[Strategy / Risk] Warcraft: Total War (Alpha v0.74)

[Wark]

And thus begins the idea of a new project.

Initial Concept:

Hidden

1. I want to warcraft-ify the Warhammer universe and use relevant unit models, but with a warcraft style.
2. The setting will be in the Old World of the Warhammer universe. I also want to use this project as an opportunity to expand my terraining skills.
3. It'll be a cross-over. It won't be all nitty-gritty, but there will be plenty of nits - and grits.
4. A focus on macro command, diplomacy, point/town control, and morale depending on the race.
5. The races: I am thinking it'll start off with the big 6 in the old world: The Empire, Bretonnia, Norsca and/or Chaos Undivided, Wood Elves, Dwarves, and Orks. I may include minor factions like Chaos Dwarves, Tilean Mercenaries and maybe Skaven or the Vampire Counts later.
6. Unit stats will be... different. I actually want to take a page from a Dungeons and Dragons theme and have squad based units with low HP and damage, but with a random factor. For example, a "swordsman" of the empire may have 75 hp, and deal 2-5 damage with an ability to block 50% of all projectiles.
7. Squads will act like a single unit, which can replenish its ranks in towns or near a supply chain thingy. I have a good basis on this now.
8. Resources will be gained based on town control, capture points, and morale. My idea: different types of control points will provide different types of resources. Capitol cities will provide food, gold and lumber periodically.
9. Base building will be minimal, and more like choosing add-ons for towns. Towns could be liberated, enslaved, rebuilt, or razed.
10. Heroes will play more of a support role. The first "hero" (commander) will be "Central Command," which will field remote support options for troops and macro controls for your squads. Secondary commanders will be your standard heroes, like Bright Wizards or Champions, who vary in cost and are revivable. Different secondary commanders will focus on either commanding (buffs and auras), dueling (assassin types), or combat (can hold their own, more meant for killing squads), and will be limited to 2.
11. Techtrees will change the way each race plays. Some techtrees will unlock specific secondary commanders, or solely upgrade infantry/cavalry/artillery etc.

Progress:
Lore: 30%
Races: 80%
Terrain: 10%
Systems: 50%
Object Data: 66%

If anyone is interested in helping with the core ideas of this project, please let me know here in the discussion.
I'll be starting with the object data first.

Credits gathered so far:
HerrDave, Em!, Mechanical Man, Grey Knight, 67chrome, epsilon, Sellenisko, General Frank, GooS, Elenai, CloudWolf, Ket, jatter2, LordGandulfo88, Tranquil, Ayane, DungeonM, Gottfrei, JesusHipster, WILL THE ALMIGHTY, Eagle XI, skrab, Mike, Wandering Soul, Lelling, loktar, D.ee, The_Silent, s4nji, and Blizzard Entertainment

 

[Chaosy]

Incest is illegal

 

[cleavinghammer]

This map has some interesting ideas, so does this one.

 

[WarcraftLiterature]

This Campaign and the other in the series made by the same man could help with this project.

 

[Wark]

Godfall has a lot of what I need to learn, though it'll be that -worker units +more macro commands.
I kind of want to improve on his squad idea, and add morale into the mix. Maybe make it easier to detect how many units are in a squad.

EDIT:
Some ideas about detecting squad sized:
- use mana on the squad leader as an indicator
- base it off of % health of the squad leader, making it invulnerable until only the squad leader is left
- use some kind of hidden aura buff that visually shows the number of units in the squad when selected

 

[Wark]

So far, I've got a good idea set on the concept, and the object data is about 50% done.
I've looked into the Godfall series, and am learning the basis of squad control with JASS.

 

[WarcraftLiterature]

It sounds like progress is going well until now.

 

[Wark]

I'll have a simple conquest test map out shortly to show initial concepts for the map, and to test squad balance.
I'm feeling confident that I can actually push this project out much faster than previous ones.
The biggest hurdle I will have is making an accurate representation of the Old World, and how to present it.

1) Should I make something with instanced battle grounds and commander units that represent armies on a world map?
2) Or, should I do the RTS thing and plunk armies with base building right on the world map?

 

[cleavinghammer]

Depends on the scale of the map.

If it's big enough, RTS with instance battles for capital cities and major dungeons. If it's smaller, RTS for the whole thing.

 

[Wark]

Alright, first alpha map using Blizzard's Gnoll Wood terrain is now out. No full commander units yet.
I'm still working on that.
Currently: Humans are the Empire, Orcs are Orks, Undead are Chaos Undivided, and Night Elves are Wood Elves/High Elves.

 

[WarcraftLiterature]

It's good to hear that the alpha is out. Now if only we could test it. ))

 

[Wark]

I've got it uploaded on the first post, at the very top

 

[WarcraftLiterature]

My bad, my bad.

So I've got to testing the Chaos race first. The squads work when you select the leader, but you can also select each unit and move them, sure they will come back to the squad leader at some point. I don't know why I just expected selecting one unit to be enough, but then again there is the aura under the leader. I would recommend making the aura a little bigger on some of the units, I had a hard time seeing the aura under the Warhounds. Also why does the Giant have mounted armour?

This is all for now, I will try to test the rest of the colourss/races today.

 

[LordDz]

Maybe you can get help from the guy who did this map:
https://www.hiveworkshop.com/threads/rome-total-war-1-82.227613/

Or you could at least take inspiration.

 

[cleavinghammer]

Farms need to give more food/be cheaper, given how fast food fills up.
Game doesn't end when all enemies are dead.
Reinforcement: If there aren't enough resources to reinforce, it's possible for mana to increase but without getting the unit. Once there are resources, reinforcement occurs as normal.

Bug (for humans, orcs and elves so far): Sometimes units will randomly start moving somewhere without being given orders to or already had orders. It seems to happen when they're selected.
Steam Tank tooltip says it's effective against units and buildings, can't attack buildings.
Demon Forge doesn't work as a lumber dropoff.
Why does the Phoenix have mana?

Don't know how far the AI goes, but Chaos seems to know to build Thralls, just one at a time.

 

[WarcraftLiterature]

Farms need to give more food/be cheaper, given how fast food fills up.

Bug (for humans so far): Sometimes units will randomly start moving somewhere without being given orders to or already had orders. It seems to happen when they're selected.
Steam Tank tooltip says it's effective against units and buildings, can't attack buildings.

Also the Farm and Foundary use F as their shortcut.

 

[Wark]

Alright, thank you for testing! This will help me get my object data all sorted.

And yea:

Sometimes units will randomly start moving somewhere without being given orders to or already had orders. It seems to happen when they're selected.

I noticed this as well for massed units. I think some of the unit orders are shifting to the wrong units somewhere. That's probably the biggest bug.

There's no true AI - yet. I basically just modified the racial units. Some races build up, some don't.
This is mostly just a altered-melee test map.
I want to try out a different kind of game mode with a troop deployment phase and battle phase later.

EDIT:
I fixed all those bugs, and I think I fixed the AI. Uploaded test version 1.62.
Also, added the flanked, artillery fire, and discouraged debuffs with a -cam command.

 

[Wark]

Update for the test version: Alpha 0.67, now with AI support for Chaos (undead) and the Empire (human).

Rebalanced the melee units by slightly increasing health values, added more test commanders, the camera command is now "-zoom" and Giants with Squiggoths have an awesome sweeping attack courtesy of Tank-Commander.

 

[Wark]

Update v0.71 out: trying the commander systems, refined coding, adding upgrades, and balanced some squads out.
Heroes and techtree paths will come next.

EDIT:
There's been some problems with either clunky or unresponsive movement of massed squads.
If anyone can help with the JASS for this or has another squad system that works in the original editor (v1.29.2),
then please let me know.
Details here:
[code=jass] - Massed squads having movement problems

 

[Wark]

Solved the problem with thanks to @pick-a-chew !

Update version 0.74:
- Reduced squad sizes, adjusted food cap and upkeep levels, added more mercenary units (Skaven), added macro assist abilities to commanders, fixed the clunky squad movement bug, rebalanced some units and changed attack types around.

 

[Wark]

Starting work on the REAL terrain for the map.
Here's a screenshot of Karaz-A-Karak and Karak Kadrin so far, as well as the minimap layout.

(See attached)