Making an AoS unique

ive made an aos, custom spells and heros with nice new skins, but i want it to be unique, what can i do to make it more interesting?!?!

ask yourself:
why did you make this map?
what was still to be desired from other AoS maps?
what would be something cool / interesting to have in an AoS map?

i wanted to make it for fun
i put alot of things already from other map type things,

i posted this to see what would be unique

well for one thing long walks tend to suck *** in AoS. That's one reason i like Valley --> teleporters.

you could do lots of things. If there are two teams and each side has different heroes you could set up grudge pairs

Ex. far seer hates the arch mage and visa versa.

and then have something special (an added bonus) for killing people.

you could give each side some sort of activatable ultimate thingy (I'm thinking like in FMVH where you can summon the avatar or if you're undead pool souls.) Whatever you choose would have to be appropriate to your map.

those are just some thoughts.

Create a dynamic enviorment. Random events such as a lightning blast that does real damage to allies or enemies. Throw in more randomness such as a planetary invasion by Chaos Orcs, or a meteor storm, maybe a b52 bomb strike, and if you're really insane maybe throw in the horsemen of the Acopalypse with a delivery man named Steve.

That's what I considered putting in my AoS but I decided to shift gears from multiplayer to single player. Oh one thing, if you're using tomes, make them all tomes of knowledge so that agility heroes don't get such a huge advantage.

lol, I was actually going to suggest adding cool neutral hostile random elements like that, but the thing is that can unbalance the game. it *would* make it unique, and fun to play tho.

just be careful.

(good examples trav)

make the map big, maybe using a enchaned editor and go over 192x192. Add quests for items or something, neutral towns. Perhaps even points to capture and hold. e.g Team 1 takes control of a fort outisde their main base, they now have units that will spawn there in adition to the main base, they get control of the towers and have a "keep guard" (idea taken from Dark Age of Camelot on the frontier forts).

And you defantly need good strateigic terrain (my spellin is bad today heh). Choke points. Perhaps even let the players build and command thier own little army with the cold they collect from killin enemies instead of just buying tomes or items. Let them build up outposts and other crap. War games... =)

I meant to also add; you could use a morality system. Say for example an enemy hero dies - increase your handicap by 1% and decrease enemy handicap by 1% (with a set amount that it can't go above or below). If a non-hero kills a hero, then do +2%/-2%. There could also be special items you can buy or find that when activated do something similar, as well as destroying sacred artifacts, mascots, production buildings, etc...

This way you could create a game not based on ankh's to survive, but with gradually weaker enemies instead.

NOOOOOOOOOO!!! You have to stay away from that!! Stay away from special items as much as possible, because when you add special items that give you a big advantage, then it just becomes a race for money. If you wanna be unique, actually make it fair for Strength, Intelligence, AND Agility heroes. Well, that's just my 2 bits. Anyway, if you are gonna make 'special' items, make them so they make your armies gradually stronger. You know, one item, for like 3000, could make all your footmen into grunt, increasing their life and damage. Then, it would give a warning to the enemy, saying they better rack up 3000 and buy it too or they'll be outdone. Then, in like 1 minutes, your barracks start producing Grunts. you know, something that isn't overly cheap, but helps alot, but not only you. just my 4 bits.

Special items are not bad, as long as they aren't overly powerful, and ACTUALLY WORK.

I hate AoS maps where I save like 30000 gold for some super item or tome that doesn't even really work. It gets annoying.

hmmm give it quality, then its alread unique (AOS TRI WAR 14.01.132 Edit by DaRkLoRd Modified by UbErIdIoT OWNZ SO MUCH!!!!!11111 ........ >_< )

i would say MicrosoftXP is right with his questions. there is a reason WHY you made ur own map, and thats what makes it unique

for example my Nordland AoS will include:
- unique statgain system for heroes (100% done)
- cave/underground system, that allows fast travel throu the world.. a good place to kill strong creeps and also very dangerous... (80% done)
- all items worth buying (pretty unique! 20% done)
- quality (unique in every way! 15% done)

hehe i also had already a system in that allowed you only to have _1_ item of the type "armor" in your inventory, _1_ of the type "weapon" and _1_ item of the type "shield". stuff like offhand claws using shield slot were also in, but it was too complicated and after i got a little trigger problem I just dropped the idea)

anyway, why do you wanna make the map? whats the special thing? -> and thats why its unique (i doubt AoS tRiWaR 14.35.41 bY dEvIlSlAyEr24 had a special thing..)

if you've never tried it, you should take a look at Rival Nations. I've put an assload and a half of work into making it a fun, balanced, and unique AoS-type map. Many different strategies can be used to win, including:
1. killing all enemy heros
2. hit and run on enemy base killing barracks
3. upgrading your towns units to overrun the enemies
4. hiring mercenaries to help you siege a base
5. heavily defending a base by constructing additional defenses
6. hiring "training" mercenaries to increase the size and diversity of your towns army
7. pumping a single hero that is just a killing machine
8. buying multiple heros to swarm pumped heros or do other tactics.

There could be more, but to note, i have won any number of games using all the above, and i've also lost to nearly all of them. Obvoiusly somethings work better than others but its fun to be able to try something different and still be able to win =) (a change of pace for all you DH pumpers)

edit: i forgot to mention that this was the first 3-way aos map, and that adds a nice ffa element to the game. :D

I cant really think of much else that hasnt already been said. Just keep it fair, so that no hero type is overpowering. today i played 2 aos maps. The first was some that i had never heard of, and i died in 4 hits when 2 enemy archer heros had +10 agility items. Stuff like that ruins the game. The second game I also lost, but this time it was to strategy rather than a cheap item. i didnt mind that loss at all. You should make it like that. So that its a game of strat rather than uber agility.

Whats AOS?