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Unlikely Allies AoS

10-31-2003, 09:44 PM#1
Panto
Greetings.

Here's the AoS I'm starting, in its infant stage. So far I've got the races and their themes staked out, I've chosen heros, and I'm starting to work on hero abilities.

Pretty soon I'll start terrain work. That's usually my favorite part of any given map. It's the most purely creative element.

I'll keep this post updated with the most recent version of the map, and I'll post screenies and conceptual art in the thread as I make them.

Right now the map is just a one or two player demo. All of the racial modifications have been applied to the units, so if you want to have some fun (and help me to test the balance between races), download this map and try setting different groups of units against each other. You can do this by selecting a group and typing the debug command "enemy". Other debug commands are listed when you start up the game.

Please let me know what you think about balance, or look, or skill choices, or any given thing. But, please keep in mind that, right now, only a few of the skills are actually finished.

Download
Unlikely Alliance in .w3x format - 1142 kb
Unlikely Alliance in .zip format - 1122 kb
10-31-2003, 09:59 PM#2
Panto
The great idea of this AoS is that each person will choose a race (from twelve, currently) at the beginning of the map. The races all have different characteristics, which I'll spell out in a minute.
Once the person has chosen a race, that race's units will spawn from one of the spawning points and attack. There won't be any strictly east or west units. Rather, there will be a mixture of the types of units that each player on a team chooses.

So, in a three vs. three game, for example, Electromancer chooses Trolls, Lost Loch chooses Ogres, and Dead-Inside chooses High Elves. Each of their spawning points will spawn their respective units. Their opponents choose Trolls, Naga, and Naga. Each team is not limited by the races that another team chooses, and multiple players on a team can choose the same race (althought it might not be as interesting).

I've attached a picture of the production buildings and towers for each race. I'll add more information about the races and the layout of the map a little bit later.

Racial buildings, clockwise from top:
Dwarf Parthenon, High Elf Sphinx, Orc Command Pavilion, Troll Hut, Ogre Burgh, Undead Yggdrasil, Demon Aztlan, Night Elf Iglesia, Naga Patala, Human Outpost.
10-31-2003, 11:40 PM#3
Panto
Attached is a layout of what the terrain is going to look like. The four routes will be split between the four to six players on each team. Depending on whether I find out if it's possible to set Neutral Hostile and Neutral Passive as pseudo-players (to control troop movement), I might have room to have 6 players on each team.

The large circles are the team bases. The thin white lines are the land routes. The thicker blue lines are waterways which cross the map. The Naga and Mur'gul races have a racial trait of amphibious movement, so these will be particularly useful to them. However, I'm thinking I'll have hirable boats so that normal heros can also navigate between the attack routes using the waterways. I haven't decided on that yet.

As promised, here's some information about the races. Firstly, I picked mythological and historical aspects of several famous civilizations to model the races after.
  • Night Elf = Spanish
  • Naga = Hindu mythology
  • Ogre = Scottish
  • Human = Roman
  • Orc = Mongol
  • Dwarf = Greek
  • Troll = Pygmy mythology
  • Demon = Aztec
  • High Elf = Pharaoh
  • Undead = Norse mythology
The heros and units of each of these races correspond to the history or mythology of that civilization. So far, it's got a real neat feeling.

EDIT: Removed the Murgul and Gnoll races and switched the Demons to the Aztecs (previously the Murgul were Aztecs and the Demons were Japanese). Added map screenshots. The plan diagram is no longer accurate, in that the rivers now form a diamond pattern so as not to directly link the two bases, but it has been left up for reference.

EDIT2: The image links became obsolete through the vbulletin's grace and beneficience. Unfortunately, I no longer have the newer images to upload. Sorry.
11-01-2003, 12:01 AM#4
Panto
Here are the racial modifiers for each race.
Code:
         Life MvSpd AtkSpd Dmg   Def AtkRange Special     Regen SightRad.
Human    +15        +.25         +2
Orc           +60   +.05   +2    +1                       -.25
Troll    +35        +.10   -3                 evade 8%    +1
Dwarf         -30          +1d5+2             bash +5, 5%       Nt +250
Demon                                +28/+50  mag res 18%
Undead                           +1           corrupt -1  +.5
High Elf +25               +1                             +1    Day +150
Night Elf           +.05   +1                 Hide        +.25  Nt +150
Ogre     +50  -30                    +28/+50     
Naga                +.05   +1d5  +1           Amphibious
Base unit stats later.

EDIT: Removed the Murgul and Gnoll races, eliminated gold cost modifications, and tweaked some of the values based on early testing.
11-01-2003, 12:31 PM#5
Pirogen
I'm really surprised that this place isn't full of posts like "that r0xxorz" and "your my hero". Two thumbs up: :D :foot:

Best of luck to you!
11-01-2003, 07:24 PM#6
WeirdMusician
This sounds so much better than all these sucky AOS Maps.
Good luck to you, let me know when I can try it out.
11-01-2003, 09:59 PM#7
Immelman
this seems really well planned out, but im all out sick of aos right now. maybe if you made an aos thats totally unique datll be cool
11-02-2003, 10:27 AM#8
KyoZic
Immelman: I believe this AoS is a completly unique one.

Panto: Keep up the extremely extraordinary increibly good work! :D :foot: :infth: Three tumbs up! I really can't wait until you get finished.

Pirogen: Yeah I mean with this quality on a AoS then there really should be someone who said you roxxorz and that, so I am going to be a little childish and take the time to say it only becouse it needs to be said. "Panto j00 R0xX0rZ M4xXorZ"

That was a bit unserious but who cares. We all love you Panto!

Hmm... Everytime I'm supposed to write Panto i write Panda. Weird.
11-08-2003, 12:03 PM#9
Doublehex
I think this guy over at mod forge was working on something like this way before this map. But this still looks good. Good luck to you.
11-09-2003, 07:53 PM#10
Zechnophobe
"Night Elf +1 Hide +.25 Nt +150"

Assuming all other things equal.. these bonus' are pretty wuss.
11-09-2003, 08:10 PM#11
Panto
Good point. In early balance-test staged combats, the night elves tend to lose more often than not. I'm thinking of tuning their abilities to more closely match the high elves, although maybe I'll swap the damage for the Hide, or something similar.
11-13-2003, 05:06 AM#12
Xinlitik
Hey Panto. I'm about to check out your map.. just D/Led it. I was wondering what you thought of my map? I need input from all of the beta testers. :) New version of the beta will be out tomorrow w/ some new features..if you can test please PM me. :D

Your map sounds really cool... I'll post back in a few mins.
11-13-2003, 05:13 AM#13
Xinlitik
Very cool so far!
12-25-2003, 10:09 PM#14
Panto
Thanks for your help, Xinlitik. I'll be anxious to hear what you think of it so far.

Recent evidence suggests that the amount of custom abilities that I was implementing in this map (four 10-level abilities and one 3-level ability for each of three heros for each of twelve races), while not a particular problem for me to make, are a problem as far as map loading time, since ((10x4)+(3x1))x3x12=1548 individual abilities were causing the map to take up to three minutes during loading.

In an attempt to clean up, I've cut the four abilities down to 7 levels, and brought the 3-level ability up to 4 just for some additional nuance between levels. Already that leaves me with ((4x7)+(4x1))x3x12=1152 abilities, which is improved. I may, in the end, have to take Electromancer's admonishment to heart and cut down on the number of races. Unfortunately, I really do like all of the races that are set up already. I may cut the Mur'gul and change the Night Elves from Spanish to Aztec (since the Aztecs are more stylish, but the Mur'gul models are rather boring). I also might drop the Gnoll native Americans since some people believe that representation may seem offensive to some, although I assure you it is not intended that way.

Otherwise, I'm not sure what to do. I can assure you that the Ogre, Human, High Elf, Undead, Troll, and Naga races aren't getting touched. If you do try out the test map above, please let me know how you feel about the style of the races. Eventually I'll make a temporary listing up here regarding the unit names and the history or mythology behind them.

Recently I cut out the custom model I was using for the High Elf sphinx and applied its skin to the Obsidian Statue for their building instead. I also cut out the masked Shadow Hunter model which came from the TFT beta, although it's one of my favorite models of all time, because of map size concerns. I applied my custom green-skin to the other trolls, so they still seem cohesive as a group.

Comments as always are welcome and desired. Please feel free to download the map and tell me about it.
02-08-2004, 08:52 PM#15
flamesforzuljin
dude...panto...ur my hero!
well...not really

but ne wayz, i really love everybody trying to make new races and such
(i myself am working on a Gnoll campaign 7-8 maps, thatnk you)

and if you want to share ideas, (if u need any) ill be willing to share with you some of my ideas (oh yeah...i love how u modeled each race after a certain culture...gives a very "rich" feel to it) so you can make your map better

or if u r set for ideas, or just dont want to share ideas, disregard this reply

-flamesforzuljin :WD: