(6) Gladiator Survival - Hero Cooperative Game

***Updated 7-7-05***

Scroll to the end of the thread and pick up 1.73b, possibly the final version! Note that some of the information in this thread has become outdated, and I'm not interested in updating the mass of information you can find here. Just play the game to find things out!

***Updated 12-01-04***

Scroll down to the bottom to pick up Gladiator Survival 1.5.

***Updated 8-30-04***

I have added the information for 9 heroes that are currently in development. There are other changes that have taken place, but the general gameplay rules still apply. I haven't decided on the tenth new hero yet, but there will be one.

Original Post


A friend and I have been working on a map for quite some time. We both think it's pretty fun, but I don't really think it's an impressive map technically, so it may not excite too many people here. Regardless, feel free to read through the description and try out the old version I've posted.

Brace yourself. I'm in the mood to give a lot of details. Any ability with a * has been changed since the posted version.

General Description

This maps pits a team of 6 heroes against waves of enemies in a Gladiator-style arena. Its playable with 1-6 people, but regardless of the number of players there will always be six heroes (with less than six people, some people will be controlling multiple heroes). Fights take place in "rounds" - a wave of enemies is sent out, and the gladiators have to kill them all to win the round. Upon victory, the crowd throws gold into the arena for the gladiators (you don't have to pick it up, and it's shared equally). At the end of every round, all HP and MP for the gladiators is restored. If a gladiator dies, he is revived at the beginning of the next round (but he receives no gold). That's the basic gist of the game. You pick a hero, and you fight through the rounds with your teammates.

Heroes and abilities

Every hero has a mix of abilities, and all have unique "Special" abilities that they never have to learn. The heroes max out at level 14, generally with 4 levels in each skill and two points in an ultimate. We have spent a lot of time balancing the heroes, and though some have more custom abilities than other, I like to think that all in all they are fairly balanced. OK, here come some specifics, starting at the far left of the hero selection.

Warning: Here is where the "lot of details" comes in.


Assassin
The assassin is a difficult hero to play, but is nevertheless ve
ry powerful. She specializes in the destruction of single units.
Special: Ethereal form. Allows the assassin to switch freely between corporeal and ethereal form. In ethereal form, the assassin cannot cast offensive spells or attack.
Fan of Knives: (Standard WC3): The assassin lets loose a flurry of knives, damaging nearby enemies.
Blink Bomb: At level 1, works like standard blink. Starting at level 2, when the assassin she leaves behind a small bomb that does massive damage to all nearby creatures.
Poison Dart: The assassin poisons an enemy, dealing massive damage over time to that enemy.
Mark of Death: The assassin does extreme damage to a single enemy, killing non-hero units outright.

Barbarian
The barbarian is an easy hero to play that is nevertheless extremely powerful. High HP and useful abilities make him a welcome addition to any team.
Special: Decimation With every attack, the barbarian has a chance to completely obliterate the enemy he is attacking, causing an explosion with AoE damage to nearby enemies.
Warcry: Gives a % increase to damage to all nearby units (like Roar).
War Stomp: (Standard WC3): The barbarian stomps the ground and stuns all nearby enemies.
Tribal Blessing: Gives the barbarian a small increase to strength, and also allows him to heal a % of his HP with each use.
Reincarnation (Ult 1): (Standard WC3): Lets the barbarian come back to life if he is killed.
Tauren Totem (Ult 2): Allows the barbarian to summon a tauren totem which spawns helpful allies to aid the gladiators.

Beastmaster
The beastmaster summons creatures of the forest to aid him in his fight.
Special: Bear Companion. The beastmaster always has his companion Misha, a bear hero at half his level.
Summon Wolves: Summons a pack of wolves to fight for the beastmaster. Number and power increase with level.
Summon Quillbeast: (Standard WC3) Summons a quillbeast to fight for the beastmaster.
Owl Ward: Places an owl ward at a specified location, which sends out owls that damage nearby enemies.
Stampede: (Standard WC3) A horde of lizards tramples through the area near the beastmaster, exploding on contact with any enemy.

Blademaster
The blademaster is a master of melee combat who is able to mow down foes with his powerful sword skills.
Special: Berserker Frenzy. Greatly increases the attack speed and attack power of the blademaster, but drains HP very quickly.
Evasion: The Blademaster mastery of combat and speed allow him to avoid some attacks completely.
Blood Hunger: Restores a small amount of HP to the blademaster for any damage he does.
Critical Strike: (Standard WC3) Gives a chance to do greatly increased damage with every attack.
Bladestorm: (Standard WC3) The blademaster becomes a spinning maelstrom of blades, damaging all nearby units constantly.

Elemental Mage
The elemental mage is a fairly difficult hero to play that can decimate large forces of enemies with his powerful AoE spells.
Special: Permanent Immolation. The Elemental Mage is constantly surrounded by a shield of fire that damages nearby units.
Flamestrike: (Standard WC3): The elemental mage rains fire from the earth to creatures in an Area of Effect.
Chain Lightning: (Standard WC3): The elemental mage releases a bolt of lightning from his fingertips which jumps from enemy to enemy, damaging them.
Blizzard: (Standard WC3): The elemental mage summons a great ice storm, damaging all creatures in an area of effect.
Tidal Wave: The elemental mage calls forth a tidal wave which strikes every enemy in a straight line. Does moderate damage to an unlimited number of targets.

Witch Doctor
The Witch Doctor is a support oriented hero, with a number of useful abilities for the team.
Special: Healing Aura HP regeneration for all nearby allies is greatly increased.
Healing Wave: (Standard WC3): The healer casts a spell which heals a group of allied units.
Combat Dummy: The healer summons a unit which infuriates all nearby enemies, causing them to attack it instead of the gladiators.
Plague Ward: A powerful poison seeps from this ward, damaging all nearby enemies.
Big Bad Voodoo: (Standard WC3): All nearby allies become invulnerable for as long as this spell is in effect.

Huntress
The huntress can be a difficult hero to play due to the management of her small army she receives. Starfall is invaluable, and makes this hero very worthwhile in any team.
Special: Forest Friends. The Huntress receives units at the start of every round which are teleported to help her fight.
Feral Spirit: Summons two wolf companions to aid the Huntress. Power increases greatly with every level.
Fire/Ice Arrows: Allows the Huntress to ignite or freeze her arrows, making them deal extra damage or slow enemy movement.
Mastery of the Wilds: Grants a permanent agility bonus and can be activated to increase attack speed temporarily.
Starfall: (Standard WC3) Calls down waves of falling stars that damage nearby enemy units.

Paladin
The Paladin is sort of an all around hero. He is fairly easy to play, and has a mix of decent damage with good defensive capabilities.
Special: Conversion. Every time the paladin strikes an enemy unit, he has a chance to convert them onto the side of the gladiators. Chance varies depending on difficulty of unit.
Holy Light: Heals target unit. Allows targeting yourself.
Holy Strength:: The Paladin calls upon inner strength to become magic immune and gain bonus HP, Armor, and Damage.
Devotion Aura: (Standard WC3): Increases allies armor.
Raise: The Paladin's ultimate allows him to revive a fallen comrade.

Summoner
The summoner is able to summon units that do his fighting for him. He has low HP, defense, and attack power.
Special: Summon Mastery. Whenever a summoned creature level 2 or higher is destroyed, it is replaced by the same summon of the lower level.
Summon Water Elemental: (Standard WC3) Summons a water elemental with high HP and low attack power to fight for the summoner.
Summon Spirit Beast: Summons two spirit beasts with high attack power and low defense to fight for the summoner.
Enchanted Summons: Gives various permanent buffs to any creature summoned.
Summon Infernal: Summons an to fight for the summoner.

Support Mage
This hero is extremely versatile, yet very difficult to play because of this. He has a wide variety of spells.
Special: Meditation. The hit points and mana points of the Support Mage tick up by 5% every second, but he is left extremely vulnerable and immobile.
Enhancing Spells: Gives the support mage two of his enhancing spells.
Enfeebling Spells: Gives the support mage two of his enfeebling spells.
Mixed Spells: Gives the support mage two of his mixed spells.
Ultimate Sacrifice: All allies are healed Hit Points and Mana Points, but the support mage dies.
Time Stop: Time is completely frozen for all enemy units in the arena, allowing players to move freely among frozen units.

Enhancing Spell List: Inner Fire, Bloodlust, Lightning Shield, Invulnerability (Targeted Divine Shield), Rejuvenation, Unholy Frenzy
Enfeebling Spell List: Slow, Silence, Scattering Winds, Stasis Trap, Faerie Fire, Curse
Mixed Spell List: Essence Drain, Convert (switches current HP and MP of hero), Increase Charisma (amount of gold thrown at end of every round increased), Sprit Link, Refresh (recovers MP over time for an allied unit), Hardened Skin.

Version 2.0 New Heroes

Ranger
The ranger specializes in doing massive damage from a distance. Though rather fragile, she can deal a lot of damage with her abilities.
Special: Fire Net. The Ranger can fire an arrow with a net attached which pins an enemy down for a short period (ala Ensnare).
Take Aim: The Ranger concentrates on hitting vital areas of an enemy, increasing her attack damage but greatly increasing the amount of damage she takes.
True Strike: The Ranger becomes more adept with her bow, doing additional damage with every strike (Passive).
Green Arrow: The Ranger uses her knowledge of magic to enchant an arrow with the spirit of a treant. Any enemy that dies while being shot by a green arrow will spawn a treant to fight for the Ranger.
Rapid Shot: The Rangers attack speed becomes blazingly fast, allowing her to fire an incredibly volley of arrows for a short time.
Status: Complete, Needs Further Balancing

Geo Mage
The Geo Mage is a versatile hero who can manipulate the earth to her will. She uses this mastery to her advantage on the battlefield.
Special: Boulder Storm The Geo Mage causes stones to fall from the sky, stunning enemies.
Entangle: The Geo Mage calls forth roots from the ground to completely stop the movement of enemies in a large area.
Create Golem: The Geo Mage creates a Golem from the earth to fight with her.
Alluvium Wave: The Geo Mage manipulates the earth in an outward wave, pushing enemies in an area backwards and slowing their movement speed for a duration.
Arena Tremors: The Geo Mage concentrates all of her energy into creating an arena wide earthquake that slows the movement of and damages all enemy ground units in the arena.
Status: Complete

Weather Mage
The Weather Mage is a damage dealing hero that specializes in annihilating a single enemy with her spells.
Special: Healing Rain The Weather Mage summons a storm that drops healing rain on the entire party. (Note: May be changed)
Ice Burst: The Weather Mage fires a blast of icy air that deals damage to an enemy target and slows the movement of units around him.
Lightning Bolt: The Weather Mage fires a bolt of lightning from her fingertips at target enemy to do massive damage.
Winds of Death: The Weather Mage uses a subtle wind attack to damage a large number of enemies.
Deadly Storm: The Weather Mage deals an almost unimaginable amount of damage to all units in a small area for a period of time, striking them with devastating lightning bolts.
Status: Complete

Puppeteer
The Puppeteer is a unique and odd hero who creates copies of enemy units and then manipulates them to his will.
Special: Control Puppet, Create Puppet The Puppeteer channels his energy into controlling puppets to do his will.
Binding: Increases Puppet HP and HP Regen and allows the puppeteer to bind an enemy unit.
Increase Puppet Stats: The Puppeteer is able to create more powerful puppets.
Increase Puppet Abilities: The Puppeteers puppets gain a variety of useful abilities (Stun, Taunt, Puppet Switch, Locust Swarm).
Puppet Time Bomb: The Puppeteers gain the ability to self-destruct, dealing a large amount of damage to enemies in the area.
Status: Complete

Monk
The Monk is a master of his own body. He has spent years honing it to it's current strength.
Special: Purity of Body The Monk has a very high HP regen rate.
Awesome Presence: All non-hero enemy units around the Monk are reduced to a state of awe just by being near him. This periodically stuns them for a short time.
Iron Skin: The Monk focuses his energy into his skin, providing complete invulnerability for an extended period of time.
Energy Transfer: The Monk transforms his body into pure energy, allowing him to teleport a short distance and to damage all enemy units in his path.
Soul Split: The Monk spreads his energy equally among a number of clones. The clones deal 100% damage and take no additional damage.
Status: Complete

War General
The War General is an experienced fighter whose abilities focus on increasing the effectiveness of his allies and disheartening enemy troops.
Special: Defensive Stance The War General enters a more defensive pose, slowing movement and attack speed but increasing armor by 10.
Aid of Fallen Allies: The general calls for the aid of priests that have helped him through countless battles.
Battle Cry: The War General shouts a battle cry, motivating all nearby troops and increasing their attack speed, attack damage, and movement rate.
Intimidating Shout: The War General roars fearlessly, intimidating nearby enemy units and causing them to lost attack damage, attack speed, and gives them a chance to completely miss attacks.
Inspire Crowd: The War General looks to the crowd for assistance, and they show their support by tossing rocks into the arena at the enemies of the General.
Status: Complete

Crafty Peon
The Crafty Peon is an unusual hero in that he doesn't do a lot of the damage himself, but rather builds towers to defend key areas or to help the team.
Special: Create Tower: Allows the Peon to create a tower that can be upgraded.
Offensive Towers: Grants the hero access to a number of upgrades into offensive towers.
Defensive Towers: Grants the hero access to a number of upgrades into defensive towers.
Improved Craftmanship: All towers created have additional HP and do additional damage.
Fortify Fountain The Peon gains the ability to fortify the area around the fountain in the center of the arena with a large defensive structure. Limits enemy access to the fountain and comes with built in towers.
Status: In Development

Soul Collector
The Soul Collector is a melee hero who gains energy from the souls of fallen enemies. Every enemy that dies spawns a soul which, if he collects it, gives him additional HP and mana.
Special: Soul Absorption The Soul Collector gains additional HP / Mana whenever he is able to absorb an enemy soul.
Rampant Fury: The Soul Collector entersa rage where every attack deals a large amount of extra damage. Fury drains mana.
Insatiable Rage: Every attack made by the soul collector stuns an enemy unit. Stunning Attacks drains the mana of the Soul Collector.
Soul Release: Enables the soul collector to store more souls, and to expend these souls as additional damage.
Soul Explosion: Souls pour out from the Soul Collector, draining HP and Mana from nearby enemy units and returning them to the Soul Collector.
Status: Complete


Dwarven Strike Team
The Dwarven Strike team is a very long range hero that works as a group. They specialize in setting traps for enemy units.
Special: Strike Team Revenge! The Strike Team always dies is a fiery explosion, doing damage to all nearby units.
Remote C4: The Strike Team plants a bomb anywhere in the arena, and can detonate it at their will.
Exploding Dummy: The Strike Team plants a dummy unit that explodes when attacked.
Boxing Trap: The strike team plants an invisible ward that, when approached, creates a temporary wall around all units in an area, separating them from the rest of the arena.
Air Strike: The strike team calls an air strike on the arena, doing a large amount of damage to every enemy unit in the arena.
Status: In Development

Blessed Hero
The Blessed Hero is a midieval hero best known for slaying the monster Grendel.
Special: Grendel Slayer Gives the Blessed Hero a chance to do major damage with every attack.
Stunning Fists: Grants a chance for the Blessed Hero to hit an enemy with such force that he is temporarily stunned.
Divinity of the Gods: Increases all Stats of the Blessed Hero.
Barbaric Yop: The Blessed Hero roars, frightening all enemy units and rendering them incapable of movement for a short duration.
Godly Strength: Permanently raises the strength of the Blessed Hero.
Status: 90% Complete, Balancing

Some other notes
1.0 released on 8/15/2004. If you give it a try let me know if you like it, and even though I'm so close to completion I am still very open to suggestions. If you read this whole post, I hope you enjoyed the day spent reading it.

My map is lonely. Here's a newer version, so all the thousands of people that downloaded version G, you might want to upgrade.

This version is basically complete, I just need to run through the map and fix a bunch of tooltips.

Give it a try! Give me feedback! Tell me you hate it and tell me why! Tell me you love it and tell me the one thing it's missing!

-Aaero

I played it in Single Player... it was interesting but... too easy, even though I played on easy. In 2 rounds I lost 1 hero, I never lost a hero in any other round. (Including the last round)

The version is okay I guess... but I have some things to say.
-The Terrain is DULL!!! Really, really, REALLY bad. Normally it doesn't bother me too much, but this is just plain bad, or rather, worse.
-Items are a bit expensive
-When you said the people would throw gold at you I expected an animation, but you just received gold... pretty dull.
-You can blink away out of the Arena, indeed, Footman come to attack you, but they are easily disposed of.
-The heroes I played with cannot really be considerd "balanced", the Paladin's heal was enough to settle the entire game with, because of his Storm Bolt and Avatar he could become too strong for your own good. The Babarian had the same sort of thing, though the Shadow Hunter was nearly killed every battle, I had to keep focusing my healings on him all the time. The Priestess of the Moon was the other hero I had to focus my heal on, she died 2 times in my experience. She isn't worth taking just for the Starfall.
-Ultimates are not too good. They are fine to have, but have too little effect to depend on, I do admit that Avatar and Big Bad Voodoo, saved my heroes once, but still.

Come to think of it, I remember finishing a round with just my Paladin... that was the Demon Round, with Fell Hounds and Doom Guards all around. That was surely the hardest round, but then again, I didn't found out where I could buy items yet.

Thanks for taking the time to play :)

Sorry it was just "ok" to you, though. Not every map is for everyone, I suppose. The game is in it's current state after literally hundreds of games testing it and balancing it online, so I'm not really in a position where I want to make any major changes anymore. That's not too say I'm not open to suggestions, it's more to say I don't feel there is any major balance problem between the heroes. While both the Paladin and the Barbarian can stay alive through almost anything, both have almost no damage dealing capability, and are pretty much incapable of winning a round on their own. In the in-game comments describing each hero, they are both noted to be "Easy" to play due to the fact that they are fairly simple, even for a newer player, to control. The priestess and Shadow Hunter, on the other hand, are both a little more difficult to play, though for different reasons. To be effective with the priestess requires a lot of micromanagement due to the large amount of units she gets, and the Shadow Hunter is a more fragile utility hero.

Congratulations on the victory in Easy, I honestly lose on that difficulty when playing online sometimes. If you give it a go on Normal, the shops are on the bottom of the map - you can see them in your minimap ;)

-Aaero

Ah thanks for the tip. I wanted to play it on B.net but I can't host anything, that's why I played in Single player.

As for the Babarian and the Paladin, they do enough damage for me. They can easily win a round by their own.

No problem, but I bet you already knew. I was just giving you a hard time :).

It's too bad you can't host it on battle.net. It really is fun to have the teamwork aspect going. If you'd like, send me a PM and I'll host a game for you. Maybe I'll convince you it's more balanced than you think...or maybe you can convince me that it might need a little more balancing. I generally play on USWest, but I can play on USEast too.

Oh well, I have no real need to play it online anytime soon. I am rather busy lately anyway. Thank you anyway. Anyway, the balancing overall was 'ok' though the Turtle Wave was too easy as the Undead wave too hard. Or I'm either too good or too bad while controlling 6 heroes.

Well, thank you for both your comments and the time you took to play the game! In my own defense on round balancing, sometimes things can be easier when you get to control all the heroes, because they always stick together and focus firing is easier. That would come in especially handy on that turtle round (it's difficult to convey how hard it is to get 6 different people to attack the same monster).

Any more feedback is welcome as well, and I'll also do my best to host it for anyone that wants to send me a PM!

Sometimes it is indeed easier to be alone, but I am pretty good with teams in such games. Usually I'm the healer too ;) I'm pretty good in defending.
You're right how hard it could be to say that they all have to attack the 'certain' monster but usually I think of something. Or I just go with the flow.

Ah you are one of the rare and cherished, the people that like to be a healer. If you are interested and ever get a chance to play online, I'd highly recommend you give the support mage a try. He can keep you pretty darn busy (though he's pretty fragile until he gets hardened skin, which he can't get til lvl 6 :\).

Is being a healer so special then? I just like defending, supporting people and healing them. I never knew there was something special about it.
Anyway, I'll surely try the Support Mage, I just read through his spells, sounds promising enough ;)

Well, I wouldn't say that it's special to like being a healer, but I'd say it's rare to find people that like to take that role, and it's usually also very helpful for the team.

Note that we are replacing Banish with a "Wind Tunnel" like ability that allows him to clear out an area and stun a group of mobs. It pushes them back and stuns them for a short while (people get trapped fairly often, it's to help with that situation).

Well, I think being a healer is just a matter of if you like or not. And I like it ;)

Very well, I'll remember that ability ;)

But anyway, you're tired, it is late, you should go to sleep, and I suggest you go to bed now, otherwise I'll come personally over to kick you to your bed!

Things are pretty much in line for the 8-15 release date. I was able to get enough testers that we could effectively test hard, which is very difficult, just like we want it to be. I'm going to wait on posting an updated version until the final version, nothing of major importance has changed since version L, just some bug fixes and item cost tweaks.

Thanks again to Fladian for taking the time to try out the game and give it a few comments, though we ended up buffing the Paladin (in both damage and Ultimate) and giving a nerf/buff to the Witch Doctor which wasn't really in line with your comments but was in line with what our testing showed us about each of the heroes. Nevertheless I appreciated your thoughts and actually have plains to seek out a terrainer for the next version.

Wish me luck on a successful release!

-Aaero

August 31 Status Update for all the adoring fans: The game 1.0 has been successfully released, and a new version is already in the works. I will post up a version as soon as I have something that is ready for public use, but I've been spending quite a while developing new heroes, and those need to be somewhat worked out before the game can be fun. I'll be making (and have made) other changes besides just the addition of heroes, like a few additional rounds, the ability to instantiate kick votes, and some cinematic footage to spice up the game a little.

In addition, if someone has had the chance to play this game a bit and has an idea for a new hero, voice it here. I'm open to ideas, though I'm hoping to get a hero that's not too off the wall. Between the Puppeteer, the Dwarven Strike Team, and the Crafty Peon I think there are enough off the wall heroes in this new release. I'm considering some kind of medic hero, or at least a hero with the ability to completely restore the health of an allied unit. Other than that, I just haven't thought of anything.