Ebb and Flow BETA 2.0

[CURRENT VERSION: BETA 3.0]

This is an AoS style map, but it's 2v2v2v2. The four races fight against each other (unless they ally), and each has side has seven unique heroes to choose from. There are 4 secret heroes in place. Each hero starts with five level 1 items, and throughout the course of the game players can upgrade their items to level 5. Each hero has three 5 level abilities, one 3 level ultimate, and a helper ability to compliment their playing style.

I am really hoping someone, anyone will download this map, try it out, and post here. Please?

Here's what's in so far:

- Statues that increase every troop spawn
- Four tech buildings that improve base defenses and unlock new units
- Item upgrading system at the Blacksmith or equivalent (5 items per hero)
- Capturable creep camps
- Alliances
- Statues at the creep camps
- All 6th slot consumable items, like scrolls of town portal, speed potions, wands, summoning items, and area-of-effect scrolls.

Here's what will be in before I'm through:

- Two or three diverse mercenaries at every building.
- More terrain.
- Six more hidden heroes.
- Some teleporting system (waiting on the terrain).
- Color coding the game's text messages to make them easier to read.

Here's what kind of feedback I'm looking for:

- SIMPLE suggestions on how to improve gameplay
- Balance issues
- CONSTRUCTIVE criticism
- BUGS AND ERRORS AND TYPOS!!

You can also reach me at [email protected].

Thanks for reading this, and if you try it out, thanks for that too!

- MightyScourge

Here is a Loading Screen that will be added in later versions.

The Loading Bar will cover up Ebb And Flow

We've tested it - The loading bar will fit right above the title. I'm thinking of putting the names of helpful testers on the sides.

Sup man, well I most certaintly tried to play it with you, but when we actually started I was dropped. But dont worry about it, its a bug with war3x and osX, I can fix it but it requires me to boot in a different OS, send me a pm if you want to play the map on bnet some time :)

looks good keep up the good work man

That loading screen kicks big booty! I'm gonna go test it out now.




Update:

Okay, I just played for like.. an hour.. in single player. So my first gripe is going to be that the game takes way too long--I only killed one base.

I also didn't buy any town improvements, though they look interested. I especially like that their on a per-spawn basis. So obviously, I spent all my money on upgrading my equipment. It's a nice concept, but I think it costs too much. I think everything costs too much. Also, I'd recommend avoiding dialog boxes whenever possible... using the UI and the 4x3 icon grid is much nicer. I noticed the stat bonuses were applied directly to the hero instead of after the plus sign... that seemed odd too. If there was no stat bonus ability, it wouldn't seem so obvious. But since there is, it was definitely odd to look at.

The size of the map is too big.. I'd recommend cutting it in half. Especially since body armor only serves to slow you down and even the lady on the tiger wasn't too fast to begin with, it just takes entirely too long to traverse the length of the map.

And the spawn timers need adjustments. The center spawns are decent, but the end spawns have an entirely too long waiting period between waves. I would recommend having them spawn twice as often as the center ones, but then their upgrades would be twice as effective. Maybe a good solution would be to have one center barracks that's twice as powerful and spawns twice as much instead of two that each require their own upgrades.

Also some more thought could probably be applied to the heros. I only used the tiger lady for the night elfs--but she seemed really out-of-whack. All of her abilities consume mana (and a good bit at that), but yet intelligence is her lowest attribute.

Prior to killing the Human Castle, I didn't seem to be able to gain life/mana from their Fountain of Restoration--but afterwards, I definitely could. If that is how it works, then that's fine. But if you can always gain life/mana from the enemy's fountain then that should be adjusted.

Enemy blacksmiths also upgrade your equipment for you--that's not very nice to their hometown. Maybe after the castle is destroyed, they could become free-lance blacksmiths and provide upgrades for everyone. But while they're a member of a nation, they should only support that nation.

You can also upgrade/buy units and stuff for the enemy--that's certainly not right.

Once I did destroy the Human Castle, it said they were defeated, but all of their town stayed intact. At the least, the towers shouldn't be able to attack anymore.

Since this is a 4-team AOS game and killing off one team doesn't end the game, there should be something for a defeated team to still do afterwards. Maybe there is, I only played solo, but I figure this is an area that wouldn't receive much thought. So I came up with the idea that the defeated players could get "ghost mercenary" heros. They'd start back at level 1 and not be able to do any damage through attacking or abilities, but they'd be able to use abilities that effect other aspects of game play (ie. a 0 damage quake used to slow units, sleeping spells, polymorph spells, etc). All abilities would be fairly potent (short cooldowns, long range, big AoE) and get significantly stronger with each level; however, their only way to gain experience is by being hired. So initially, they're free-lance--they can roam about the game causing havoc and generally hindering the other players (moreso the spawns then the heros). But if they want to get stronger, they need to agree to work for someone for some set amount of time and get paid some set amount of money for doing so. This would 'cause all of their abilities to only affect the enemies of that player and allow them to gain experience and have more fun with stronger abilities and new abilities.

The computer players do nothing with their money. The income that each hero receives is decent, but it would make more sense (and be more effective) if instead of that, each town would periodically split its money with its heros. Not only would this likely result in more gold (which is really hard to attain currently, especially with everything costing so much) but make spawn upgrades more effective. The more the town kills, the more you get. Also, when they "steal" your kills, it wouldn't hurt so much since you'd still be getting a portion of that money sent back to ya.



Okay, that's enough ranting for this version. As for raves, the concept of the game is great. Trust me, I wouldn't put so much effort into writing all this if I didn't think the game showed promise. But remember, most people would rather repeatedly play an awesome fast-paced game then one that takes hours to finish--especially considering how often people on b.net quit and drop out of games. I'll be looking forward to the next release ^_^ Keep up the good work!

Two heroes working together (each team gets 2 players) are a lot more potent than two heroes working separately. If you played it online and used teamwork, it would be much easier to destroy a base.


Try it next time. Item upgrades aren't supposed to be the focus of the game. If you want to boost your hero, the option is there, but by upgrading and reinforcing your town and armies, you'll be able to capture a town a lot faster.


Awww... I like the dialog boxes! I use the UI for everything else...


Yeah... whatcha gonna do. The game by default limits items to four abilities each, and since some of your starting items do more than that, I used triggers to apply them. I also used triggers to apply most bonuses that can go negative. As it is now, you can easily tell what level of attribute bonus an enemy hero has by looking at the green numbers by their stats, and you can see exactly how much certain abilities modify them without doing much math. I like that.


Not gonna happen :-(. I have big plans for the terrain in the middle, and I plan to add waygates for teleporting. There are scrolls of town portal available, too.


This goes away as players increase the strength of their armies, and thus increase the length of the battles. It's designed to allow the troops that win a battle ample opportunity to beat up on the enemy's towers before the next wave begins.


I have spent a LOT of thought on the heroes. Really. Some heroes are better for army killing, some are better for hero vs hero combat, and some are skilled at sieging. It's up to you to choose and use your abilities, but if you put points into silence, roar, searing arrows, AND starfall without upping your attribute bonus or helm, or buying mana potions, then yeah, you will tire quickly.


Intended.


I agree wholeheartedly. I haven't figured out yet how to limit shop sharing to allies. I hope I do.


Yes. You are right. I will change that. Good thinking.


Um, lose? I haven't added the defeat triggers yet, so they can still watch, but I'm reluctant to add even more features because I've spent 5 months on this map already. I'll think about it, though.


You get free money. 3 gold per second. Story-wise it comes from computer kills, and the rest goes to paying for the troops that spawn. I am planning to remove the gold every few seconds so players don't have to stare at the tens of thousands of gold piling up in the computers' banks.


Thank you. I really recommend playing this map with other people, because it is meant to be a team map. Against other teams. You know. With other players. ^_^ .

I have been without internet for the past 2 weeks, but when I get it again I'll upload the newest version of this map, which will include almost 50 new charged, disposable items for the heroes' 6th item slot.

I've been thinking about how to handle the item upgrades. My first thought was to make them pawnable, but not droppable. Unfortunately, you can't click an item in order to pawn it when it's set to not be droppable.

So...

Another idea would be to make them pawnable and droppable. If a hero drops the item (either onto the ground or into someone else's inventory) then give it back to them.. you could even try to fake an error message saying that it can't be dropped.

But if they pawn it off to the blacksmith, then you're now given more control over how to go about upgrading it.

- If they're not allies of the blacksmith, then he can refuse service.

- If they can't afford the upgrade or if it's already fully upgraded then it can be returned to them with an appropriate message from the blacksmith.

- If they can afford the upgrade then it can be upgraded. Furthermore you can have the option to actually simulate the upgrade experience (ie. upgrades could cost not only gold but time as well--and the blacksmith may only be able to work on one person's thing at a time). While it is being upgraded, a placeholder item can be put in it's place so that another item doesn't take the slot. This would also help offset the large gold costs of item upgrades by taking out some of the cost for the time spent upgrading as well as for the time that the hero must battle without the item.

I have finished version 3.0, which changes a couple hero skills, and more notably includes the rest of the disposable items. I've updated the post & attachment at the top of this thread.

I'm happy with the item system right now, except for the blacksmith sharing to enemies. It's like a text readout of all of your items, only on buttons; Practically everyone else has liked it. I don't want to spend any more time on the upgrading items because they are just one of around 10 features that players should focus on (and I haven't finished all of the others yet).

Additionally, if you want to play with the 4 secret heroes I've made so far, type these messages in during hero selection, before you choose your hero:

Human: But why is the rum gone?
Orc: Kaboom!
Night Elf: I bring pandamoneum
Undead: We don't take hints