New Map Idea... Tell me what you think

I am nearing being halfway done with a map. And I just want to know what you think of the idea...

Each player will get to select a class of Magic (Ice, Holy, Fire, Undead, Earth, Air, Stealth, or Possession (Mindcontrol)). Then each player will start out with 1 defensive spell and a townhall with 4 pessants. Each player will have to get the required Gold, Lumber, and Mana, (Listed in Quest Dialog) then bring their "Mage" to a circle of power labeled 'Research Next Spell', subtracting the requirements. All spells are either cast by typing "-cast <spellname>" or by bringing their Mage to one of the possible 12 circle of powers labeled 'Cast Spell'. Most of the early spells are defensive or target single units and/or structures, the average spells tend to be summons, but as you get to the higher level spells they mainly become finishing moves, that target all or random units owned by target player, most of those spells will only be casted once per game, due to their extream mana cots.

By default each player has 2 Mana Generators that provide 0.1 mana per second each. More Mana Generators can be built by the pessants to increase the rate at wich you get mana, with no cap on that rate except the required space to build them. Although this is only a 4 player map, and on startup it is considered FFA, players can ally themselves with one another to gang-up on an opponent, but eventually they will have to unally and defeat each other before the game will end. Currently all you have to do is kill an opponents Mage to defeat him, I might change it so that a player's Mana must drop to 0 before he can be attacked (when a player donesn't have any more Mana Generators their mana begin to drop).

Eventhough this is mainly a spell-casting game, players can still build most of the regular human melee units (minus some flying units and all heros), and research their upgrades.

cool idea

Sounds good

A bit complicate but sounds good, but I still have problems with the leaderbord :p

Sounds good. I'd reccomend making spells faster to cast though, as in a hectic battle either typing '-cast <spell>' could be annoying as would moving a peasant. Players should be able to type '-c1' for example, as a hotkey to cast their first spell.

Also, will conventional spells be available?

Sounds to me like youve played populus(i think that was what it was called).It was a good game at the time(trust me) but thow it was a good idea i got bord quick

The idea was tho you had armys and villages ect to win you had to kill the shaman.You could kil massive armys but if the shaman suvived you had acheived very little

Yeah its a good idea but i hope its not your first map.You need alot of experience ,time and dedication.I had been in that position not long ago, i got hyped up about an idea and when it came too halfway though the map i realised it was way to big a chalenge.

Maybe you could do mage type at a time ,releasing a newer versions each time.just make sure u dont bite off more than u can chew

Oh this isn't my first map.... my first was a RPG that was real good except when I tried adding a turn based system (BIG mistake, too much work). Heh, read my signature. And actually I havn't played "populus".

I just realized the way I got the system set up it wouldn't be hard to add "-c##" as a hotkey.

Sytadel, What do you mean by just conventional spells? Well although you do have your 12 that you cast by bringing your Mage to a circle (or typing "-cast"), your Mage is a Hero that starts out at level 1 and has spells releated to its class.

Make trigger spell... Make i dialog box for each player depending on there class, then make all the spells in that then all you have to do is press Esc to bring up spells list, i like maps that are like that, but your idea works too, sounds fun!!

im assuming that this map will have custom spells right? i like custom spells:ggani:

Lami2, I would do that but there are just TOO many variabes (is it researched, which class, etc...), not to mention, just too many spells to begin with (12).

SkylineGT[FB], Yes, all the spells except for the ones that the Mages have (Mages are Heros) will be custom because they are all done by triggers. Actually if I could edit the SLKs correctly I would make custom spells (I do have Office XP), but whenever I add a spell to 'AbilityData.slk' it never showes up in the editor, or if I edit an existing spell it reverts back to default when I start the game (yes, I do remember to add the file again after each save)

It sounds good. It reminds me to Archmage (u know, the web game that ur a specilized mage and have an army).