be too stale. I've added two new classes due to popular demand (by which I mean about 5 people wanted more...), the Cleric and the Brute. Brute is raw combat based, while the Cleric is magic based with both heals and a nice Ultimate spell which I may have made an icon for. I've also done a bit of work expanding the techtrees a bit further. I'd expand them alot more but I'm running out of suitable models.
This isn't really an update, it's old and I simply didnt think to add it but might as well. Another simple Mode is Alias, which renames the player into one of [I think 40?] alternative names. Hope to have a big update in the next few weeks.

-1 October-
Almost finished rebuilding the second level. Once I'm done, I'll need to redo the fourth level aswell. Changes are fairly major so by changing one it's neccessary to change the other.
Added a simple feature where players can 'roll' a random number. I'm not sure where this would be useful, but it could be used for deciding which player gets what or something, I guess.

-2 October-
Finished the redone second level, featuring multiple possible encounters for replayability; extended the Castle on the Wind substory and it's system; and added a kicking system. Hopefully it wont be needed, but knowing that there are people who tend to enjoy spam it was best to have a safeguard. Players have 1 report each, with which they can vote to kick a player. The player is kicked if two players vote to kick. If the player voted for is kicked, the reports are refunded to the users. I've done it this way so that it isnt an indevidual choice to kick, and under the belief that with under 3 players you would be playing with someone trustworthy. I believe it to be a good system, but I could be wrong.

-4 October-
Possibly finished fourth level, but yet to actually try it out. Added a 1/25 chance of purchasing some units to produce "elite" units instead. Elites are the same as the counterparts, but a bit stronger. Right now it's constantly active, but not sure whether it should be optional/unlockable or not.

-20 October-
To start with, I've tested the new second and fourth levels solo to make sure things are working the way they should be, which I am quite surprised to find that it's all good in one try. Added a mode called Influence which is available from the start which causes messages longer than 1 word to be displayed above the head of that players hero (if the hero is alive), and causes a player-specific visual effect whenever a player selects their own units. This should, in theory, help players to understand how others are playing the game, and allows for quicker reckognisation of heroes in the event of, for example, a player needing his hero healed.
I'm working on making the hero building process a bit more advanced. Despite it being, IMO, a fairly good system, I feel that the heroes stat build more controllable would strongly increase replayability. Oh, and added a new class: Genetecist.
The Castle on the Wind story and mechanics are functioning up to the final level, unfortunatelly I cannot complete this last level with their story yet (it is finished for use outside of the optional subplot), which brings me to my next point:
I'm eager to get this tested, which should be fairly soon. As soon as the terraining is complete, I can begin implementing everyone's work, then begin testing. In the meantime, all that's left to do is expanding on what I already have... such as the races, maybe more classes or storylines. If it takes too much longer, I guess I can start testing with my crappy terrain job.

-21 October-
Working on a kind of manual which should have alot of information on the project, it's lore, the races, characters etc. Added emotes...for some reason. Type a -[emote] command and a message is displayed. I don't think this serves any real purpose other than if people arn't paying attention to the chat (I know people who do that, always causes problems). Added another class (making the total amount 16), the Venom Lord. Made the stat-building portion of hero creation better, in the sense that you now have alot more control over it.

-24 October-
Found some annoying bugs. Trying to fix them has caused worse bugs. These include revealing bits of the map far too early; spawning guys on other levels early, giving them massive advantages; and bits of dialogue appearing when they shouldnt be. On the bright side, I made a simple, flashy loading screen, and have prepared this unneccesary list of hero classes.
ClassesU.jpg


-28 October-
Fixed most of the bugs. Made some changes to first level, specifically I added a timer to make it both more in tune with the level's objective, and to prevent players from sitting back, massing upgrades. Working on incorporating Professions. Got one done yesterday, took roughly 5 hours thanks to me waiting until I thought it complete before testing it.

-11 December-
Added a new set of quests, added a couple of units, added an increased blood-effects mode, redid a bit of text. It's not much, my only excuse is that I cant really do anything meaningful until another terrainer turns up. However, I am trying to prepare SOMETHING before christmas at least to show you patient people.

-18 December-
Added a few tweeks and units, updated some modes and the help system, and made second profession (Blacksmithing). I should probably point out however that the professions are somewhat simplistic and fairly small. They're not meant to be a major touch but rather just a bonous. I've prepared a bit of a class/race demo which I plan on releasing later this week provided that wc3campaigns comes up soon so I can grab optimising tools.

-19 December-
Did a bit of reworking on Blacksmithing and added a third Profession, Enhancement.

-20 December-
All three professions seem to be working fine now, so I've made it that each player may select a single profession for their Hero during the setup process.

-23 December-
*Delayed* Seems my internet has been overloaded, making it pretty difficult to upload the demo until it resets (which should be late Thursday). So the demo will be uploaded on Friday the 28th and not last week as planned.

-27 December-
Internets back, and a thread containing the Demo has been made.

-29 December-
Changed alot of the console UI to look alot more attractive. Some people would be happy to hear that I plan on using Crazyrussians console icons. Made a few expansions to the Arachnid and Beast races. Made another playable class, Predator. This class focusses on exploiting enemy formations, such as with AoE or Line damage.

-6 January-
Working on another random occuring quest in which one random player may do harm to allied players to increase his/her own power. My problem is that I'm not sure how to make the end of the chain seem traitorous (making the traitor player secretive in his/her questing) but not to the point where other players will boot them to avoid it. Perhaps allowing players to call traitors out, thereby causing a reverse effect...hmmm. If that was just rambling to you I'm sorry XD.

-10 January-
Had a friend over who I guess could be considered a 'LAN Beta tester' for most of my maps. Thanks to this, I found several bugs which didnt present themselves in single player, and found some features that needed balancing. From how it progressed from first try to the latest one, it seems I've fixed most if not all of them. Nicelly enough, this has shown me that BDTE actually is fun to play cooperativelly (I was a little worried that it would disappoint to be completelly honoust). It's got me eager to get this finished!

-12 January-
Fixed numerous side-quest bugs, tweaked the difficulty settings quite a bit...before it seemed that the start was too difficult even on lower settings (I'd wanted it to be tough, but it was proving to be almost impossible to survive and still be able to finish the level within the time limit). Finished implementing a somewhat simple system which will grant players a sort of 'rank' based upon there hero level. For example, if player 1's Hero reaches level 3, a message will be displayed stating "<PlayerName> has achieved Apprentice status." From then on, the players name will instead state <PlayerName> [<rank>]. The tricky bit was making this compatable with the -alias command (changes the players name), and fixing a problem which would add the players ranks multiple time (eg, <PlayerName> [Apprentice][Expert]). Fixing it wasn't hard, just took a bit of thought. Too many triggers damn it >.<
I've set up random item drops. Basic things like potions, Rings, some Weapons, and a couple of more powerful Items with lower drop chance.

-14 January-
New and most likelly final class, Runemaster, finished. Runemasters create Runes (gasp!) which possess different effects. For the most part, these runes need to be kept alive for a certain amount of time before they finally cause their effect.
This brings the class grand total to 18. I believe that's enough to keep people happy, yes?

-16 January-
Working on a periodic trivia event. Every 5 minutes (from the last successfully solved trivia) a trivia question will be displayed. Solving it rewards 150 lumber and gold to all players. There's 20 questions right now, but still adding more.
Made some more changes to the difficulties, namelly the levels which don't involve Elementals. Now, these levels will have their units upgraded when playing in War or Antipathy settings.

-18 January-
Wolves now have 3 states; Starved, Content, and Nourished. Basically, wolves will drop in state periodically but can gain a state if they are fed chickens from the Beast Pit.
There are now Tips. A single tip will be displayed at the start of the game, none ingame. I hope to avoid the tip spam which lurks in alot of maps.
Working on implementing Achievements. For doing something that will probably be quite difficult, there will be certain rewards. For example, the Achievement 'Greed' will be awarded for hoarding 10,000 gold, and will give gold to all players constantly for the rest of the game.

-19 January-
Added a simple profession, Herbalism, which is what you'd expect. Herbalists are able to collect Herb items which other players cannot. This has no recipes, just the collecting advantage.

-24 January-
Profession #5 has been completed, Spiritualism. This gives players a Spirit Beacon which is used to attract and capture stray spirits (kind of like fishing I suppose). The captured spirits can then be used by the Spiritualist to be reshaped into new units. Like the other professions, the recipes in Spiritualism do get progresivelly better, but in a way that doesnt render lower end ones obsolete. For example, Spiritualists can summon a Turtle Spirit with 340 life and a spiked carapace, but can later summon a Demon Spirit who has an AOE burn, cleave and high damage.

-28 January-
Yesterday I tested BDTE online with a couple of friends. Feedback was very good, but there were a few strong glitches which needed fixing and a bit of balancing needed. Specifically, some class/player combinations weren't spawning units correctly, and the Shifter Race suffers quite a bit until you build a decent base. I'm working on the balancing right now, and I believe I've fixed the glitches.

-1 February-
Some balancing and bug fixes are done. 1 new randomly occuring boss has been made, which will only appear in Hard or higher difficulties, planning at least 1 more after that. Runes of Healing and Summoning are now invulnerable since them dying early was more of an exploit than tactic.

-2 February-
Changed the loading screen to include a "Hosted by Hiveworkshop.com" tag, and a "Created by Gauntlet" tag. I'd had the Hive in a special thanks bit, but doesnt hurt to have it on the loading screen.

-3 February-
To help balance the Shifters, it is now possible to get upgrades to bypass some tech-requirements. This was because during my test online, the player who chose the Shifters found it nearly impossible to be useful early into each level.

-19 March-
I know, I haven't updated in a while, but this is because there really isnt much to report. About two weeks (I think, I've lost track of time) ago, I gave copies to Gilles and Mabus for terraining but haven't heard anything back yet so I'm no sure what progress, if any, is going on. In the long run, it's alot easier for me if I wait for the terraining to be implemented before I proceed.
To clarify, by "proceed" I mean: Implement Dialogue, Finish a little race balancing, then it's off to beta.

-29 July-
I know, lack of updates. I apologise XD.
Gilles is having a (hopefully) fun holiday right now, but the plan is that he/she'll be able to do some terraining afterwards. I've done some balancing, added a couple of units, and added some stuff that will undoubtably be removed before testing.

-18 September-
I'm done with WC3 modding, so most of my projects are just going to waste away in my Warcraft files, but I guess I got tired of letting THIS one sit there. So download link can be found in my signature. If there's problems downloading, let me know.
It should include a word file for details and notes, the actual Campaign Map, 7 Skirmish Maps for versus multiplayer, and 1 singleplayer skirmish that was made pretty abruptly as an into to the Shifter Clan's gameplay.
 
Last edited:
Level 4
Joined
Apr 14, 2007
Messages
132
add a difficulty called masochism at the hard end, and sadism at the easy end.

on topic: dialogue's coming along, people!
 
Level 4
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Apr 14, 2007
Messages
132
bump so you know we haven't forgotten this exists and it'll be obvious that stuff has happened since august. FYI

-sorry for the double post-
 
Level 4
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Apr 14, 2007
Messages
132
the elite units should either be a lower chance or buyable, although in some games no one is going to buy 25 of a unit. perhaps differing chances for different unit tiers? that might work out better.
 
Level 6
Joined
Mar 12, 2007
Messages
225
It's not much, my only excuse is that I cant really do anything meaningful until another terrainer turns up.
I saw that and was wondering if maybe it meant you needed a terrainer to help with your project. I am willing to help if you want and I am very excited about what your doing.

Just let me know if you need me! :)
 
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