Announcing my map: monster saga

Monster Saga

Monster Saga is currently in alpha. It is a map similar to team hero maps (TOB/DOTA are examples of this genre), Battlefield 1942, and yes it is also a TD, all wrapped into one.

Needless to say, not only do I have to make a balanced and origional TD but in the same map I will be having two teams of four - each player can choose from a possible eight heroes, for a total of 16 heroes ( 64 new custom hero abilities ).

The rules are as follows:

In this game, you take the role of a monster. You win the game if your team of monsters has done the best job of terrorizing the countryside and driving the humans from the land.

Every so often the humans will get angry and try to get inside your base. If you let too many humans get inside your base they will drive you from the land and you will lose the game. (hence, the TD aspect of the game).

The other team will be attempting to stop you as well. If you allow the other team to destroy your base you will also be driven from the land (hence, the team hero war aspect).

To keep things even more interesting you will be fighting over specific areas in the map (16 "villages" total). The more areas you have control over, your team funds will increase. Villages are defended by the Humans and villages closer to the center of the map will be more heavily defended. (hence, battlefield 1942 style gameplay as well). If the other team takes control of all of the villages they will win.

The storyline is as follows:

You belong to one of two factions of monsters: The Scourge, and the Elementals. The Scourge hate the humans - and all life for that matter. The Elementals also despise the humans, but for a different reason: the humans are arrogant creatures and have begun to defile the natural balance of the land. They chop down entire forests and mine the land until it is barren.

The Elementals know that they can never allow the Scourge to claim this land or other innocent Humans - as well as themselves - will be next to fall to them. As such, the Elementals and the Scourge are bitter rivals and each side will stop at nothing to prevent the other from claiming this land.
Welcome to Monster Saga.

I am currently looking for talented individuals to provide custom skins for the monster heroes.

And now what you have all been waiting for... screenshots. :)>

Humans in their strongest village in the center of the map:

http://webmedia.bcit.ca/~A00593426/m.../monster1.tiff

Proper credits will be given to any/all skins I use for the heroes:

http://webmedia.bcit.ca/~A00593426/m.../monster2.tiff

Some of the Undead base. The area with the four torches is where you have to protect from incoming humans.

http://webmedia.bcit.ca/~A00593426/m.../monster3.tiff

The main human castle and 4 surrounding villages are enclosed in a moat and I make the terrain varied and rocky here, like a real stream bed

http://webmedia.bcit.ca/~A00593426/m.../monster4.tiff

One of the most challenging things about this project is that the terrain has to be exact and gridlike for each side to have the humans arrive at approximately the same time and walk over the same amount of distance for both teams - while offering a lush varied environment for the heroes to fight over.

It sounds like a really good idea. To avoid the girdlike terrain, plan out the terrian with just roadsat first for one half of the map then reflect it. Afterwards you could populate the map with the trees and doodads, and vary the tiles.

Inspiration!

I now have a dialog vote at the beginning of the map enabling players to choose between five different game types!

ASSAULT -
Destroy the enemy base to win.
-OR-
Claim all the villages to win.

TEAM DEATHMATCH -
Killing other players and the humans around the map give you points.

First team to reach the frag limit wins
-OR-
round is up - team with highest frag points wins

TD -

Defend against increasingly difficult waves of humans. Lives run out, your team loses, other teams lives run out and you win.

RAZE -

A fast and furious game where both teams rush to raze as many villages as they can to the ground. First team to raze the majority (9) will win the match.

ASSAULT/TD HYBRID

Play both the assault and the TD games simultaneously. Multiple ways to win, multiple ways to lose.

Indeed, this may just be the new inspiration the comunity is looking for. Recent talk of 'waiting for new maps' and the decline of 'TD ingenuity' has lowered many people's play time of WC3. Hope it turns out well.
Perhaps if you gaves us some more detailed information on what kind of hero's you are looking for. The ideas of Elementals and, of course, scourge create a basis for new skins, but some information such as what types of heros and certain hero's skill basis (fire based brute, water based spellcaster, vampiric based monster etc.).

I'm certainly not the best skinner out there, but when I return home next week I'll see what I can do to help.

pencilgod made me a vamp lady skin for my last map so I think I might reuse it.
I really do not want to use skins that are found in TOB or DOTA. People have seen that stuff before and the "oh that's new" factor has worn off.

I have four heroes so far.

Skeletal Monster
Abilities:
1. Skeletal Army
Summons up to 5 skeleton warriors to fight for the Skeletal Monster. Permanant until killed.
2. Deaths Grasp
The Skeletal Monster taps into the very soul of his target. This causes the target to become paralyzed in fear and take damage.
3. Bane of the Living
The Skeletal Monster gains a chance to deal extra damage. Chance is much higher when attacking humanoid units.
Ultimate. Ritual of the Damned
The Skeletal Monster calls forth a powerful demon to aid him in battle.

Sludge Monster
Abilities:
1. Putridness
The Sludge Monster will damage units that wander too close to its stench.
2. Slime Slide (name in progress)
The Slude Monster coalesces into a ball of sludge and flings itself at his enemies, damaging them. A useful short range teleport/damage spell.
3. Barf (name in progress)
The Sludge Monster will vomit its previous victims at his enemies, causing them to take damage and become nauseated (lower chance to hit).
Ultimate. Envelop
The Sludge Monster envelops its target, suffocating it and simultaneously digesting it. This slowly gives health to the Sludge Monster. Heroes can be evelopped but only for a short period of time.

Manifestation of Earth
Abilities:
1. Rock Skin
The Elemental enhances its defense with a rocky mane. (passive)
2. Granite Claws
The Elemental strikes with massive force. Chance to hit multiple enemies, extra damage to attack.
3. Stength of the Earth (name in progress)
The Elemental burrows into the earth to convene with nature itself. The longer the Elemental stays underground the more power it will draw, to a maximum defined by the level of this skill that the elemental has. When the Elemental returns to the surface its attacks will be enhanced to stun enemies and deal extra damage - until the effect wears off.
Ultimate. Embodiment of Earth
The Elemental transforms into an embodiment of the earth. Combined with Strength of the Earth, Granite Claws, and Rock Skin, the Manifestation of earth will be a fine choice for any player that enjoys close quarters combat. (in development)

Lightning Elemental
Abilities:
1. Storm
The Elemental summons a great storm that will follow the Elemental around. Any who come near the Elemental risk being blasted by bolts of lightning. The higher the Elemental trains in this skill, the greater the radius of the storm and the greater the chance that a bolt will strike.
2. Shockwave
The Elemental shocks enemies with a wave of lightning damage.
3. Magnetize
The elemental magnetizes the target, causing his other attacks to deal more damage. The elemental can also control magnetized units weapons and armor, making them swing irratically or stick to the units own armor - reducing their chance to hit.
Ultimate. Lightning Sheild
No, this isn't your run-of-the-mill Lightning Sheild you've seen Shamans using in Warcraft III ;)

The Elemental covers himself with electricity. Any units that attack the Elemental risk being hit by a powerful blast of *chain* lightning. In addition, while this is in effect all attacks that the Elemental himself does will have a chance to cause a powerful *chain* blast of lightning.

So right now I would like a skin for the lightning Elemental. I would like to use either the storm revanant model - but I would really love to see a skin for the Shade.

Well it sounds like you don't need help with the skills, they all sound good, and are simple enough to make.

When I get home in a couple of days I'll pull out the shade and revenant and start seeing what I can do. Don't put all your hope on me though, I have very little experience with WC3 texturing. ^_^

Can't wait to see the map.

-Ant.

thanks for that. I already have a credits part of my game so if I use your skin I'll add you to that.

Well, I began to skin a whispy puff of cloud shade, but I'm on a new computer and only recently installed PS7.0.
I started to patch 7.1 to work the alpha propperly, but the patch says it doesn't dedect PS.
Sigh.
When I get on tomorrow I'll start checking into it, sorry for the delay.

I have PS CS =)

YAY this better be better that fucking piece of shit DOTA. God I can't stand some of the heroes in that game... AND They call themselves balanced...

And this will be the first "GOOD" Map that has multiple ways to win. Any other map you get your standard objectives and you do them. This map will have many different objectives, which objective you use will all depend on your enemies your weaknesses and their strong points. Very good idea.

I added an autobalancing script to the game. If players leave here is what happens:

In TD mode:
-teams with less players get handicap gold
-left players units are given to other remaining players - not destroyed

In Assault Mode:
-teams with less players get handicap gold
-teams with less players get one hero unit spawned for them that will automatially go to attack the other team.

In Team Deathmatch Mode:
-teams with less players score more frag points per kill. So a team with 1 player killing 1 unit gets 2 points. A team with 2 players killing 2 units gets 2 points. This is because with two heroes theoretically they should be able to kill twice as quickly.

The two teams are now significantly different to play during TD mode.

the Scourge team only will have acess to "unholy" tree of towers.
the Elementals team only will have acess to "holy" tree of towers.

Certain spawns will be resistant to holy and certain spawns will be resistant to unholy.

The Scourge teams towers see farther during the night.
The Elemental teams towers see farther during the day.

Make sure you don't give the teams too much handicap gold, there are more ways than gold to make a game unbalanced

The way it works right now, if 4 players are in the game and one leaves, each player will recieve their regular gold amount, plus 1/4. In effect the gold of 4 players is divided amongst three.

This way, a team of 3 going up against a team of 4 each get the same amount of gold - so it's not like one team is getting any more gold than the other team.

The only time when one team will get more gold than the other team is during assault mode - but this is how players will win the game - by seiging and converting villages. So this is *intentional* imbalance that I hope will lead to one team winning over another team.

And just so you know, in assault mode, it's not necessarily about who gets the villages first. All the players on one team might choose to stick together to be more powerful... at the cost of not being able to be everywhere at once. Or one team might not take any villages and try and rush the village that the other team has taken. Very tactical.