Hall of Heroes [pending title]

Hi, I read this forum once in a while for trigger help and to see what's been going on. I've never made an account until today, because I've decided to post about a map concept that I've been working on.

I've attempted a few RPG Campaigns in both SC and WC3, but I've never completed any of them. I don't really want to develop a big team and I know I'm incapable of making good cinematics and a lot of beautiful terrain. But the parts of the campaigns I did like doing was making boss and hero concepts, spells, and systems... and after stopping production on the last RPG campaign idea I had in mind, I've decided to move some of the hero and boss concepts that I was using/going to use, and make a different kind of map with them.

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Here's the concept of the map... and I'm not sure if anyone has done anything like this. Think... the SC map Smash TV, combined with WC3 RPG style gameplay, combined with Megaman. It will be a 4 player map with (so far) 8 heroes to choose from. The gameplay will go like this:

Players will choose their hero, and they will be teleported to "town," which will have ugprades, item shops, etc. There will be a special "ready" area in town, where players will go when they're done with town stuff. When all players go to the "ready" area, they will be teleported to the next part: the selection screen.

Remember the boss selection screen from Megaman? This is what the selection screen will be like. There will be beacons in the room for the "leader" to choose from, each with a preview of the map (haven't decided... floating text with description, units, or boss). The leader chooses a certain stage, and all players will be teleported to the fighting part of the game: the stage/level.

Each stage will be a short section where players will complete different objectives, usually involving killing enemy creeps and units. The stages will have different "campaign/RPG-style" objectives, such as protecting a VIP, defending a town, moving from point A to point B, killing off monsters in an arena, exploring a cave, or entering a village being hit by a demonic attack. The stages will be short and straight forward, and as heroes gain levels, the difficulty will elevate.

After the stage is complete, there will be a scripted, difficult boss battle. These boss battles will be the core of the game. When the players defeat the boss, they will be teleported back to town and then they can choose the next stage.

That was a little difficult to explain. Hopefully I didn't cause too much confusion...

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Heroes are built with role and gameplay concepts in mind. I will try to make each hero have a certain, more specific role, rather than just being either a caster or a fighter with spells thrown on them. Skills will be based on the attributes of the hero, among other factors. Some heroes will work off different kinds of systems. Here's an example:

One of the heroes in the map is the Heraldic Fencer. He is a (hopefully) versatile fighter hero that, with certain builds can either take damage or deal lots of AoE spell damage. He will also work with an "Orb" system, that is similar to WoW's Soul Shard system for Warlocks and D2's Assassin combo system. It will be similar to WoW in the sense that when a unit is killed while he is using a certain drain spell on it, he will gain an orb. He can also slowly build orbs by damaging and killing enemy units. These orbs are not required for casting spells, but instead add various effects to the spells he casts.

For example, "Call Lightning" is a powerful spell that deals damage to a target. With 1 orb, the target will suffer reduced armor for a duration as well as the damage taken. With 2 orbs, the lightning bolt will also cause an impact that will deal minor damage in the area and slow the units around it. With 3 orbs, Call Lightning will have all the aforementioned effects, and the next one that the fencer casts will deal 20% bonus damage as well as restore 75% of the mana used to cast it.


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The different heroes will use different systems each to power/use their skills, making each hero a very different experience to play. The map will try to encourage players to work as a team to defeat the bosses and stages. Players will gain bonuses (tomes maybe?) for accomplishing secondary objectives in the stages they play.

The map is still in its very early stages, and I'm still working on making the heroes. Any similarities to the systems I mentioned and the concept of the map to other people's ideas are mostly coincidential. If someone has a question or comment about the map, leave one here or e-mail me at [email protected]. Thanks!

Ooo, very nice idea!

Can we see this one come out this time? Most don't make it through the beta stage.

Ya! I agree with IgnitedStar. I'm always up for a little civillizations.

Neat, most open RPGs out there are pretty dull, a mission-oriented action packed map might be the right answer for that. The promise of interesting hero spell mechanics, as well as special boss challenges are things to look forward to.

And I'm sure you can do nice terrain too, it's not hard. ;)

Agreed.
Finish this, please.