Warden #42

This bundle is marked as high quality. It exceeds standards and is highly desirable.
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Warden is a single player campaign with unique boss fights, puzzles and gameplay, inspired by Zelda.
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-Main Features-
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Arrowkey Movement
A very polished system for arrowkey movement has been created for this project. The player can also use
the cursor for movement, if that is preferred.
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Intriguing Story
Canon to the warcraft lore, the story-telling in the campaign overmaps covers holes in warcrafts own lore,
such as how Felwood was before its corruption, or how Maievs prison where she held Illidan came to be.
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Puzzles, Obstacles and Boss Fights
You will encounter a great deal of puzzles that requires some brains to solve, and obstacles where speed and
timing is key. Boss fights, which are fairly common, often requires you to those previous qualities together!
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Cool Combat
Most enemies have a trick or two up their sleeves, so you have to dodge, dance around and pick your
moments to strike in a fight rather than just right-click them and hope for the best.


-Screenshots-


Leave a comment and rating if you like it! :)



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Contents

-Warden- 42 (Campaign)

Reviews
StoPCampinGn00b
After over a year of updates, Warden has risen to be one of the most unique and high quality campaign out there. Hack n' slash + puzzles + a new story is a recipe for success. Moderator rating bumped from 4/5 to 5/5.

Moderator

M

Moderator

19:57, 15th Mar 2016
Ardenian: A challenging and innovative game.
The gameplay is a rare seen case in the WC3 environment and the puzzles are creative. The creeps are a tad too hard for my taste, but I hope the upcoming difficulty choice offers some variety for different players and playing styles. The terrain is very warcraftish, not great and breath-taking, but it shows you read tutorials and considered advices to improve it while still preserving the original Warcraft feeling.

You announced great new features for the future,
after implenting them I might increase the rating furthermore.
 
Level 26
Joined
Oct 2, 2011
Messages
2,483
Latest changes:
[2017-11-03]
-Removed some excess test objects close to the start.
[2017-09-01]
-Fixed a strange damage bug in BB.
[2017-08-28]
-Fixed a gamebreaking movement issue in Bonechiller Burrow.
[2017-07-20]
-Upgraded the movement, attack and music systems to all current campaign maps.
-Minor changes to the introduction. More changes coming soon, as the energy system, dash and stun might be reworked.
Note: I'm scared about this update as I messed up a few things when I implemented the new systems. Hopefully there are no major issues, but here is a backup of the last version just in case: Warden 38 Backup | HIVE

Past Changes
[2017-06-25]
-Updated description.
-A large update with more efficent triggers is almost complete, and will be uploaded within the week. :)
-Chapter 2 is beginning to be finished...
[2017-06-02]
SS
-Description spelling error corrected.
-Fixed an issue where you would stop moving in the desert intro.
-Rune spawners does no longer display "Invulnerable!" if hit.
-Hives spitting out scarabs are no spell immune.
-Made a safechange of a sound.
-Hives can now spawn scarabs while the character is invulnerable.
-Firetrap damage down, and its area of effect up.
-Blades are not as out of sync anymore.
-The ghost now has much more health.
-Ripper still around when skeletal mages spawn.
-The three obelisks are now lit up after clearing the puzzle.
-Solen now spawn more volcanic rocks!
-The Solen's melee spell when he counts down now costs him mana.
-You can die after boss fight.
-Rippers no longer grant a random gold reward.

BB
-Journal is not dropped from barrel right away, so you can see it, before picking it up.
-Ice zombie is now spell immune, and have had his health doubled.
-Traps in zombie arena now spawns randomly, and are removed after exploding.
-The obelisk behind the ice zombie can no longer be activated without starting the fight.
-The permanent frost traps in the south-east are now revealed just before you reach them.
-The energy generator now has collision.
-Soul stones no longer spawn when the obelisks have all been activated.
-New reward for the three rune puzzle.
-Made the slippery edge slightly less windy, and the pathing more accurate.
-Fixed a faulty tooltip.

FT
-The furion mini-boss now has slightly slower projectiles, and his cast delay has been increased slightly, making him a bit weaker, all in all.
-The keeper mini-boss now spawns healing globes every 7 seconds instead of 6.

Starglade
-Two randomly invulnerable animals, are no longer invulnerable.
-The portal is not visually open from the beginning anymore.

All maps
-Recieved an update on the movement system, now making it slightly more smooth.
-Hopefully fixed a small visual issue connected to floating text.


Old separate map changelogs:
[2017-01-23]
-Fire height when close to cliffs adjusted
-Click and point system!
-Regeneration has been added as a stat
-Regeneration after 10 seconds have been removed
-Damage multiplier is now a stat (not useable in this map)
-Catapult is now easier to understand
-Items can now be picked up by walking over them
-More Soul Stones added
-The character dialogue does no longer pop up after selecting difficulty
[2017-01-09]
-Solved the tile puzzle bug thanks to BloodSoul
-Tiles puzzle lever should now always reset visibly aswell
-New loading screen
-Difficulty options doesn't look as weird anymore
[2016-12-27]
-Opening a dialogue now interupts movement
-Dying drains all your energy
-Fixed a leak in the attack trigger
-Disabled an unneccesary repeating trigger
-Regeneration is now set at 10 per second, and all upgrades to regeneration has been removed
-You can now only regenerate health when you have a full energy bar, and haven't been attacked in a few seconds
-Removed Generation from the Character Dialogue
-Removed Handicap from the Character Dialogue
-Increased the recharge time on dash. It now takes three seconds to regain one charge
-Many enemies have larger hitbox now
-Removed regeneration objects
-Added a floating text displaying the damage you deal and take
-Enabling "energy display" no longer causes a permanent fade filter
-Using Dash after Attack is now more responsive
-A dash that is executed during an attack, doesn't consume a charge
-Shalis Hitbox is lightly larger
[2016-12-11]
-Fixed a leak with the Move trigger
-Added the proper cursor
-Polished the difficulty dialogue
[2016-12-03]
-Reward for solving the hard puzzle is now just given once
[2016-10-24]
-Made the cross puzzle much easier
-Added an option to solve the old cross puzzle for an extreme reward
-Changed hints and texts about the cross puzzle
-Most enemies have been updated to gove more visual clues about what they are doing
-Updated all screenshots in the description
-Updated difficulty settings
[2016-10-17]
-Reconstructed the map description with new pictures and updated links
[2016-10-12]
-Shalis now how an awesome new skin made by Wisdom!
-The attack no longer casue leaks
-Cleaned up a few triggers
-Bugs now deal less damage, and had their range reduced slightly
-Added an early regeneration upgrade
-Made bugs in the first room less aggressive
[2016-09-04]
-Increased ghost health
-Corrected a few grammar errors
-Removed a magical field which was just confusing
-Solen can no longer be stunned
[2016-05-23]
-Fixed dialog issues
-Dialog now closes after activating the enrgy bar
-Fixed a bug that would cause standard warcraft music to play when you closed a dialog
-The catapult can no longer be stunned
-Added a few new rune sapwners and runes as regen was pretty slow
-Skeletal mages can lo longer leave their chamber
-Solen now have an appearance special effect
-The lever in the ziggurat room will now stay dead after attacked
-Lowered owls flying height for clarity on where they are
[2016-05-21]
-Trying to stun Solen now results in him taunting you
-Added a Solen itroduction cinematic before the fight
-Fixed the enemy spell casters that stopped after their first cast
-Solen's line now properly plays as a sound in the beginning of the fight
[2016-05-19]
-Made Solen slightly easier, by increasing his mana costs and reducing his health
-Added a comment on Solen when you fail to stun him
-Added instructions to the tile puzzle game
-Fixed a bug when the skip dialog for the tile puzzle would show even if you solved it
-Added slight terrain improvements
[2016-05-13]
-Fixed a few bugs with the tile puzzle after the import of the new charcter control triggers
-Also fixed a slight visual bug with the tile puzzle
[2016-05-11]
-Reduced filesize significantly by reducing mausic filesize
-Imported and readjusted a new Warden model
-Fixed Wardens animations and spell effects
-Fixed animation bug upon entering the underground
[2016-05-03]
-Changed Wardens stun animation
-Changed a few aesthetics
[2016-04-30]
-Added a few perfection triggers to the starting area
-Implemented the new model from JesusHipster
-Added a nice animation for goin from the desert to the tomb
[2016-04-04]
-Did a few balance changes
-Minor terrain update
[2016-04-02]
-Removed the lingering effectupon fading in desert
-Added more desert variety
-Rune of the Wind Walker now works properly
-Necromancers shouldn't be able to drain through doors anymore
-Added a special effect when Solen teleports into the middle of the room
[2016-03-30]
-Updated Description
-Cleaned up variables section
-Removed a few unused triggers
-Changed puzzle skip text
[2016-03-28]
-Experimented further with tile placements in the first tomb chamber
-Made first obelisk puzzle slightly easier
-Readjusted the hints for the second obelisk puzzle
[2016-03-26]
-Cleaned up a lot of trigger and object data
-The map should now be free from excessive data.
[2016-03-23]
-Added new menu bottons
-Enabled Cursor
-Added an energy bar hovering over your character that can be toggled on/off
[2016-03-17]
-Hives now wobble and plays a special effect when they spawn a bug
-Fire elementals can no longer attack you in the gate area
-Added version number in map name
[2016-03-16]
-Fixed a new UI
-Reduced Dash Cooldown to 1
-Reduced Dash Distance by 25%
-Dash can no longer be used while standing still
-Stun no longer plays an animation if the energy bar isn't full
-Energy bar is now full upon map launch
-Dialogs now also obscure the resources and the menu buttons when opened
-Updated Controls dialog to match changes
-Updated UI to display two thin golden edges
-Added an attack queue system. Recast attack while winding up to attack again after the first attack is done. I'll perhaps add an option to toggle this on/off in later versions
-Enabled Dash in the desert intro, since players will probably want to try it as soon as they are able to
-Changed Desert area slightly to adapt to the enabled Dash
-Added a few doodad details
-Removed a few unused triggers
-Improved difficulty settings dialog by hiding menu buttons and resources while picking
[2016-03-15]
-Added another diffuculty level and modifie the current ones:
Very Easy: 200% Health
Easy: 150% Health
Normal: 100% Health
Hard: 75% Health
[2016-03-14]
-Added an option to select your diffuculty
-Added Energy to serve as an indicator for the stun ability (and other future content)
-Added new tooltips for the Soulstones and Gold resources
-Changed the map information to display as a text message instead of floating text list
-Removed score
-Changed the hives model to a spideregg
-Removed all rarely occuring pop-up tooltip texts
-Minor object editor clean-up
[2016-03-07]
-Minor trigger cleanup
-UI menu update for all maps
[2016-03-05]
-Updated preview picture
-Added a preview map in the description
-Updated description
[2016-02-28]
-Tinkered some more with the damage and attack frame rate
-Cleaned up some triggers
[2016-02-20]
-Doubled attack speed and halved damage for a more responsive feeling
-Nerfed most enemies health
-Fixed a few minor bugs
[2016-02-20]
-Added a new hotkey to separate dash and stun
-Updated map info, and instructions
[2016-02-13]
-Found and fixed a position leak
-Found and fixed a unit group leak
[2016-02-13]
-Reduced solution time on tile puzzle (going to replace this function soon)
-Fixed the ambient theme to fit an underground setting
[2016-02-11]
-Increased call for help range to make bugs swarm you more
-Slightly increased bugs aquisitation range
[2016-02-10]
-Enabled smart healthbars
-Fixed an obelisk bug, causing them to sometimes not turn on while being nearby
-Changed regenerating skeletons to be a little stronger and new animations
-Removed fire collsion
-Added another piece of music for the boss battle
[2016-02-09]
-Added a new ability to Solen, which makes attacking him easier
-Added a hint about Solen, wich will make his volcano ability easier to survive
-Added more vulnerability to Solen
-Added Spell immunity to Solen while he is channeling
-Increased Solen's spell diversity
-Increased Solen's health
-Decreased fire elemental damage radius slightly
-Being stunned no longer display a "stunned" icon in the bottom of the screen
-Scattered some healing runes over the map
[2016-02-08]
-Increased Guardian Owl protection range
-Added a shield effect while in range of a Guardian Owl
-Reduced regenerating skeletons movement and added an event for them to spawn
-Rearranged the skeletal obelisk puzzle a little
-Scarab Spawners now die with one attack
-Added a particle effect on the wardens weapon to indicate when your stun is ready
-Added a few tips to make progress easier
-Fixed some minor typos
[2016-02-07]
-Reduced scarab spawner speed by 55%
-Reduced damage of fire traps from 50 to 30
-Slightly reduced scarab movement
-Fixed movement after death bug
-Lifebar now disappear while dead
-Minor terrain update (naga circle color and stair is now walkable)
-You can no longer dash while in the desert intro
-Moved north cave lever to avoid confusion
-Reduced scarab acquisitation range by 20%
-Updated the preview picture to be less pixelated
[2016-02-06]
-Uploaded

[20127-01-26]
-Click and point system!
-Regeneration has been added as a stat
-Regeneration after 10 seconds have been removed
-Damage multiplier is now a stat (not useable in this map)
-Items can now be picked up by walking over them
-The character dialogue does no longer pop up after selecting difficulty
-The attacks queued will not be performed if interrupted by a move command
[2017-01-08]
-Reduced fog during lich fight
-Stun can now be used properly
-Boss healthbar now dispalys "Lich" instead of Solen"
-Reduced Banshee hitbox by 25%
-A new loading screen have been implemented, to promote the Hive
-Greatly increased obelisk active time
[2016-12-27]
-Opening a dialogue now interupts movement
-Dying drains all your energy
-Fixed a leak in the attack trigger
-Disabled an unneccesary repeating trigger
-Regeneration is now set at 10 per second, and all upgrades to regeneration has been removed
-You can now only regenerate health when you have a full energy bar, and haven't been attacked in a few seconds
-Removed Generation from the Character Dialogue
-Removed Handicap from the Character Dialogue
-Increased the recharge time on dash. It now takes three seconds to regain one charge
-Many enemies have larger hitbox now
-Removed regeneration objects
-Added a floating text displaying the damage you deal and take
-Enabling "energy display" no longer causes a permanent fade filter
-Using Dash after Attack is now more responsive
-A dash that is executed during an attack, doesn't consume a charge
-Shalis hitbox is lightly larger
-Lich hitbox is much larger
[2016-12-11]
-Fixed a leak with the Move trigger
-Polished the difficulty dialogue
-Removed the Objectives dialogue
[2016-10-27]
-Updated difficulty settings
-Reconstructed the map description with new pictures and updated links
-Shalis now how an awesome new skin made by Wisdom!
-Cleaned up a few triggers
[2016-09-02]
-The small spaces in the first frost trap room are now blocked with doodads
-Moved a health rune so that you are not forced to pick it up if you don't need it
-The music will now repeat itself instead of stopping after one loop
-Moved around a few units in the beginning of the fortress to not attack instantly upon entering
-Added a rune of healing outside
-Fixed a bug with the rune lexicon revealing the journal content a second time
[2016-08-12]
-The map should now end properly
[2016-06-05]
-Added a secret Soul Stone!
-Removed the rockchunks blocking the mini-boss area
-Removed a few runes that didn't make sense in their position
-YOu can no longer walk on top of the wall by the bridge in the slippery edge room
[2016-05-25]
-Trying out a new cursor
-Dialog now closes when you activate the energy bar instead of reopening
-Changed a special effect with the slippery ledge
-Changed mini-boss fight to be engaged at greater distance
-Added a health rune to the main room, as health regen was a little low at that point
-Some clean-up in trigger and object editor
[2016-05-21]
-Fixed an error with the lexicon in the walkthrough, as it displayed "ty" instead of "ta"
-Dialogs should now work properly again
-Standard warcraft music won't play after opening and closing a dialog
-Did some balance changes to the lich
-Added a new ability to the lich, to prevent the warden from just slashing away for victory
-Changed the rune spawners in the lich area
-Added a lexicon for the runes that you can pick up after unlocking three doors
-Fixed a bug that would stop the music from playing when going down the elevator
-Fixed a few repeating text messages
-Fixed a rare bug where the Warden could be deselected
-Imported the new Warden model and its effects
-Overwrote the old character triggers to match the other maps
-Removed the ugly black square that was shown for a split second uupon starting the game
[2016-05-18]
-Did some balance changes to the lich
-Added a new ability to the lich, to prevent the warden from just slashing away for victory
-Changed the rune spawners in the lich area
[2016-05-17]
-Added a lexicon for the runes that you can pick up after unlocking three doors
[2016-05-02]
-Added the new Warden model made by JesusHipster
-Made a slight terrain change
[2016-04-16]
-Made a few terrain changes
[2016-04-15]
-Changed the trigger destroying the rock chunks by the zombie battle, replacing them with removing triggers instead
-Removed a few unused triggers
-Added another soul stone in the banshee path
-Fixed the rock barrier pathing trapping you in the zombie room
-Fixed frost traps animation and faulty damage dealing
-Increased obelisk active time significantly
[2016-04-14]
-Fixed the rock chunk barrier in the entrance of the labyrinth
-Fixed elevator visual bug
-Fixed elevator wall bug
-Fixed mini-boss barrier bug
[2016-04-10]
-Wrote a tutorial and added a link to it in the description
-Made a few minor terrain changes
-Fixed a spelling error in the loading screen
[2016-04-03]
-Added a hint to make it easier to understand what to do at the first gate
-Fixed a bug with the elevator
[2016-03-25]
-Added a special cursor
-Fixed Health Bar
-Fixed music
-Now matching the campaign
[2016-03-23]
-Added new menu buttons
-Cleaned up some useless triggers
[2016-03-17]
MAJOR UPDATE
-Fixed a new UI
-Reduced Dash Cooldown to 1
-Reduced Dash Distance by 25%
-Dash can no longer be used while standing still
-Stun no longer plays an animation if the energy bar isn't full
-Energy bar is now full upon map launch
-Dialogs now also obscure the resources and the menu buttons when opened
-Updated Controls dialog to match changes
-Updated UI to display two thin golden edges
-Added an attack queue system. Recast attack while winding up to attack again after the first attack is done. I'll perhaps add an option to toggle this on/off in later versions
-Enabled Dash in the desert intro, since players will probably want to try it as soon as they are able to
-Changed Desert area slightly to adapt to the enabled Dash
-Added a few doodad details
-Removed a few unused triggers
-Improved difficulty settings dialog by hiding menu buttons and resources while picking
-Added an option to select your diffuculty
-Added Energy to serve as an indicator for the stun ability (and other future content)
-Added new tooltips for the Soulstones and Gold resources
-Changed the map information to display as a text message instead of floating text list
-Removed score
-Changed the hives model to a spideregg
-Removed all rarely occuring pop-up tooltip texts
-Minor object editor clean-up
[2016-03-07]
-Minor trigger cleanup
-UI menu update for all maps
[2016-03-05]
-Updated preview picture
-Added a preview map in the description
-Updated description
[2016-02-28]
-Tinkered some more with the damage and attack frame rate
-Cleaned up some triggers
[2016-02-25]
-Doubled attack speed and halved damage for a more responsive feeling
-Nerfed most enemies health
-Minor terrain update
-Fixed a few minor bugs
[2016-02-20]
-Fixed a lever bug
-Added a new hotkey, separating dash and stun
-Minor creep balancing
[2016-02-15]
-Uploaded

[2017-01-08]
-Statue can now be moved again
-Stun can now be used properly
-A new loading screen have been implemented, to promote the Hive
[2016-12-27]
-Opening a dialogue now interupts movement
-Dying drains all your energy
-Fixed a leak in the attack trigger
-Disabled an unneccesary repeating trigger
-Regeneration is now set at 10 per second, and all upgrades to regeneration has been removed
-You can now only regenerate health when you have a full energy bar, and haven't been attacked in a few seconds
-Removed Generation from the Character Dialogue
-Removed Handicap from the Character Dialogue
-Increased the recharge time on dash. It now takes three seconds to regain one charge
-Many enemies have larger hitbox now
-Removed regeneration objects
-Added a floating text displaying the damage you deal and take
-Enabling "energy display" no longer causes a permanent fade filter
-Using Dash after Attack is now more responsive
-A dash that is executed during an attack, doesn't consume a charge
-Shalis hitbox is slightly larger
-Mini-bosses hitboxes is much larger
[2016-12-11]
-Fixed a leak with the Move trigger
-Added the proper cursor
-Polished the difficulty dialogue
-First room now have a proper instant camera setting
[2016-10-27]
-Updated difficulty settings
-Reconstructed the map description with new pictures and updated links
-Shalis now how an awesome new skin made by Wisdom!
-Cleaned up a few triggers
[2016-09-04]
-Fixed a bug with the camera rotating 180 degrees when exiting the vineroom
-All runes are not activated at once any more
-Boss heatlh reduced to 300 from 400
[2016-06-02]
-Fixed a bug (hopefully) with barriers not dissipating correctly
[2016-06-02]
-Updated terrain
-Made some balance changes to bosses
-Clean-up in obejct and trigger section
[2016-05-31]
-Updated terrain in second mini-boss room
-Minor trigger and object editor clean-up
[2016-05-23]
-Made blades harder in most places, as people often thought they were too easy to dodge
-Reduced damage of blades, as many thought they were too brutal
-The statue in the main room is now heavier
-Wisps are now invulnerable for a short duration after teleporting to the middle of the room, as it was too easy just to stand and camp in the middle
-Increased the health of some enemies
-Fixed a bug where the forest theme would play indoors, removing the indoor music
-Fixed a bug where you could enter a mini-boss room without solving the puzzle
-Added magic immunity to the furion mini-boss, as you could just stun him and kill him really easily
-Increased damage of furion mini-boss line damage
-Made the keeper mini-boss a little bit easier:
-Reduced healing power of the wisps
-Reduced spawn rate by ~20%
-Changed healing animation
-Reduced movement by 10%
-Reduced healing delay
[2016-05-21]
-Removed an accidental duplicate barrier
-Fixed a problem with the dialogs not closing properly
-Fixed the enemy spell casters that stopped after their first cast
-Improved the terrain (a little more to come with each update)
-Increased the boss casting delays by 20%
-Reduced damage of most of the bosses abilities
-Added and repositioned runespawners in the boss area
-Increased the health of all mini bosses
-Increased fourth mini-boss damage slightly and attack speed greatly
-Hopefully fixed the spawning in the middle of forcewalls when entering a new room
-Imported the new Warden model and its effects
-Did some trigger and region clean-up
-Matched character animations to other maps
-Overwrote the old character triggers to match the other maps
-Reduced music filesize
-Properly looped the boss music
-Added a walkthrough
[2016-05-20]
-Wrote a walkthrough and linked it in the description
[2016-05-19]
-Increased the bosses casting delays
-Reduced damage of most of the bosses abilities
-Added and repositioned runespawners in the boss area
-Improved and changed terrain (still more to do, though)
[2016-05-11]
-Inhabited another room with more doodads
-Changed Warden starting location as she was misplaced last version due to a test
[2016-04-12]
-Added a missing door doodad
-Made blades and owls move again.
[2016-04-04]
-Improved music in the lost woods
-Added a little terrain details to temple main chamber
-Reduced the final boss health by20%
-Added a few triggers to prevent owl and blade desync
-Fixed a few terrain details in the starting area
[2016-03-30]
-Reduced wisp movement on the first guardian mini-boss
-Minor Clean-up
[2016-03-25]
-Added a special cursor
-More clarity in first puzzle
[2016-03-18]
-Fixed camera rotation that stayed after exiting the thorns room
-Removed intro information
-Fixed music to be working again
-Added a few hints to help you if you get stuck
-Changed a few UI dialogs to match the rest of the maps
-Map should now be more understandable at certain points
[2016-03-17]
MAJOR UPDATE
-Fixed a new UI
-Reduced Dash Cooldown to 1
-Reduced Dash Distance by 25%
-Dash can no longer be used while standing still
-Stun no longer plays an animation if the energy bar isn't full
-Energy bar is now full upon map launch
-Dialogs now also obscure the resources and the menu buttons when opened
-Updated Controls dialog to match changes
-Updated UI to display two thin golden edges
-Added an attack queue system. Recast attack while winding up to attack again after the first attack is done. I'll perhaps add an option to toggle this on/off in later versions
-Enabled Dash in the desert intro, since players will probably want to try it as soon as they are able to
-Changed Desert area slightly to adapt to the enabled Dash
-Added a few doodad details
-Removed a few unused triggers
-Improved difficulty settings dialog by hiding menu buttons and resources while picking
-Added an option to select your diffuculty
-Added Energy to serve as an indicator for the stun ability (and other future content)
-Added new tooltips for the Soulstones and Gold resources
-Changed the map information to display as a text message instead of floating text list
-Removed score
-Changed the hives model to a spideregg
-Removed all rarely occuring pop-up tooltip texts
-Minor object editor clean-up
[2016-03-07]
-Minor trigger cleanup
-UI menu update for all maps
-Increased attack animation speed to match other maps of the series
[2016-03-06]
-Activeted stun after accidently having it disabled
-Increased attack rate to match other maps
-Minor terrain and bug fixes
[2016-03-05]
-Uploaded

[2017-02-07]
-Fixed a nasty bug with the boxes moving way too far and fast in the whirl room
[2017-01-08]
-Shalis now gains Adrenaline Rush during the escape
-A new loading screen has been implemented
[2016-12-27]
-Opening a dialogue now interupts movement
-Dying drains all your energy
-Fixed a leak in the attack trigger
-Disabled an unneccesary repeating trigger
-Regeneration is now set at 10 per second, and all upgrades to regeneration has been removed
-You can now only regenerate health when you have a full energy bar, and haven't been attacked in a few seconds
-Removed Generation from the Character Dialogue
-Removed Handicap from the Character Dialogue
-Increased the recharge time on dash. It now takes three seconds to regain one charge
-Many enemies have larger hitbox now
-Removed regeneration objects
-Added a floating text displaying the damage you deal and take
-Enabling "energy display" no longer causes a permanent fade filter
-Using Dash after Attack is now more responsive
-A dash that is executed during an attack, doesn't consume a charge
-Shalis hitbox is slightly larger
[2016-12-11]
-Fixed a leak with the Move trigger
-Shalis now starts in the correct location
-Polished the difficulty dialogue
[2016-09-16]
-Reduced the escape time by 20 seconds
-Using cheats now displays a message that tells you that cheats mat make the game unbeatable
-The Elemental can no longer be summoned with any four runestones
-The catapults can no longer destroy boxes
-The books can now properly be picked up
-The victory text no longer displays multiple times
-The levers now reset if ou don't finish the escape
-The escape river rocks have been replaced with walkable spikes
-Made the yellow runestone more yellow
-Added a hint in the library puzzle
-The ledge in the second escape room can no longer be just run over
-It can't rain inside the temple anymore
-Runestones no longer have a health bar
[2016-09-13]
-Fixed an issue with the controls menu, sidplaying way too many abilities
-In controls menu, the ability "rewind" now displays the correct hotkey
-The room wich is waterfilled during the escape is now properly pathed
-Added a respawning rune of healing in the main chamber
-Tropical showers will occur now and then while on the island
-Soulstones can now be picked up properly
[2016-09-13]
-Removed an old testing feature, making you skip to the boss
-The bay area in the beginning is now properly pathable
-The obelsiks can no longer vanish when attacked.
[2016-09-07]
-Added a hint in the beginning of the game, telling you that the "Rewind" ability is available
-Created a proper objective
-Music does now loop properly
-Added a hint by the obelisks so that it is clear that they are not just another doodad.
[2016-09-05]
-Uploaded

[2016-02-08]
-Gold limit required by the kobold overlord is now reduced
-Attack queue is now interrupted by movement
[2016-12-27]
-Opening a dialogue now interupts movement
-Dying drains all your energy
-Fixed a leak in the attack trigger
-Disabled an unneccesary repeating trigger
-Regeneration is now set at 10 per second, and all upgrades to regeneration has been removed
-You can now only regenerate health when you have a full energy bar, and haven't been attacked in a few seconds
-Removed Generation from the Character Dialogue
-Removed Handicap from the Character Dialogue
-Increased the recharge time on dash. It now takes three seconds to regain one charge
-Many enemies have larger hitbox now
-Removed regeneration objects
-Added a floating text displaying the damage you deal and take
-Enabling "energy display" no longer causes a permanent fade filter
-Using Dash after Attack is now more responsive
-A dash that is executed during an attack, doesn't consume a charge
-Shalis hitbox is slightly larger
-Fixed the hitpoints bonus item
-Removed a few enemies
[2016-12-11]
-Fixed a leak with the Move trigger
-Added the proper cursor
-Polished the difficulty dialogue
-Removed the Objectives dialogue
-You can no longer blow up the blocks in the kobold area
-You will properly be victorious after the final boss
[2016-09-14]
-Updated the bridges puzzle
-The chicken should now always die
[2016-09-08]
-Added a golem on the bridge for clarity
-The hint upon entering the first cave now only is displayed once
-Increased damage point delay for tinyest kobolds
[2016-09-08]
-Made the second explosives puzzle 40% easier
-The bridges can no longer be destroyed by explosives
[2016-09-06]
-Except for the boss health being reduced slightly, I don't remember what changes have
been made, since I had this version made a long time ago, and simply forgot to upload it.
[2016-06-06]
-Changed the cave puzzle completely
-Fixed a bug with the last explosives station
-Readjusted a few rock chunks to properly block what they were supposed to block
[2016-05-31]
-Added a hint after the boss fight starts
-You now get two additional soul stones in the beginning of the fight
-The bosses tentacle prison does now have a small delay, allowing you to prepare for the tentacles arrival
[2016-05-30]
-Made a few balance changes with enemy health and such stats
-Minor trigger and object editor clean-up
[2016-05-22]
-Added a walkthrough for Dark Depths
-The large green sludges can now properly be blown up
-Golems can no longer see the warden when she is on top of cliffs.
-The coin behind a rock in the canyon can no longer be taken without removing the rockchunks first
-The explosives now become more and more red the closer they are to explode
-The levers in cave #1 will no longer be affected by the koblds in cave #2
-All kobolds in the first cave will now attack, even the ones in the cracks
-Replaced a few sludges to prevent them from strange behaviour
-The Warden will no longer play the running animation upon starting the boss fight
-The "Boom" timer window now properly disappears after going off
-Improved the Blackbeing fight greatly:
-Added a new ability: Sludge Beam - Every now and then, the blackbeing spits out sludge in his facing direction for a duration, forcing the warden to avoid him be walking to the side
-Added a new ability: Tentacle Prison - With a long cooldown, the blackbeing summons a large amounts of tentacles around the Warden, interrupting her movement, forcing her to use stun and clear as many tentacles as possible in order not to be struck down - also causes short bursts of sludge from the blackbeings tentacles occasionally
-Slowed the healers movement speed, and increased their size for more clarity
-Increased the time before the blackbeing will start dealing damage close to him after being attacked
-The warden won't spawn in the middle of the boss anymore after ressurecting, making her unable to move
-Reduced blackbeings max health and removed health regeneration
-Reduced attack range, as it felt a little overwhelming
-Reduced attack speed
-Reduced movemnt allowance on tentacles, so they can now miss if you dash away from them
[2016-05-21]
-Made the big kobolds a little harder
-Fixed the enemy spell casters that stopped after their first cast
-Barrels can no longer blow up bridges
-Dash is now always enabled when you are not holding an object
[2016-05-19]
-Picking up objects now work again
[2016-05-18]
-Updated the Controls dialog
-Updated the Objectives Dialog
-The kobolds in the first cave are now properly aggressive
-All kobolds in the kobold village are now passive
[2016-05-17]
-Added a missing message in the cave puzzle: it now displays where you are supposed to go
[2016-05-12]
-Uploaded

 
Last edited:

Remixer

Map Reviewer
Level 32
Joined
Feb 19, 2011
Messages
2,002
Okay I did try it and I must say it was very lovely.

Pros:
1. I like the background music.
2. The starting and the lore was very short but complex and smart. I love how you said "suddenly fell into an abyss below".
3. The game is challenging.
4. The terrain and scenery looks absolutely amazing - you made it look stunning with very little.


Cons:
1. The game might be even too challenging, I barely made it behind the gate after 2 tries. I'd recommend splitting the very important items into many, less important items. You could spread 20% heals here and there. Also the cockroach spawners are really brutal, they spawn faster than you can kill, you should slow them down a little bit.
2. The character continues regenerating after the game ends (you die).
3. The character can move, even when dead, is this intended?
4. The items could have some unique pick up key, like enter, since I accidentally took the 50% hp heal when I was fighting a few cockroaches.


Suggestions:
1. I'd recommend disabling the dash in the starting cinematic, I reached the edge of the map which looks stupid.
2. Couldn't you find any better fitting tile than the black marble to the temple floor? It looks a bit out of place.
3. Make the naga circle in front of the gate same color than the walls, it stands out a bit too much.
4. Reduce the guard range of the creeps, they attack you before you can see them.
5. Make the staircase -object walkable in object editor, currently the character's feet are inside them.
 
Level 26
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Messages
2,483
Okay I did try it and I must say it was very lovely.
Yay!

Cons:
1. The game might be even too challenging, I barely made it behind the gate after 2 tries. I'd recommend splitting the very important items into many, less important items. You could spread 20% heals here and there. Also the cockroach spawners are really brutal, they spawn faster than you can kill, you should slow them down a little bit.
2. The character continues regenerating after the game ends (you die).
3. The character can move, even when dead, is this intended?
4. The items could have some unique pick up key, like enter, since I accidentally took the 50% hp heal when I was fighting a few cockroaches.
1. I'll either scatter more runes around, or make them drop from key enemies. Agreed on the cockroach spawner part. A little bit slower, and a little more tinkering here.
2. It shall be done.
3. It shall be done.
4: I will keep to the way they are picked up now as clicking a a key may be messy at certain occasions. Maybe reduce the pickup radius slightly.

Suggestions:
1. I'd recommend disabling the dash in the starting cinematic, I reached the edge of the map which looks stupid.
2. Couldn't you find any better fitting tile than the black marble to the temple floor? It looks a bit out of place.
3. Make the naga circle in front of the gate same color than the walls, it stands out a bit too much.
4. Reduce the guard range of the creeps, they attack you before you can see them.
5. Make the staircase -object walkable in object editor, currently the character's feet are inside them.
1. It shall be done.
2. Not sure... I'll look into it.
3. It shall be done.
4. It shall be experimented with.
5. Didn't know I could do that... It shall be done.

Thanks for a really nice and helpful review! :)
+rep
 
Level 22
Joined
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Messages
235
I have tested it but couldn't pass the first door: when i used the catapult that damn lever didn't want to die (though i adjusted the shot exactly on it)

Otherwise it's good but a bit boring currently with only one attack. Do you plan to add more abilities to make it more interesting?
 
Level 26
Joined
Oct 2, 2011
Messages
2,483
Thanks for trying it out!
I'm afraid you misunderstood the task! You were supposed to target the rockchunks. I will move the lever to avoid future confusion.

I would like to know though if you still think it is boring when you make it past the first gate. I like to think the puzzles are more fun than combat in this game. :)

But yes, I also have plans for certain abilities. I wanted to focus more on simplicity than fancy abilities so that players won't feel confused. But don't worry, In other concepts I have been thinking off I will have a replaceable spellslot to allow you to pick a few special abilities over your attack, dash and stun.

Thanks for your input, and hope to hear more from you as the secret of the catapult is now revealed to you! :)
 

Remixer

Map Reviewer
Level 32
Joined
Feb 19, 2011
Messages
2,002
I have tested it but couldn't pass the first door: when i used the catapult that damn lever didn't want to die (though i adjusted the shot exactly on it)

Otherwise it's good but a bit boring currently with only one attack. Do you plan to add more abilities to make it more interesting?

You need to destroy the rocks with the catapult=)

And yes... the game is a bit too hard as it is. Especially the fire elementals seem really bugged. i die once to each of them. How the hell are you supposed to kill them?
 
Level 26
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2,483
Remixer, I made an update following your suggestions:
-Reduced scarab spawner speed by 55%
-Reduced damage of fire traps from 50 to 30
-Slightly reduced scarab movement
-Fixed movement after death bug
-Lifebar now disappear while dead
-Minor terrain update (naga circle color and stair is now walkable)
-You can no longer dash while in the desert intro
-Moved north cave lever to avoid confusion
-Reduced scarab acquisitation range by 20%
-Updated the preview picture to be less pixelated

In order to defeat the fire elementals you need go forward hit a few times and back off. repeat two times and it should be dead. I considered adding a minimum range, so that you just need to get close and then you can slash away, but figured it was too easy, what do you think?
 

Remixer

Map Reviewer
Level 32
Joined
Feb 19, 2011
Messages
2,002
Remixer, I made an update following your suggestions:
-Reduced scarab spawner speed by 55%
-Reduced damage of fire traps from 50 to 30
-Slightly reduced scarab movement
-Fixed movement after death bug
-Lifebar now disappear while dead
-Minor terrain update (naga circle color and stair is now walkable)
-You can no longer dash while in the desert intro
-Moved north cave lever to avoid confusion
-Reduced scarab acquisitation range by 20%
-Updated the preview picture to be less pixelated

In order to defeat the fire elementals you need go forward hit a few times and back off. repeat two times and it should be dead. I considered adding a minimum range, so that you just need to get close and then you can slash away, but figured it was too easy, what do you think?

Well all the time I am dying to them as the scarabs attack me with masses and I can't no longer dash away and I get stunned and boom!


EDIT:

Okay I played it again - still hard as hell but I changed my strategy - I just dash away all the time and rush the 3 levers and then at the game I just rush to the next room so the scarabs won't follow (too bad I actually dashed into the mountain and almost got stuck). How it happened: I dashed diagonally next to the gate and I dashed into the wall on the side and the region that teleports you to the next place doesn't reach that spot and I dashed behind the region. (Tried to take screenshot but couldn't.

Well I continued and I must now say - why the hell is the safe zone under the shield birds so small? Like.... wow.... I still prefer just dashing through the fire - less risk of dying. And in the room with the Ziggurats... the rune of invulnerability does not work - they still shot me and I died. How nice is that?

Well at least that part was possible to solve. I went to the place with the obelisks and killed everything (except the two "regenerators" that started to cast some shit with VERY VERY ANNOYING VOICE over and over and over again doing it all the time driving me crazy. Please... remove the sound or at least change it to a more pleasant one. I did not understand the meaning of them however. Well this is where I got stuck I could not solve the puzzle no matter what I did. What's the key?

I got so stuck that I even checked the editor and figured out how it works, each obelisk has 1 second reset time, except the one. However the fact is that you can't dash fast enough to activate even 2 of the obelisks within 1 second, not even mention you need to do it to 3 at the same time. And it surely does not help that their attack range is so small... please add like 50~ more range so it won't be such pain trying to get them to activate.


Also, the "walkable" thing seems to work only if the objects are destructible, doodads won't do (I think it's like that). If you don't want to change the objects them selves you can add invisible platforms and roll them so they are somewhat close to the angle of the ramp and at least make the unit walk a little above the stairs, rather than below them.
 
Last edited:
Level 26
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Oct 2, 2011
Messages
2,483
VERY VERY ANNOYING VOICE
Weird. That sound was not intended and I couldn't hear it when I tried to fix it. Maybe I removed it by accident. I fixed that entire puzzle and added a hint so that nobody else will get stuck.

Also increased owl protection range and increased clarity to when you are defended or not by adding an attached special effect. Dashing into the mountain is now prevented by having added an unwalkable invisible tile.

Haven't changed the fire elemntals yet, but I added a hint in the first encounter, so that players will know what to do.
 

Remixer

Map Reviewer
Level 32
Joined
Feb 19, 2011
Messages
2,002
Weird. That sound was not intended and I couldn't hear it when I tried to fix it. Maybe I removed it by accident. I fixed that entire puzzle and added a hint so that nobody else will get stuck.

Also increased owl protection range and increased clarity to when you are defended or not by adding an attached special effect. Dashing into the mountain is now prevented by having added an unwalkable invisible tile.

Haven't changed the fire elemntals yet, but I added a hint in the first encounter, so that players will know what to do.

Ye well they kept spamming the same ability all over again, they got like stuck, idk if they bugged or something but they were standing still, casting the ability and I could not kill them.
 
Level 26
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Messages
2,483
Just a proof that it is actually solveable attached below.
If you have not solved it in 10 minutes, you'll get the option to skip it.

EDIT:
The first one is outdated and can't be played in latest wc3 version. "Puzzle [1.31]" is the latest one, with an alternate solution.
Increased clarity for recordning aswell.
 

Attachments

  • Puzzle.w3g
    12.3 KB · Views: 541
  • Puzzle [1.31].w3g
    22.7 KB · Views: 653
Last edited:

Remixer

Map Reviewer
Level 32
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Feb 19, 2011
Messages
2,002
Okay I did play it. The ealier version (the version you added the shield bird effect) has a bug: the map does not remove the special effects when you go under a bird, instead they just keep spamming them until you glow bright green.

I tried the final boss: it was quite interesting. However I question the importance of the first stage with the 4 fire elementals. It's rather easy as long as you keep dodging. Maybe you should add them closer to each other (you can only dodge one's attack and kill them one at a time (the others are not in range)).

Well after that... the Solen itself. Man that was pretty nice! Just a few flaws:
1. The basic attacks are just insane, there's no way you can hit him while he's not casting anything, instead it's just better idea to dodge all his auto attacks.
- Either make him hit slower or his missiles slower or something, or is it intended to be half waiting?

2. Some of his spells are a bit overpowered or need to be balanced. For example the volcano thing. What the heck? There's no way one can dodge those as you have no idea where they'll end up landing. Instead script it so that a small warning marks appear where the boulders land and deal damage there instead.

3. The 3 waves or what are they? He keep's casting them even if stunned while casting them, sure he stops when he' stunned but I got caught off guard when he cast the third one instantly after the stun ended, I assumed he stops casting it like every other spell.

4. Make it so that you can't pick up the runes of regeneration if you have 100% health.

5. Other than that I think it's pretty good as a boss. Except the mana is a bit problematic: couldn't you make it so that after every spell he refills his mana but instead the mana regeneration is faster so that you can hit him once or twice during that time, it would make it less time-wasting just dodging his auto-attacks.

There's just one a bit of a major glitch? should I say?

I noticed it is unfair while fighting Solen: if you press Q and instantly afterwards W you deal damage with 0 animation, so spamming that is very efficient. It took me like 4 minutes to get Solen to 150 health and the last 150 dropped down to 0 in 2 seconds after I noticed I could abuse this.

Also, I'm not sure if it has been there before but like the last 2 version have this bug that when you sometimes dash it takes you REALLY FAST to VERY FAR, like 3 or 4 times the normal dash distance.
 
Level 26
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Oct 2, 2011
Messages
2,483
Bird shield bug fixed in last version.

4 elementals was intended as you suggested. I just forgot to move them closer when I reduced their range. Will be fixed.

Volcano thing is actually a trick ability. "Being caught between a rock and a hard place." You are supposed to leave the area in the last second after the boulders start falling down, taking minor burn damage, and then go inside again. It be might be quite hard to figure out, but I like it like that. Perhaps I'll add a hint if you die from it once or something.

The three waves was supposed to be uninteruptable. I'll make it more clear, by removing the stun buff (thought I did that already) and by adding a special effect that incases him in fire while casting them, dealing damage if you get close.

Good idea about runes. Shall be done.

Had no idea about that glitch. I'll see what I can do!

Now, Solen's auto attack. I have struggled to come up with an idea to fight him while he is auto attacking, but couldn't come up with anything good. I have a few thoughts about methods:
-Add ice traps that you need to make him cross to stun him for a longer duration
-Add catapults that you can attack him with by kiting him in position
-Going into melee range will cause him to channel a powerful blast ability, that deals huge damage to you if you are still close after 4 seconds.

Thank you so much for having such patience with the map by the way! All your reports is really helpful! :thumbs_up:

EDIT: Fixed the super dash. It was actually no cooldown on dash, causing you to dash 3-4 times at once. Also fixed so that Solen does not get the "Stunned spiral" over his head and then not actually being stunned. He now have spell immunity while channeling.
 
Last edited:

Remixer

Map Reviewer
Level 32
Joined
Feb 19, 2011
Messages
2,002
Bird shield bug fixed in last version.

4 elementals was intended as you suggested. I just forgot to move them closer when I reduced their range. Will be fixed.

Volcano thing is actually a trick ability. "Being caught between a rock and a hard place." You are supposed to leave the area in the last second after the boulders start falling down, taking minor burn damage, and then go inside again. It be might be quite hard to figure out, but I like it like that. Perhaps I'll add a hint if you die from it once or something.

The three waves was supposed to be uninteruptable. I'll make it more clear, by removing the stun buff (thought I did that already) and by adding a special effect that incases him in fire while casting them, dealing damage if you get close.

Good idea about runes. Shall be done.

Had no idea about that glitch. I'll see what I can do!

Now, Solen's auto attack. I have struggled to come up with an idea to fight him while he is auto attacking, but couldn't come up with anything good. I have a few thoughts about methods:
-Add ice traps that you need to make him cross to stun him for a longer duration
-Add catapults that you can attack him with by kiting him in position
-Going into melee range will cause him to channel a powerful blast ability, that deals huge damage to you if you are still close after 4 seconds.

Thank you so much for having such patience with the map by the way! All your reports is really helpful! :thumbs_up:

EDIT: Fixed the super dash. It was actually no cooldown on dash, causing you to dash 3-4 times at once. Also fixed so that Solen does not get the "Stunned spiral" over his head and then not actually being stunned. He now have spell immunity while channeling.

I also forgot to mention that sometimes he get teleported into the center of the room, even while stunned or casting, is this intended?

I was wondering of adding a new ability for Solen: summon fire elemental - when the fire elemental is alive Solen is immune to all damage, but does not attack himself, instead just casts spells. Killing the fire elemental makes him vulnerable again and he tries to spawn new fire elemental as soon as possible? maybe something like that?
 
Level 26
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Oct 2, 2011
Messages
2,483
I also forgot to mention that sometimes he get teleported into the center of the room, even while stunned or casting, is this intended?
Yes, intended.

I was wondering of adding a new ability for Solen: summon fire elemental - when the fire elemental is alive Solen is immune to all damage, but does not attack himself, instead just casts spells. Killing the fire elemental makes him vulnerable again and he tries to spawn new fire elemental as soon as possible? maybe something like that?
I'm pretty happy with how he currently is. This is a solid idea for bosses in other maps though!
 

Moderator

M

Moderator


09:54, 6th Mar 2016
Ardenian: Please add credits for the custom preview picture


13:12, 9th Mar 2016
Ardenian: As your other maps,
a challenging and exciting game with innovative and unique features.

I highly recommend you though to add hints or create a walkthrough.
I myself get stuck after every riddle and then having to try and try,
that's frustrating.

The terrain is well-designed, you could add a few more details,
like some small interior doodads, to emphasize the unique areas, like the library.
As said before, the bridge's angle and position, in the starting area,
is misleading, you could try to change the angle and emphasize one can not walk it.

Map updated and points changed.
 
Level 24
Joined
Oct 12, 2008
Messages
1,783
This map has plenty of very neat editor tricks for creating interesting terrain. I personally think it is approve worthy on that merit alone.

As for the game itself, I am always sceptical of anything that tries to create an alternative control scheme to the standard wc3 one. In this case, I felt that the arrow-key movement/manual attacks actually felt very fitting for the genre.
However, I also thought that the actual implementation of the controls was also too sluggish; too much windup on each swing, character turning wasn't particularly smooth.

The choice to give enemies a standard auto-attack instead of a evade-able swing was odd. It often felt that you needed to use your stun before engaging or be prepared to suffer damage, also made positioning and dashing feel really underwhelming.
All this was exasperated by the control scheme, thus it often felt like you were the slow face-tanky juggernaut that tried to sluggishly line up the perfect facing angle before taking a swing.

Probably not the feeling one tries to attain when you take the time to implement a more hack-n-slash styled control scheme.

The other main gripe I have is how the UI or lack thereof impacts the game. I don't understand why you needed a custom number display lifebar. You've also opted to not show the hero portrait, which already innately shows life and mana values.
Speaking of resources, the only way to tell if your special move is up is to wait for that light indicator to show up. Once again I do not understand why the inbuilt hero portrait couldn't have served this purpose much better.

Other Notes
--------------
> Outdoor areas are blindingly bright, to the point where some enemy projectiles actually become invisible.
> A quest-log to keep track of objectives would be nice.

TLDR: I think this map is very thematic and polished in it's current state, definitely approve material on that front alone. The combat is functional, though I feel that the controls (which make sense in theory) actually detract from the enjoyment of the map in practice.
 
Level 26
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Messages
2,483
This map has plenty of very neat editor tricks for creating interesting terrain. I personally think it is approve worthy on that merit alone.
Thanks! :)
too much windup on each swing, character turning wasn't particularly smooth.
Nothing I can do about the arrowkeys sadly. That is just the standard delay on arrowkeys for warcraft.
I could change the winduptime, but I experimented around here a little and this was the most fitting time each attack should take.
I was thinking of adding an attack queue system though, so that each time you press Q while already winding up an attack, a second attack will be performed as soon as the first attack finishes, resulting in an exact delay between each attack.
Would that solve it, or do you suggest just shorter windup for each attack?

The choice to give enemies a standard auto-attack instead of a evade-able swing was odd. It often felt that you needed to use your stun before engaging or be prepared to suffer damage, also made positioning and dashing feel really underwhelming.
This is a complex issue. I disagree that it feels odd though.
What I did here was to create a few unique enemies that is not JUST to go and hack on in order to defeat. Here, dashing and positioning IS important to not take full damage from the smashing skeleton, the ultra-attackspeed one and in order to avoid ranged projectiles. Also, in the boss fight, those are very important.
I think that making attack swings avoidable would make every creep fight a huge challange, making it tiring and boring, because of the sadly a little bit sluggish turning system as you mentioned.
But...
I could actually just make all creeps be able to miss their attacks as you suggested, as it will only reward players who decide to dash around a lot, but still make the game manageable for the players that choose not to.

About the UI...
The reason I removed all aspects of it completely (except for health and mana vales flashing in the beginning of the game, which I cannot remove since that trigger won't launch upon map init...) was because I wanted to open up the game screen as much as possible, make the interface easy to follow, and create a unique feeling to the game.
Now, if I would add the hero portrait values, they would be located off-center in the bottom of the screen where you have no other info. Very unstylish. Therefore, I added the custom healthbar, which I think works fine, as it has all the features as the portrait one, except for the location, which is much better.
I have been thinking about the special move cooldown display, but I'm pretty happy with it the way it is.
I have an idea to display this though, and will see if it look good ingame.
The idea is to put the abilitys cooldown in the "idle worker" spot, counting down the cooldown with the number provided in the cornor of the icon. I believe this won't be ruining the look too much, but I'll experiment with it before i make it permanent.
Outdoor areas are blindingly bright, to the point where some enemy projectiles actually become invisible.
Will try to fix this!
A quest-log to keep track of objectives would be nice.
I didn't really see a need for it, but I have an idea that I will try out. I'll perhaps replace the "Game Info" menu, as it is pretty useless (I can put this info elsewhere) and put objectives there instead.

Thank you so much for the kind words and the thourough feedback.
I appreciate it a lot! :)
I am also eager to hear what you think of the solutions I suggested!
+rep
 
Level 24
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Oct 12, 2008
Messages
1,783
Nothing I can do about the arrowkeys sadly. That is just the standard delay on arrowkeys for warcraft.
I could change the winduptime, but I experimented around here a little and this was the most fitting time each attack should take.
I was thinking of adding an attack queue system though, so that each time you press Q while already winding up an attack, a second attack will be performed as soon as the first attack finishes, resulting in an exact delay between each attack.
Would that solve it, or do you suggest just shorter windup for each attack?

The choice to give enemies a standard auto-attack instead of a evade-able swing was odd. It often felt that you needed to use your stun before engaging or be prepared to suffer damage, also made positioning and dashing feel really underwhelming.
This is a complex issue. I disagree that it feels odd though.
What I did here was to create a few unique enemies that is not JUST to go and hack on in order to defeat. Here, dashing and positioning IS important to not take full damage from the smashing skeleton, the ultra-attackspeed one and in order to avoid ranged projectiles. Also, in the boss fight, those are very important.
I think that making attack swings avoidable would make every creep fight a huge challange, making it tiring and boring, because of the sadly a little bit sluggish turning system as you mentioned.
But...
I could actually just make all creeps be able to miss their attacks as you suggested, as it will only reward players who decide to dash around a lot, but still make the game manageable for the players that choose not to.

I ask myself, what is the advantage of having a more hack-n-slash styled control scheme over the standard wc3 one.
In such a game type I would argue that the advantage is that it adds a lot more impact and feel to each strike. It adds a level of control and physicality to attacks that the standard wc3 system doesn't.

Problem is that your current setup doesn't achieve any of that and instead feels more sluggish than what the game already gives you.
As a result the control scheme feels more like an arbitrary choice that adds nothing to the game and personally, takes away from it.

Now, I understand that the wc3 engine has limits when it comes to creating such a system. Hence the reason why I suggested slowing down the enemy movements and swings.
Sure the game is beatable in its current state, but really if I wanted to beat enemies while face-tanking them, I would just play Warchasers. At least the control scheme there works fine.

My response to queing up moves would be the same as having dash and stun on the same key. I don't understand why you need that, especially since there is no shortage of ability keys as of the current version. It adds nothing and takes away some of the control the player has over their actions.
 
Level 26
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Good insights.
My response to queing up moves would be the same as having dash and stun on the same key. I don't understand why you need that, especially since there is no shortage of ability keys as of the current version. It adds nothing and takes away some of the control the player has over their actions.
Agreed. I'll leave that out.

...it adds a lot more impact and feel to each strike. It adds a level of control and physicality to attacks that the standard wc3 system doesn't.
That was my original thought. Although, the new system is not neccesarily better than wc3s own one, but it certainly opens up for new techniques.

Hence the reason why I suggested slowing down the enemy movements and swings.
Wouldn't that still feel sluggish? And wouldn't it also make it a lot harder than it already is?

Can you tell me exactly the changes you think I should make? In that case I change them and get back to you so that we can discuss the new features.
Honestly, right now I cannot see how it would get better, but I'm ready to be convinced! :)

Although, I think those changes has a price.
For the simplicity of the game, which I value pretty high, I get a more advanced combat system.
Your signature is excellent in this situation:
"With every decision, something is gained and something is lost."
 
Level 24
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Wouldn't that still feel sluggish? And wouldn't it also make it a lot harder than it already is?

Possibly, but in practice; who knows?

Can you tell me exactly the changes you think I should make? In that case I change them and get back to you so that we can discuss the new features.
Honestly, right now I cannot see how it would get better, but I'm ready to be convinced! :)

Although, I think those changes has a price.
For the simplicity of the game, which I value pretty high, I get a more advanced combat system.

Summing up the issues I have with the combat are as follows.
> The current setup feels like the enemies are the agile ones and you are the big slow tank trying to plow them down.
> In turn, you tank alots of hits and feels very similar to the standard wc3 combat, just worse at control.

I really do believe that by slowing down the enemies and making their swigs evade-able, it will help.
It could possibly backfire.

The alternative you could do is speed up the player character swings. You could increase the characters animation speed during a swing to make it look natural even with a shorter swing time.
That and perhaps changing the stun to actual block move.
 
Level 26
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You need to speak the magical word.
When you get a text aproaching it saying "The gate is listening..." you enter the word.

You need to have found and read the journal in order to find the word.
To find the journal, destroy all barrels in the starting area.

PS: the word is "Kozu".

Good luck on the rest of the map, and let me know if you run into more trouble and when you finish it. :)
 

Ardenian

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Ardenian

Good idea, it is Warcraft-style and it is.. not, great job!

The vapor blades, the ones patrolling around, sometimes there pops up their name for a short time, I don't know whether that's supposed to happen.
The death animation of the rock, the one on the ramp to the lever, is played when one hit the lever right to it.

It would be great to have a cooldown indication for the cooldowns, somewhere. Since it is a single player map, there should be no problem with building it somewhere in the interface, be it the default UI or a custom one.

Maybe change the model of these hives to a more fitting one. At the moment, it is just a yellow rock, eh ?

This applies, if matching, to all your Warden maps.
 
Level 26
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Good idea, it is Warcraft-style and it is.. not, great job!
Thanks! :)

"The vapor blades..." - Fixed. I deleted the objects name and put it in the "Editor suffix" field instead. The names of any other units shouldn't appear either now.
"The death animation of the rock" - Fixed
"Cooldown indication" - I didn't see it to to be neccesary, but since many people brought this up, I have implemented it, and came with a few good ideas along the way.
Instead of the before empty "Food" resource bar, there is now an energy bar with x/10 energy, Regenerating 1 energy every second. When having 10 energy, you can cast your stun. This will also unlock future features such as items that expand your energy bar, energy potions, energy healing, faster energy regen, and other abilirties that can use energy aswell so that you have to think before just facerolling all your abilities.
"Hives model" - Replaced them with desert themed spidereggs (I'll see if I can come up with ore options though).

I'm gonna struggle a little with the energy bar.
A new version should be finished by tonight.

Also...
Did you beat the map? :)
 

Ardenian

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Ardenian

That's great to hear! :)
Sounds as if there are some great features upcoming.

Haha, no, sadly not. The creeps are quite strong and even with avoiding battles I died often. I gave up after entering the small chamber with the three obelisks.
 

Ardenian

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Ardenian

That is surely a good idea. Casual players can enjoy the fight and hardcore players can try their best, I seocnd your idea of different difficulties.

Well, since you get unlimited lifes after 5 deaths, it isn't that important ^^
However, you might want to add some anti-cheat system, so people cannot cheat and pretend they beat it with a highscore.
 
Level 26
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Well, since you get unlimited lifes after 5 deaths, it isn't that important
Right. I forgot I added that feature... :D

...you might want to add some anti-cheat system...
Actually, I was rather going to remove the score system instead.
Instead, I'll add a "clear log" upon finishing the map, displaying items something like this:
Secrets Found: 5/10
Bosses Slain 4/8
Enemies Killed 30/30

I started building an anti-cheat system, but then decided that it might be wasted energy. My goal with this map is to include it in my Warden campaign sooner or later and then I won't be needing highscore.
 
Level 26
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A response to Ardenians review:
Ardenian: A challenging and innovative game.
The gameplay is a rare seen case in the WC3 environment and the puzzles are creative. The creeps are a tad too hard for my taste, but I hope the upcoming difficulty choice offers some variety for different players and playing styles. The terrain is very warcraftish, not great and breath-taking, but it shows you read tutorials and considered advices to improve it while still preserving the original Warcraft feeling.

You announced great new features for the future,
after implenting them I might increase the rating furthermore.

Thanks for the review!
The features we discussed has been added.

I won't be aiming to increase the rating for this map, since I think that it alone could impossibly deserve a 5/5 rating since it is too short and thereby not containing enough different features.
However, when I implement this map as a part of a campaign, I will reach for the stars regarding a rating, as a bunch of these maps together will offer a lot more diversity and various fun features.
 
Level 14
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I just finished the map and I must that it is very well done. The systems, the narration, the puzzles the mood, and the gameplay are on point. I don't think there is much you can improve on this particular map, maybe after I test the two other maps I would have a better say about that.

Some suggestions and remarks :
-Find an idea for an addition spell for using actions points (right now 3 actions is fine but it might get old fast);
-In the intro, the presence of tree or doodads reveal the "trick" that you are using to make it feel like an infinite desert;
-The button Z is to close to all the other actions buttons, I happened to hit it multiple times in the middle of an action (maybe because I have an AZERTY?);
-In the first puzzle room, the necro could drain my life trough the door if I got too close
-The Rune of the wind didn't seem to protect me from the towers;
-The final boss used to teleport quite often to the center of the map, strange and sometimes lethal.


Keep the good work and good luck for the rest of your projects :)
 

Ardenian

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Ardenian

Thanks for the review!
The features we discussed has been added.
Alright, I will play the map again, already downloaded!
I won't be aiming to increase the rating for this map, since I think that it alone could impossibly deserve a 5/5 rating since it is too short and thereby not containing enough different features.
Well, rating is supposed to be a motivation for you to continue your work on it.
As you already did a great job, the rating is high therefore.
We can stay with 4/5 Recommended for now if you are more comfortable with it.
Since you are still working on features and how to improve your map,
it could be an attraction and reward to get 5/5 later on.

However, when I implement this map as a part of a campaign, I will reach for the stars regarding a rating, as a bunch of these maps together will offer a lot more diversity and various fun features.
Please keep one thing in mind: You already uploaded the maps seperatly,
so the rules do not allow you to upload an actual campaign made out of these maps ( with only these maps). We come back to this later once you finished the campaign, but just as a side-note.
 
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Alright, I will play the map again, already downloaded!
Good, good...

Since you are still working on features and how to improve your map,
it could be an attraction and reward to get 5/5 later on.
Well I wouldn't get angry for getting a 5/5 rating... :D
What I am trying to do is that I want the general settings for all the maps to have a perfect foundation o build from, and therefore I put down a lot of hard work into all small details. What I want to perfect before starting to create even more maps is:
-The UI
-The Attack, Dash and Stun abilities
-The movement system
-The menues and dialogs

Mostly those, as they will be harder and harder to change later on since I will need to open every map to change this (the map interface is a pain, since you can't copy/paste as well...).
I will of course also try to fix every bug that can be found on this specific map in its current state.

From the things listed above there is mostly just minor details to be worked out and perfected.
If you think I could reach 5/5 for the above changes, that is nice. :)

Please keep one thing in mind: You already uploaded the maps seperatly,
so the rules do not allow you to upload an actual campaign made out of these maps ( with only these maps). We come back to this later once you finished the campaign, but just as a side-note.

Hmm, good to know.
Perhaps I'll remove them if the campaign come up or something.
I won't be uploading every map from the campaign separetaly though, so if the campaign includes more than those maps, is it ok?

Otherwise I will just upload my campaign next and call it a "map pack" until I tie them together with a fitting story. Perhaps this is best?
Then I can also start working against 5/5 (or directors cut... :D ).



EDIT: Perhaps you can help me with your opinion on those options below?

Attack options:
1. Adding a "queue" function so that if you press Q while currently winding up an attack, another one will be performed as soon as the first one finishes. This prevents the currently little bit uneven attacks.
2.Leave it as it is.

Dash options:
1. Reducing recharge cd to 1 Second.
2. Removing the 2 maximum stacks, and just have a dash with 1 second cd.
3. Leave it as it is.
(The first two options might result in a shorter dash distance for balance)
(I'll try to remove the option to cast dash while standing still, as it does nothing)

There is one more issue with dash. Super strange, but when you move south-east and try to use dash, it does not execute.
Does this happen to you aswell, or is it just my omputer? Otherwise this is probably a bug in the hard-code of the game. :/

Stun Options:
1. Pause during cast. This does not change a lot (0.30 second), but it might feel a little sloppy trying to land an attack after stunning.
2. Leave it as it is.
(I will remove the casting animation that plays even when you don't have enough energy)

UI:
1. Add a tiny gold lining to the top and bottom of the screen. I have done this already and couldn't decide what was best. (see the attached image of an unfinished UI.)
2. Leave it.

Just a note on the movement system:
I am aware of that while moving diagonally (South-east, South-west, North-east, North-west), you are moving slighlty faster than while moving straight. This is however a tiny difference and really doesn't impact the game. I have tried reducing that speed before, but it made it feel sloppy, so therefore I decided to make it the way it is now.
 

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Ardenian

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Ardenian

If you have so much to do yet, then let's wait with a rating increase until you are done with it ;)

About the campaign upload, if you go for 100% rules, then it is not allowed to upload a map twice in any way, in the official map section.
Your idea of removing the current uploaded maps might sound like a good idea in the first moment, but if you delete them, they are not gone.
They are still there, just not available for the public and they still cause costs for Ralle.
I don't know a 100% what you are aiming for with the campaign, but you could bundle the maps in the Pack section. You might als want to consultate a map moderator about this issue, he can say things for sure.

Hm, about the options, my personal opinion:

Attack: 1 is a bit tricky. What if I stack up a lot of attacks ? It could result into a long loop of attacks. If you limit the maximum stack ( 1-3 stacks), then I would second this idea.

Dash: 2. sounds good to me. Dash is quite powerful, even with one second cooldown.
One additional dash however, so you can dash two times directly in order might be fine, too.

I cannot confirm it a 100%, but I recall it sometimes did not trigger, when moving.

Stun: Leave it as it is.

UI: It is always nice ot have some borders, so I would say play a bit aorund with it to your liking.
 
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