| 03-06-2004, 05:12 PM | #1 |
This is a radical new approach to AoS'es and I hope people will look into this idea :) LONG post by the way. If you wanna just get to the details go down to the spaced out line where it says MY GOAL We all know there are many AoS maps out there, all with their own pros and cons. Originally, I was going to take the same path as these other Aos'es, but after discussing the idea with my friend, I wanted to take AoS gaming to a whole new level. Yes, yes I know, all of you are saying that's what every maker of an AoS wants to do. And I do have a working model currently of my map (you might have seen a few open beta maps I had released on b.net), so NO I am not a mapper who opened up world editor and then decided asking for other people to make a map for me. I have done this map almost completely by myself so far, with help from the many helpful forum goers here. However, what I am aiming is just too much for one person to handle. What it is NOW: Your standard AoS with five (seven if you count the ocean lane with amphibious units, and the mounatin lane with flyers). There is also a Neutral Hostile base in the center that sends units to attack both bases. You can gain control of the center base if you kill its town hall, and whatever buildings are remaining, are given control of to your base. There are also six neutral heroes with "houses" placed around the map. Control of them is continously changing depending on who killed the heroes house last. I have made room for a dueling arena in a corner of the map. Originally, I was going to make it like a mini hero arena, but now I've had a new approach for it. There are 13 heroes (called Magi) chosen at startup, both teams picking from the same hero pool. MY GOAL What the map is aiming for: I'm not even sure if this will make it an AoS anymore. But just bear with me. Here is an outline of what I am looking at: - You are enemies with all the other players, and/or the computer bases. I might make it so you can make alliances or such with the the other players, but I am sort of going for a Free for all type thing. - The goal is to prevent both bases from killing each other, by various means. Call it a Diplomacy AoS =D - The possibility of a third computer "base" - mainly barbarian tribes (or possibly monsters) making raids on the counts. These can serve as creeps for leveling, but you could optionally bring peace to them, although it's not a requirement to win the game. This would leave room for 9 human players, which I think is a good number for a FFA. - The Magi are quarelling amongst each other, amidst the two warring nations fighting each other. Top priority is given to preserving the nations, and secondary priority is given to the Magi Duels. Everything else comes last. - Upon startup, a random player is chosen as a Dueling Champion. A Dueling champion is given special priveleges to help him in his cause. - Anyone can challenge the Champion by walking to the dueling field's circle of power, and typing -Duel. The champion has one minute or so to move to the dueling arena (he could have a teleporter specifically for that purpose) and accept the challenge. If he fails, the challenger is instantly made champion. If the challenger leaves the circle of power at any time, his challenge is forfeit. - Dueling will not necessarily pitch heroes versus one another (i.e. caster going against melee or something) but rather, the Magi will summon Magi Avatars into the field. This could work possibly by having 3 units spawn into the field for each duelist (the champion and challenger are paused and invulnerable during the duel). Each unit has like 100 mana, and ONE hit point. They have a constant mana shield on, but they also must use their mana for spells. The three units could be like an Offensive Avatar, Defensive Avatar, and a Misc. Avatar with various spells. Only the Offensive avatar can harm the opponents directly. If one offensive avatar falls then the other two are considered defenseless and the owner of the dying avatar loses. If you lose a Defensive or Misc. Avatar the duel still continues, but you have lost a valuable unit to help you win the battle. - Dueling Champion, is one way of winning the game. The main objective is stop both sides from killing each other (as stated before :D ). - Balancing the two bases is tricky business. I propose making invulnerable worker units in the towns, so they can walk amongst enemies unscathed. Why invulnerable? Because you can still win back the alliance of an enemy, and you need the worker to live if he is to build for the base. - Yes, workers can build for bases. If one side is losing too many towers or barracks, you can send a worker to build a new tower/barracks in its place, or even give it another barracks if th other base is generating too many units. Those buildings are instantly given control of to the computer base. - Building towers and stuff for a base is all well and good, but it will earn you the hatred of the opposing base, and you will no longer be considered neutral with them and counted as an enemy. The base you are helping will become an ally naturally. You can still gain the alliance of the enemy base by killing units from their enemies to help them, or even build towers for them. This of course will cause you to switch alliances. - I propose making alliance and diplomacy points. Alliance points are granted or tooken away when you do something to aid/delay the computer bases, i.e. killing towers an stuff. If you have too little, your counted as an enemy of a base, and if you have alot, then you're an ally. Diplomacy points are achieved eventually, by helping to stop the barbarian raids, or even more slowly, when you help the base by killing their enemies for them. You can have enough diplomacy points so that one side is slowing down their unit production, but the other base will still generate units regularly if you haven't achieved enough diplomacy points for that side. - The person with the most diplomacy points is the winner. In this case, if alliances were made, then the win is shared. Being a dueling champion also helps you have a more noteworthy win, but if the "peacebringer" isn't the dueling champion, then honorable mention is given to the Champion. - Many, many other features I hope to enable, but WAY too much work for just one person. :( Ok, so in summary, let me describe myself a map maker. I am VERY thorough in making unit abilities and making sure that all the heroes are created in the interest of balance. I have made the terrain very symetrically, but it takes effort to make it look more "natural" instead of straight, while making sure one side isn't filled with bad routes and the like. I also have gained much experience with the triggers since I first started, but I'm not perfect with them. Several of the spells I've made are triggered based. What we are looking at: I need maybe several people to keep up with me on this project so we can be constantly aware of our progress. I can do any area of the map, but I need people to focus on certain area, including: - Trigerring: (there will be ALOT of triggers as you can tell from my descrition) Probably up to 2 (or even more) people to work on this area. - Terrain: I have a rough layout but its very man-made looking if you get my drift. Probably need only 1 person to work on this area. - Unit editting and balancing: Someone to work with heroes and spawned units in the interest of balance and enjoyable gameflow. The heroes go up to level 10 at the moment, but I want them to go to 25 so that is one issue. Maybe 1 or 2 people working on this area. - Skinning: I am not looking for help with skinning right now, but if this map gets popular enough, I would enjoy having custom skins for the Magi heroes. I want the map to be downloadable at the momemt. I don't mind working on either area, but it's a real pain to work intensively on a hero and then have to be bothered with swithching over to working on a terrain or something. I probably would imagine myself working on the triggers most likely. I would be very thrilled if some of the acclaimed map makers in these forums were to show interest in my project. As much as I hate sounding arrogant, I don't need someone new to the editor to volunteer for this. I have handled all the easy to learn stuff, and we are basically diving into very advanced stuff here. If someone does know their world editting than you're welcome to join this project. Again the name of the map is Duel of the Magi, and I have distributed it a bit on b.net. It's not hosted on a website, but I can send it to you to look at and see what you think. My AIM is Mageofair or windymage. If you send me an email address i can send it to you or i can host it on b.net for you. Be warned, I still have dial-up for seven more days (getting cable next weekend =) ). Thanks for looking at my post!!! =) My email is [email protected] but i'd rather you IM me on either windymage or Mageofair as im in the process of getting ALOT of junk mail, and i basically delete anything i dont like. |
| 03-06-2004, 05:14 PM | #2 |
My map is up for download at worldofwar.net. Here is the site: http://maps.worldofwar.net/download....e=maps&id=5933 |