Hero / Spell ideas needed for AoS/DotA map. Part 2 - Almost Finished.

Ah, I see, you have pretty much the basics planned out then. If you'd like, I could easily reduce that protector spell edit's duration, give the wisps and feral spirits fire graphics, and you could have more defensively based version of hell fire. I'm just eager to help in anyway I can.

Wow, really Zoi? I could beta test? :) I'd be absolutely thrilled to do something like that. Is this something you'd like me to do alone, or can I make private games with my two other real life friends and play it? ect.

Lets see... Ruination has to do with etherealness, yes? Despite how nice it looks with the old red graphics for the ill fated Mark of Chaos / Fire spell, try the Undead building death graphics or cancel graphics, they don't seem to cause as much lag as most other animations, and they might work well with your ethereal theme for that spell.

The pattern is very unique though, I never would have thought of something like that. It's obvious you put alot of work into this map, and hopefully you will be rewarded with only the best results. :)

- Lazurus the Sane

Lazarus, you've given me BY FAR the most/best feedback anyone has ever given me. I'd love to have you as a beta tester. You can try it out with your friends, too. If you're on tomorrow(actually tonight), late like I am, I can show you what I have in my alpha versions in a game or two.

Yeah, I have put a lot of thought/work into this. My inspiration was mainly to make a map that corrected all the stuff I hated about DotA, as well as a forum to vent some creativity =P. But, once I started playing Tides of Blood, I realized that a LOT more could be done with the AoS genre. I also wanted to avoid a lot of the many things I felt were bad about ToB. It's a great game, don't get me wrong, but it still has a LOT of issues, and the creators seem to be more concerned with new skins/models than really improving the gameplay. I may be wrong, but this is just how I see it.

And also seeing how ToB kinda raised the bar on some things, especially the skills, I felt I needed take it even further.

I wanted to focus more on the gameplay, and have that FEEL that DotA has, that nobody else has seemed to get right, other than Eul. I do hope I can get it right =P

WoW Zoi, I feel the same way about DotA and ToB. The main focus I feel lacking in ALL of the AoS/DotA/ToB are the fact that there are only 3 paths to take. This imho lessens the Hero vs Hero interaction.(I usually faced the same hero each game, when I take a certain path in DotA, and often never see the other enemy heroes or allied heroes till if one side is losing/winning badly)

Therefore, I've created a unique pathin that forces players to fight each other more often but at the same time, offers 4 paths to take. Paths A & B meets in left center, and the path C & D meets in right center (I hope you understand that, I had a pic of the pathin in my post long ago, I'll try to find it)
**EDIT** cant find the post, Ill post screen shot next post

I'll try to give some feedback when I get a chance to Zoi. I didnt have connection from 8-1-03 to 8-11-03 and was out of state last weekend. Imho, this would increase complention between us (not that I mind). Lests set the bar on AoS gener even higher, I know Sage the Mage and few others are also making some impressive AoS type of map.

Ulimately, I think the 'funnest' map will become the next DotA, and of course balance will play a big role too. Although the latter can be unpredictable when the 1265768965 n00b abuser finds and exploits a bug or major imbalance.

- ByTe.ME uswest

Final Fantasy Legacy v1.2 unique pathing screen shot
- ByTe.ME uswest

Alright Zoi, I'll add you to my buddy list and i'll send you a PM if I see you on (would you like to transfer the map via PM? Battle.net? AIM? or E-mail?) Thank you for the opportunity though, I appreciate it very much. I now have my two friends looking forward to playing your map even more than the new tides of blood version i to be released (they were blown away by your blademaster flash of the blade signature screenshot)

I hope to see you around soon!

- Lazurus

Wow, those are some amazing effects!

As a tip to avoid the invisible casters showing up on the minimap, give them all the Unknown (Aloc) ability (locust). You won't be able to target or see the postitions of the units, makes it a lot cleaner :ggani:

If you ever need more beta testers, I'd be interested, and I'm sure some of my friends would definitely like to help out.

Maybe Dethecus could have some sort of Poison skill, and Azrael could have a Vampiric type attack for one of his passives (Life Steal (Frostmourne)). I'll try to think of ideas for the other ones. Your map could definitely turn out to be best AoS out there
:D

Thanks for the tip, Shvegait, I will definately fix that. I didn't know if there was a way to do it. Thx for the input. I don't know about best out there =P But if people like it, great.

So that ability makes it so you can see the unit, but not see it on the minimap, and not see their health bar when you press [alt]? If so that's wonderful, I needed something like that =)

Lazarus, you're on my list now, too. I prefer b.net for transfers, but anything will work. Glad your friends are interested, too.

FF_Behemoth: mine has 3 paths, but the outer 2 split up, but then come back together. I'll attach a pic like you did. That sucks that your internet was out. I had mine shut off for like 2 months cuz I lost my job. It sucked pretty bad, but gave me time to work on a lot of stuff. I mainly did photoshopping, but I worked in the WE a lil(this was before TFT).

I welcome competition, as it can only improve our mapping.

I will work as hard as I have to to balance this thing, also.


PS. I know my terraining isn't all that great, but I'm gonna work on it some more once I get some more important things done.

Right, you can see the unit, but the unit becomes invulnerable, untargettable, and you can't see its life with the alt key. Anything you can't do to a Locust, you won't be able to do to that unit.

Woah, that's some nice AoS terrain. I think you need to improve by adding a tiny-bit more doodads for detail and neatness.

BTW: Shevegait, when you releasing a new version of Burbenog!? It's the best TD!!!

Hrm.. well, all my attempts to contact you today seem to have failed, Zoi. I looked up your name on Azeroth and it had no record of any stats for some odd reason, and I'm not sure if you recieved any of my PMs (Yes, I know I sent too many) but I also tried to contact you using Yahoo Messanger, which also did not work. So, can you just send the map to my e-mail? It is [email protected].

Thanks for reading! Sorry for the inconvinience. :)

- Lazurus

Lazarus, you didn't reach me, because I have been at work :(

The accounts Zoi and Zoizite on Azeroth are both mine, but they have no records because I don't play melee games at all.

/profile Zoi or /profile Zoizite should show something on Azeroth.

I got your PMs and your message on Yahoo, and added you. I guess you aren't on now, but I'll leave Yahoo on so I'll hear it when you come on.

Lol, I probably should've PM'd this to you, but oh well.

Well, Zoi and I both tested his map on battle.net, for all you people who are anticipating 11th Hour's release. I chose the Aphotic Phantom, and he chose the Blademaster (Halbred, I think?)

Anyway, all of the spells Zoi had were fairly original. The Aphotic Phantom is sort of an oddball support character to play, since his Dark Familiars can really peck incessantly at nearby enemies, and his Elysian Touch is a handy way to regenerate a fair amount of HP to the Phantom surrounding units (it regenerates enough to be useful too.) Ruination just looked great, it allows the Aphotic Phantom to strategically slip into place during battles and just bomb the heck out of enemy units. Zoi had plans for his other skill, Phase Shift, and the Phantom's lack of a generic nuke spell makes him stray from too much hero versus hero combat (Zoi really owned me a few times with Flash of the Blade, that hurts!) but he was all in all, a very interesting character to play.

I am confident that all of you waiting will be very impressed, and it will be ten fold better for all of you AoS / Tides of Blood fans who are looking for a little more balanced and original gameplay, rather than fancy models and skins.

Well, that's all for now, I'll write about the other heroes as I test them. (Maybe screenshots too, if I get Zoi's permission)

Regards,
- Lazurus

Well, thanks for the support Laz. Feel free to post screenies.

I fixed the bug with the heads moving to the wrong base. They should now go to your base and not the opponents'.

I've been working on items pretty much all night. Got a bunch in, and removed all the rigged up debugging items I had in there. I got the 3 levels of boots! I couldn't get a target art to show when I used windwalk ability on an item, though :(

I added a check for the Dark Familiar on my Counter Attack skill. It should no longer try to counter it. Oddly enough there is no boolean condition for checking if a unit is invulnerable. Maybe I missed it, but I looked and looked and didn't see one. I just made it check for the unit-type of the familiars themselves. I also made the familiars larger, like you suggested. I haven't looked at them, but there scaling is at .5, .75, and 1.00 like I said I would do.

Raised the cooldown on Elysian Touch from 15 seconds to 20.

Oddly, the undead spawn units seem to kill towers better, even though all units have the EXACT same stats on both sides(this will change). I find this really weird.

Anyways, I'm gonna try to get some more items in. I look forward to playin again Laz.

When/where will the map be published for the public or those who are eager to get their hands on it?

Wow - After reading this post. The map does look like a promising map.

I always hated how I only face the same hero like in dota. Man it was boring. =P Anyways. I hope this map is successful because they need a new popular aos type map out. Dota is getting old ( too old ). If it does in fact get popular you will have to compete with ToB as i heard they was going into some intense mapping for their map. >.<

Anyways - nice review as always Lazurus ^_^. I seem to find you everywhere. If you need any help on anything. I'll be happy to lend a hand or two. ¥^_^¥