Spell Making Session 4 Voting

Here's the entries for the 4th spell making session - Awesome as usual.


(Spell making session 4 thread)

Please post a top 3 list of which spells you like most, and why you like them most. Even though the session has a poll, the poll won't decide the winner, if nobody posts good reasons. Reasons means more than the poll.

Last day to vote and post reasons is sunday the 4th of june.

Good luck, everybody!

Here's how I feel the standings should pan out.
I scaled the top three out of 50 points each, 5 points for each of 10 categories. You can see how they worked out below.
I allowed for a 6/5 to be possible if I was absolutely stunned by how amazing a specific part was.

• Creativity:
• (How creative was it? New idea? Done before?)
• Execution:
• (How well it was done)
• Smoothness:
• (Does it flow well running in game?)
• Efficiency:
• (How leakless and well-made is the code itself?)
• Cool Factor:
• (How cool was the spell overall?)
• Customability:
• (How much can you change about it to do what you want?)
• Usability:
• (How usable in different map-types is it?)
• Theme Attuned:
• (How much terrain manipulation was there really?)
• Eye Candy:
• (How flashy and "wow" was it?)
• Other:
• (Extra things, like JESP compatible, cool models, etc.)

#1: Vuen

• Creativity: 3/5
• Execution: 5/5
• Smoothness: 5/5
• Efficiency: 5/5
• Cool Factor: 5/5
• Customability: 5/5
• Usability: 6/5
• Theme Attuned: 5/5
• Eye Candy: 4/5
• Other: 3/5
• TOTAL: 46/50

I feel Vuen took the cake with this one to be honest.
In a terrain theme contest, he took what most would consider a very simple spell idea and structured it in such a way to shred the competition. I also find it is likely the single MOST useful spell submitted in this competition for any type of map.

I could see that wall in an AoS, a TD, a survival, anything.
It fits in everything, looks great, is expertly coded, easy to customize, and it was also one of the spells in the contest that manipulated the terrain the most. Since terrain manipulation was the theme, I felt that how MUCH a spell manipulates terrain was a big factor in how I rated each.

Vuen, I commend you, this spell truly is magnificent in all regards.

#2: PitzerMike

• Creativity: 6/5
• Execution: 4/5
• Smoothness: 4/5
• Efficiency: 5/5
• Cool Factor: 6/5
• Customability: 5/5
• Usability: 1/5
• Theme Attuned: 2/5
• Eye Candy: 5/5
• Other: 5/5
• TOTAL: 43/50

This was a very solid entry, and a very fun and entertaining skill to play with.
I felt the code was solid, well done, and explained perfectly. The spell was also incredibly creative, I don't think anyone else could have thought up such a creative spell.
If I were voting purely on the creativity, this would easily win.

However, there are more aspects to a spell's quality than simply how well it's made and how creative it is. This spell falls short in one very important quality; it is limited in the maps that could use it.

Granted, a disco map would explode with glee for this spell, you don't see many of them out there.
Not to mention, disco heros aren't big in AoS maps... I actually have never seen a disco theme for any map ever in my time.

Also, I wasn't sure if it was me or what, but when I would cast the spell multiple times over short intervals, I would finish casting but the spell would still linger on for nearly 10 seconds. It was an odd phenomena that I really didn't pay much care to, I was really spamming the spell. I only docked 1 point for it anyways, so it's cool. :P

All in all, I really liked this spell's idea.
It's execution was awesome as well, keeping to the theme and with lots of cool stuff. Good imports fit the spell as well, complementing the already very creative spell.
Therefore I dub this spell my second favorite spell of the contest.

#3: Tim.

• Creativity: 3/5
• Execution: 5/5
• Smoothness: 5/5
• Efficiency: 5/5
• Cool Factor: 2/5
• Customability: 5/5
• Usability: 4/5
• Theme Attuned: 3/5
• Eye Candy: 5/5
• Other: 5/5
• TOTAL: 42/50

It was close between second and third to be fair.
I really liked this spell, but it seemed... Hmm.. How to say this.

It felt like it was sort of dull in a way.
Granted it was an incredibly well made and flashy spell, the imported hand model was really what made it awesome. If it didn't have that, it would have been an impale with a tossup stun.
When you boil it down that far, doesn't sound quite as impressive. (Not to undermine the coolness or challenge the spell must have been to make)

Anyways, it also didn't really manipulate the terrain a lot.
Just saying it's a sandy spell doesn't mean much, and when looking at it, there was a customizable terrain deformation that tossed units up where the hand hit. Cool effect, but I feel more could have been done to add more terrain manipulation into it.

Anyways, excellent skill, totally deserving of my third place.
______________________________________________
And that's that.
Those are how I rated the top 3 spells according to me.

i dont use scores to vote, but instead i just vote from how the spell is run and how the code looks like.

1st Pitzer, Simply great. Very Creative, the terrain remains the same even after the spell is done. The disko effects were cool andawesome. ALso, this spell could be used in many maps, like AoS maps for instance. (there arent many disko heros out there cause no one have thought of them yet.)

2nd Vuen, Nice coding and options. However, just a little too simple for an idea. (I mean it was good, but compared to Tim's and Pitzers, the idea was a little too simple) However, whet really made this entry my 2nd place was its great execution and the availability of tons of options. I liked espcially thre visibility one.

3rd Tim, This spell is reat in many ways, though the code was longer and it took awhile for me to understand it. The most impressive was the hand model. However, i still do not really like the idea of pausing a hero and animation spells are kind of difficult to put into use in maps. However, it is still great in my opinion.

These are my choices and reasons why

Number 1
The rising blighted mountain by Vuen

• Creativity
• Very creative in my opinion
• Execution: 4/5
• good execution however the unit used did throw it off for me
• Smoothness: 3/5
• Seemed to sharp and unnatural in my opinion
• Leakless : 5/5
• Very well run
• Coolness: 5/5
• Definetly Cool, No doubt about it.
• Customabillity 4/5
  I looks like it there is a lot that can be done with this
• Usabillity 4/5
  Can be used in many ways
• Theme Attached 2/5
  I don't see it being attached to, to many themes
• Eye candy 4/5
  caught my eye immediately
• Other 4/5
  I found this spell to be extremly appeasing to the eyes and its effect. I can definetly be used over and over although I do not think that the jaina model was a good choice for a spell this massive I think something like Mannorath or Achimonde would be a better choic.
  Total 35/50
  

Number 2
Freakazoid

Creativity 4/5
Execution 4/5
Leakless 3/5
smoothness 2/5
coolness 3/5
customabillity 4/5
usabillity 3/5
Theme attached 5/5
Eyecandy 2/5
Total 30/50

although this Abillity can be useful I found it somewhat sharp and none smooth. Although the Unit was correct for the abillity, the abillity was offset and seemed not entirely worth while. It can be expanded upon although and will work properly in the right tileset and a couple of coding issues will ensure it working properly.

Number 3
Tim.
Creativity 4/5
Execution 3/5
Leakless 3/5
smoothness 4/5
coolness 2/5
customabillity 1/5
usabillity 4/5
Theme attached 3/5
Eyecandy 1/5
Total 23/50

This was a nice abillity although the execution seemed a little blank to me. To me this will not work for most ideas and terrain so I think this abillity to be very limited. I also think that this abillity does not have enough eyecandy to pull a person to it.


In my personal feeling Most of these abillities were not to bad but I did not think them to be worthy of a 40 or over, Because although some of them were very appeasing I did not find them to be that great in my personal opinions.

Def like how Tim has 2 votes and Pitzer 2, when they have 0 explanations and Vuen has 1 vote that isn't charted on the poll. Imbar.

Thats what i was thinking.
Normal members arnt allowed to use the poll (well im not anyway) so this is odd

EDIT: Its changed now, it lets me submit a poll, i dont want to yet though, i need more time to think, these truely are great spells

The poll should work without flaw, please let me know if it is not allowing you to vote.

Sorry, it was my problem, my antispyware deleted my cookies, so i wasent automaticly logged in on wc3c.
So i persumed i was and the poll dident let me vote (only because i wasent logged in though)

My mistake.

Oh yes, I'm well aware a disco spell won't fit in many maps.
On the other hand it takes only a few modifications in the configuration section of the spell to replace the discoball model, aura model, disco music and dancefloor texture with something else.
You'd get a completely different looking spell.
But for the contest i found the disco theme very funny :)

Good work everyone. Here are my votes and thoughts on the various spells:


1. Boil, by Naakaloh

This is my favorite spell in this contest, and one that I feel is very underestimated. I'd love to see this spell in an RPG. It would make the characters feel a lot more themed, and would help create a lot of character dynamic; characters with, say, Force of Nature would rather fight in the forests, whereas characters with Boil would rather fight in the swamps. Very fun, very original. I love it, and I think its demo map really didn't do it justice. I'm very much considering implementing this spell in my D&D RPG (even more so than my own wall spell which may not work so well for a DM-type situation).

My only complaint is how the ground adjacent to the water is also deformed. Perhaps the spell could be modified to only deform water that does not have any land adjacent to it.



2. Disco Inferno, by PitzerMike

So much fun. I love casting this spell. Very original effect, very good looking. I like how the spell can be interrupted, leaving the dancers unscathed.

My main complaint is about how useable it would be. It doesn't really fit into the theme of many more serious maps. It would however be extremely cool on a Jester or Bard type of character in an RPG. More serious implementations are surely possible if you entirely revamp the effects, but no such ideas come to mind. It also looks like a pain to implement; 7 abilities and 2 buffs is quite a bit.



3. Chill of the Earth, by Rising_Dusk

I really like this spell. I really liked the originality of the spell. The terrain changes work very well, nicely MUI and bug-free as far as I could tell, and fairly easy to configure and install (although the "The Functions" trigger doesn't seem standardized and doesn't use "cote" tags.)

The problem is that, as it is, it doesn't seem to be all that useful. For starters units aren't given orders very often; once they decide to attack you and don't slide, they can simply follow you all over without the spell actually doing anything. Perhaps it would be better on a simple timer; for example every second each unit has a 5% chance of sliding.

But more importantly, when units slide away, they simply run right back; it's not very much of a detriment. Worse, when you're running away, they slide into you, so it actually helps them catch up!

I tried to think a lot on how to improve it, and I figured that it could be improved a lot if along with sliding, they fell over and were stunned. In SlideActions I divided the knockback speed and decrement by 4 to make it last longer, and added the following line:


This simple modification made units actually fall over and slide much slower, making the effect much cooler and more practical. Combined with a stun of a few seconds, this could greatly improve the aesthetics and usefulness of the spell.



I'd like to give an honorable mention to Tremor by Tim. for the wonderful stone hand, probably the best looking spell of the bunch. The thing about the spell is, you cast it once, it's great! You cast it twice, it's great! You cast it three times and... it's impale with AoE damage. This is the main reason I couldn't vote for it, because while very aesthetically pleasing, I didn't find it very original, and I found it added virtually no gameplay dynamic.

Perhaps the caster should remain vulnerable (or interruptable as in Disco Inferno), or the hand should be attackable/destroyable while moving slower, or the impale should seek buildings, or the caster should fade out and regenerate in the targeted area (making him put a lot of thought into where to cast it), or the caster should be able to manipulate the hand... *anything* to make it interesting beyond watching the cinematic effect. It looks wonderful and I really wanted to vote for it, but unfortunately it just didn't do it for me.

You've got lots of good points, Vuen.
I suppose I really would have done all of that before the contest had ended, but only two people commented on my spell and I wasn't going to start shoving it in people's faces for ideas.
I sort of figured people just didn't care for it enough. :P

Anyways, I'll go back and modify all of those.
Also, those functions in "The Functions" I'll change to add the 'cote_' tag. To be fair I hadn't even thought about adding the tag before.
Maybe the spells section place would have a use for it in any case.

In first place I put Vuen, cause his spell was damn cool. I really liked the concept and idea.

Then Tim. cause his was also damn cool.

And finally... hmmm.... Pitzermike for pure sex appeal.

To be perfectly honest I sort of forgot about your spell until the contest was over . I was really preoccupied with my own and didn't really look at the others much until the end. Sorry guys; I wish I would have looked at these more and given you this feedback in advance.

Hey, it happens.
I'll hop to the fixes tomorrow morning, been working on my map all night and I need a break for awhile.
Noone's gonna lose any sleep because a spell didn't get some comments.

Alright, time for my vote(the one that matters the most noubs).

1 - PitzerMike

This was, simply put, pure disco secks. It was just a really cool spell, the kind that when you see it elicits this sort of response "Damn, thats hawt". As Vuen said, not the most useable spell, but I don't really care about that, because in a map that doesn't take itself seriously this would be really cool to see.

2 - Vuen

Again, cool spell, I love denying movement to enemies, and this would be really cool for something like that. My biggest issue here was that it seemed to lag a bit for me, but that may just be my lameass computer.

3 - Tim.

A cool looking spell, but as has been said not the most implementable around. I had some issues with the code, like the whole different splatter based on race(as I said on MSN, GetAbilityEffectById works miracles, and EFFECT_TYPE_SPECIAL gets their Siege Death splatter effect.).

Oh, and reverse animations are always fun, and definately worked in this case.