[Altered Melee] Wheel of Time RTS Alpha

[Xorn333]

The Wheel of Time RTS

So here I am, finally, after a few years of stalking the awesome Hive Workshop, I'm making a post. I am looking for some feedback on this work-in-progress, and am also looking to see if there is any interest playing, and even working on, this map. Let me give some details:

This map is an RTS based on the Wheel of Time fantasy book series (no knowledge of the series is needed to play, but you'll love all the references if you're a fan!)

• 4 Factions: Dragon's Army, Dark One's Hordes, The White Tower, The Seanchan
• Recreation of the continent of Randland
• 7 Unique Heroes to choose from PER FACTION (28 total)
• Hundreds of unique units, abilities, and items
• Recognize and battle with favorites like Trollocs, Gray Men, Aiel, Warders, Aes Sedai, Sul'dam and Damane pairs, Flying Raken, and MANY more
• Powerful Faction Abilities (akin to God Powers from Age of Mythology)
• Random Weather effects
• A traveling Tinker Merchant Wagon
  
  
• Fight crazy Bosses like Slayer or Padan Fain at Shadar Logoth for epic items
  

  

I have tried to keep this as accurate as possible to the books, with a few creative flavor twists to make it translate well to an RTS game (such as Ogier sharing the One Power [read: magic] immunity found in Stedding).

This map contains information up until (BUT NOT INCLUDING) the final book in the series (there will be no Memory of Light spoilers in it).

Some of the highlights of the factions include:

DRAGON'S ARMY
Strong Heroes (favorites like, Rand, Mat, Perrin, Thom, Min)
Use of Illuminator's "Dragons" for sieging
Nice mix of melee, ranged, and caster units
Alternate Gold gathering options
Low complexity (blunt force, strong late game) good for beginners
Based on WC3 Humans

Hidden

Dark One's Hordes
Very sneaky and underhanded
Based on WC3 Undead (uses Blight mechanics)
Rolls through resources (fast gather, expensive costs) leaving wastelands behind
Use of Darkfriends to spy on other players and siphon resources
Use of many invisible units (great at scouting/ambushes)
The Forsaken as Heroes
High complexity, but very rewarding with smart play

Hidden

Seanchan Ever Victorious Army
Hit and run style (very fast/mobile)
Access to To'raken air transports
Many utility Heroes
Strongest Naval presence (with unique Naval Hero)
Unique Flying (Raken) Hero
Able to reinforce almost anywhere quickly
Sul'dam and Damane pairs
Medium Complexity
Based on WC3 Orcs

The White Tower
Caster focused (almost all units are casters a.k.a. Aes Sedai)
Use of the 7 Ajahs
Able to pair Aes Sedai with a Tower Guard to bond a Warder (much stronger melee unit, but tied to Aes Sedai caster)
Many defensive tower types and many Tech Tree upgrades
Strong early game (and early access to Yellow Ajah Healers)
Many caster Heroes (Egwene, Nynaeve, Moraine)
Able to have a stronger melee presence by using the "Great General" Hero Gareth Bryne
Medium complexity
Based on WC3 Night Elf

There's a lot left to clean up in there, including adding a commands list and credits and such. In the meantime, these chat commands will be useful:
"-cam" to reset the camera height
"-kill these" to kill your selected units/buildings
"-kill all" to surrender and leave/end the game
"-surrender" to surrender but still watch the game

hit ESC at any time to select your Faction Ability unit/menu

Cheats (these chat commands are active for Player 1 only to test things out)
"-lv" will level all your Heroes by 1
"-fa" will max your Faction Ability points (3 mana)


Right now, I am looking for general feedback on the ideas, concepts, and overall fun/enjoyability of the map at this point in the process. I'm not really looking for all the little bugs (but big ones that make things unusable/unplayable are fine), nor am I looking for terraining feedback ("your map looks terrible" "did you seriously use Ashenvale grass??"), I will be looking for a terrain designer for this. I want to know if the concepts and mechanics are fun and unique and fit the Wheel of Time well.

As a side note: I am a decent GUI coder, a TERRIBLE terrainer, but a great designer. I would welcome any help with coding, terraining, modeling/texturing, etc to make this map awesome. I'm just an idea guy. And a HUGE WoT fan.

Sorry for the current lack of screenshots, I'll try to post some more soon.

So...umm....have at it I guess!
I look forward to any and all feedback!

 

[Xorn333]

It has come to my attention that my map's name may be a bit long, so if it doesn't show up in WC3, try renaming the file to something shorter lol

 

[SuperbAvalon]

It has come to my attention that my map's name may be a bit long, so if it doesn't show up in WC3, try renaming the file to something shorter lol

In Example: The name is "Blahblahblahblahblahblah.wc3" change it to "blahblah.wc3"

 

[Xorn333]

Bump for any feedback?

 

[SuperbAvalon]

Solid! Making good progress, Xorn I like how you showed the Dragon's Forces and the
Dark One's Horde. I'm hella excited for when this is completely done and I can hash it out on
multiplayer. In the books that blight worm (Jara Worm) was my favorite Dark One creature next to
the Gholam and the Fade. Having someone out there creating a map, an RTS nonetheless, is truly great!

 

[Xorn333]

In Example: The name is "Blahblahblahblahblahblah.wc3" change it to "blahblah.wc3"

All fixed now, I shortened the name. Thanks

Solid! Making good progress, Xorn I like how you showed the Dragon's Forces and the
Dark One's Horde. I'm hella excited for when this is completely done and I can hash it out on
multiplayer. In the books that blight worm (Jara Worm) was my favorite Dark One creature next to
the Gholam and the Fade. Having someone out there creating a map, an RTS nonetheless, is truly great!

Thanks man! I'm glad you are liking it! The Jumara Worm is one of my favorite units. It functions as the Dark One's Army's basic (but sneaky) defensive tower and as a siege unit! There's nothing better than watching a group of your enemy's infantry unwittingly walk into a group of burrowed Jumara Worms as they burst from the ground and attack!

 

[Xorn333]

Bump. Does anyone else want to give it a try and share their thoughts?