(10) Wolf Packs

Here it is... The game spawned from my addiction XD
Actually, it was inspired by playing a very crappy wolf packs map over and over and over again... And then the maker released a new version, which fixed most of the crap and added new things.

But the friends I'd made while playing this map so many times insisted I make one myself; one thats better and mroe advanced than any other (all of like, 4)

FEATURES:
11 different wolves, 3 of which are secret.
-Alpha Male (COMPLETE)
-Alpha Female (COMPLETE)
-Fighter (COMPLETE)
-Pup (Last one being made)
-Werewolf (COMPLETE)
-Scout
-Caretaker
-Demon (COMPLETE)
(Secret Wolves)
-Ruler Wolf
-DragunWulf (3/5 COMPLETE)
-Radioactive

Real-to-life abilties. What this means is, you won't find a wolf with "Summon Fire Elemental" or "Divine Shield" as one of their abilities (Demon, Werewolf, DragunWulf and Radioactive don't apply). However, each wolf DOES have an elemental Ultimate, which varies from wolf to wolf.

Custom abilities. All the wolves have at least 2 abilities that are JASS-enhanced.

Balance, one thing that map didn't have. Hunters were easily capable of demolishing a wolf... And once you reached a certain level and got a few "secret" items, you couldn't be stopped by anything.

Proportion... Hunters were bigger than trees. Same for moose, deer, and sheep. In this, the units are relatively proportionate.

Fairness: Both sides recieve the same wolves to choose from, and there is one large forest to fight in, rather than 2 seperate sides divided by a river.

Terrain that looks like a forest, which means rivers, rocks, trees, animals, hills, etc. No bland, generic, snow and grass with some trees crap.

Random Events: Weather, village-events, etc. run rampant in this map. The longer the game, the more you'll see.

TEAM:
Me, and my "clan" on B.net, along with a few who have helped me here at wc3c.

PROGRESS:

GAMEPLAY:
Everyone chooses a wolf type by typing a command (-Alpha, -Alpha Female, etc.). The field is a large elaborate forest, with healing clearings, rivers, bear dens, a dragon's cave (which is where you get DragunWulf) and a Nuclear Waste Facility (odd i know, but it's where you get the Radioactive wolf). The object is to kill the other pack members, or take over their den(s). However, it's not as easy as it sounds. Your food (mana) is constantly decreasing over time, and casting spells saps it. You must kill deer, rabbits, and other foods to eat and survive. No food = Rapid health loss. Food is constantly reappearing, but if you kill it off too fast, you might end up foodless.
Every wolf has "lives", which vary from wolf to wolf. if it dies, one life is gone.

Any suggestions or things that could be added, I'd love to hear it.

After reading your post I still don't have any idea of the gameplay, is it like Orc and Elves were the Orc hunts the Elves? Maybe you should add a little information about that.

... Woops... I was rushing to finish the post so i fergot that info...Thanks for pointing that out, I'll add that now.

Ok fixed.

How many players per team (or wolves per pack, lol)?

Not sure if I like the "secret wolves" idea, or wolves being able to cast elemental spells. It might be best to keep it realistic. Should the wolves level up? Does it make sense that from killing other wolves / bears etc they get stronger? It could be you get stronger the longer you play without dying (aging), but if you havn't died and got a new pup for a looong time, you get too old and weaken. So you have to know how long to wait until making a siege on the enemy and dying purposely to start again... and if too many people do it, you won't have a very strong team (everyone is a pup, and pups would be weaker than old wolves).

What are the hunters? Are they just npcs that roam the forest hunting wolves? I think including humans in the map is a good idea, but perhaps there could be another way to go about it:

The terrain could be one half is forest/(mountainous?) area, and if you leave that and head down into the more open area, you enter a village.

If the enemy team has hunted out the food around your cave, you will have to leave the safety of the forest, and hunt in the village (for sheep / children? lol). If you are there during day, and you get too close to a hunters sheep, he will go get a gun and shoot at you. The only safe time to hunt their sheep would be at night. If you kill their children, they might hire people to protect their land, making it even more dangerous for you. After lots of children and sheep have been killed, they could even venture into the forest to get rid of their wolf problem, lol.

About the whole death thing:

Your wolf pack could control a few minor caves, and one main cave (further back than the others). Everyone starts in the main cave, which could have a pack leader type wolf protecting it. Inside the cave is a number of wolf pups (could depend on amount of people in the game). These pups will mature as you said (much slower than when a human player is controlling them), and become a random type of wolf (50% male, 50% female). When you die, you become one of these pups, and if your team has no pups left and you die, you are gone for good. This encourages your team to protect their base (other team could come and kill your pups), and stresses the importance of survival. It could be a fun idea, but I'm not sure how newb-friendly it would be (they could use up the entire teams pups lol).

Not sure about romulus & remus, but there could be things like that... like events that break up the gameplay, so it is more exciting.

1) An NPC wolf pack could invade the map and try and set up their own territory.
2) Could be some random weather things too: Eg. Eclipse (night for a long time, meaning its safe to go down into the village, without fear of dawn approaching and you getting caught), Rain (everyones slowed) etc.
3) Lost wolf cubs that you could get onto your side to provide more lives?

Just a few ideas, good luck with the map.

Thanks for reading, here's my comebacks XD

1
-1 wolf per player, more or less depending on how many are born or dies

2
-The secret wolves are just added bonuses, they're balanced and all, and there will be hints on retreiving them in the game.
-The elemental abilities are added for some spice, as 5 wolfish abilities for 11 wolves is a pain in the ass.
-The wolves level up like normal heroes, up to around, 16-20, not sure yet. Pups level to 5 before growing up.
-Aging is a good idea, but might be hard to implement correctly and realisticly. However, I could give it a shot.
-When you die from a wolf or non-wildlife (the radioactive slimes, the dragons... anything that you wouldn't normally find in a forest), your wolf kicks the real bucket, and you revive as a random pup (if there is one. This includes grown-up pups). If there are none... You must await for one's arrival.

3
-Hunters are NPC's who roam the forest searching for wolves to kill. Hunting dogs aid in this search. At night, they camp, with a fire, tent, etc.

4
-The main section is dense forest. There is a small village, a nuclear waste area, and a small rocky region.

5
-During the day in the village, people roam aimlessly. There are farmers with their sheep, etc. Should you enter town, anyone who sees you will flip out and try to kill you. Luckily, most are stupid and weak, and can be killed relatively easily. Even hunters can be killed pretty easy... But attacking them is risky, those guns are strong. Plus, they have a high evasion factor. (Damn camoflauge)
-At night, everyone is inside. If the dogs who are outside see you, the village is alerted, and people run outside to shoot you.
-I hadn't thought of killing children. Wonderful idea.

6
-The game starts with your pack controlling one large cave. As the game progresses, your alpha male can build new, smaller dens.
-Everyone in the game chooses a wolf type first thing. (after the signal of course, I'm going to list the types of wolves and then allow them to type the commands.) However, an alpha male and female (or caretaker, but that means no pups) are required before anything else.
-When pups are born, you choose what kind of wolf you want it to grow up to be. When you choose, it gains the 4 basic abilities of that wolf automatically, but they cannot be leveled up. Rather, the pup must grow to level 5, at which time it will grow. It cannot be:
Alpha male
Alpha female
Any of the 3 secret wolves.

7
-Romulus and Remus were raised by wolves. A friend of mine thought this would be a neat addition. However, they appear randomly. There are many events, including:
-Insane Lumberjack Party
-Village to Forest raids (the village attacks)
-Lightning Storms
-Hunter's Strike
-Nuclear Radiation Spread
-Sudden Pup Death Syndrome (only affects level 1 pups)
and more...

8
1). Great idea. I'll think about adding this.
2). Another great idea, will definatly be added.
3). Hmm... Perhaps... I'll consider this one.

Thanks again for your suggestions, and for reading. You deserve some rep.

For hunters, you could make their shots non guided perhaps (artillery or w/e), so if you are just running away they might miss you, but if you are fighting them, you would get hit every time. Are they there constantly or is it just a special event type thing?

About the radioactive wolf, I think it would be better if it wasn't gained from some code or w/e, have it more like a metamorphosis.

Ie. Creeps that are around the nuclear power plant / have been around it are tainted by the radioactivity. (they would be tinted slightly green or somethign to identify them). Every time you "radioactivity level" increases, and you don't gain any food. If you keep killing them, without going to regular creeps, you will die. When your radioactivity level gets to a certain amount, you could morph, and become radioactive, and gain another ability or w/e. Ability gained could depend on what type of wolf you were to begin with. It would be mainly for when one team is dominating the other, but they need to finish the game.. so they all get stronger. You couldn't do it unless you had lots of food supply or w/e.

There could also be things like bosses, which require teamwork, and a team of wolves in their prime to defeat, which would drop a powerful item.

Hunters are always there, but during the day they roam around.

...Wow, thats a neat way to achieve the radioactive wolf. However, how about instead, theres a chance for you to be tainted by radioactivity (this cannot be done through alpha male or female.) when a radioactive creature attacks you. If it does, a "doom" type of effect happens, and you morph into a radioactive wolf, with a new ability set, etc. But at the same level as the original wolf was.

Bosses? Hmm... Maybe like... King deer, Lord bear, Master hunter, etc... Without the corny names XD

Thanks again, any more ideas you have are definatly wanted and appreciated.

I dunno about doing it by chance, because then someone might just get lucky with a few hits and morph. If its a required number of kills (and eat their corpse? Thats how you eat in this game isn't it?) for the radioactivity level in your wolf to increase until it changes. Its best to eliminate most kinds of randomness (except random events etc that people have to adapt to). When you morph, I duno if it should replace your entire skill set, perhaps it could just change one spell on your wolf (the offensive one?), so this would differ from wolf to wolf (also less time making an altered version of every ability lol).

Similarly, there could be other types of combat experience that could be gained, to "get" a "secret wolf".
By being risky and going down to the village and killing and eating a lot of humans (could count hunters too), you learn how to strike hard and fast. Once you have killed a certain amount, one of your abilities gets upgraded. You get a different ability upgraded depending on your class. Each different type of combat xp you can get in different locations could increase a different ability, so that you can say.. Go farm radioactive enemies, become radioactive (#1 defensive ability increases or w/e you want), then go to the village, kill humans until you upgrade (#2 offensive ability increases or w/e you want) etc.

Could also kill bears and learn how to hit very hard, but slow. One of your offensive abilities increases damage a lot, but slows down (casting time? if its a slash or something its slower, etc). Perhaps it could also increase your base damage, but attack slower. The others could also change you passively as well. There should be a few different types of combat xp, so there are combinations which suit each type of wolf. Eg. a fighter wolf would kill bears to gain damage, but slow down, but then kill humans to increase speed, to counteract the slowdown from killing bears... now they have 2 abilities that are better than normal, and they do more base damage.

About bosses:
Eg.
Poison Tooth, wolf boss.

Make up some back-story about some exhiled old alpha-male wolf who lives near the nuclear power plant. He absorbed so much of the radiation, that he morphed (perhaps large tinted green wolf or something), so is very powerful. It would take a team of wolves with most of them at the right age (the midway between pup and old wolf) to defeat him, but the other team could jack them and finish them off and steal the kill, so perhaps he would have to be balanced to allow for him to be killed by a team - 1 wolf, who is scouting for enemy. After he is killed, the person who eats his corpse gains a passive ability (passive abilities would be good reward from bosses), that gives his attacks poison (damage over time), (the boss you killed would have had this when you were fighting him). The person who ate him, also would receive a large radioactivity level bonus.

Make bosses kinda like that, but it would be good if they weren't all passive, and cast a few moves on you (but the ability you gain from eating his corpse is passive, you lose it if your wolf dies and have to get another).


To me, aging would be a really interesting gameplay idea, but it would look weird if your wolfs stats were constantly changing. Perhaps they could just change after every game-day. For the first 3/4 days after you were a pup, you would increase dmg, hp, armor etc and scaling value?, from then on you just stay same size, but get stronger, until you pass your prime, and get weaker from then. Do you think the wolves should start with their full set of abilities, or a few basic ones, and gain new ones as they age? That could be alright, because then old wolves wouldn't be completely useless, because they would have all the abilities (kinda makes sense, old but still knows how to fight, would beat someone as strong as them from experience). This is a bit better than doing periodic triggers, because 1) it makes more sense, and 2) you can do triggers etc to speed up game time, or pause it on night etc.

If you are having trouble with some ability ideas, I could give you a few if you post the ones each wolf has so far.
I think most, (if not all?) wolves should have a jump ability (it could be the one everyone starts with when they are a pup). It can be used offensively and defensively, so would work with most classes. If you have terrain with different cliff levels etc, it can be used quite skillfully too. I'm not sure if it should be a point target one, perhaps it could be one where you press it, and your wolf automatically jumps XXX range in front of them, depending on their strength (which gets higher as they age, older wolves jump further!).

Also, can there be only one alpha-male per group? I dunno too much about wolves, but I thought there would be only one?

I would respond, but i already did and my computer is gay and likes to automatically log me off after a certain amount of time, so the response i typed got lost when i tried to post. I don't feel like retyping it right now, but your ideas are good, but ill give you a quick summary.

Radioactivity will be done in that when your attacked X number of times, you morph with an all new skillset and everything, but at the same level.

The idea of MORE abilities scares me... It's a neat idea, but it could be hard to implement and could take a little too much effort for me. This project was supposed to be kept relatively simple... I might try to implement it somehow, but not like you said...

Bosses are a good idea, but the idea of eating their corpse is hard because i would have to detect who ate the corpse, and then if the corpse was eaten. Plus, the wolves already have a full Unit card. Maybe an item for eahch wolf on the team.

Aging = hard, but a good idea. I'll try to implement it as best as i can, but ya know.

I'm fine with abilities, but thanks for the offer. I can post a list of all the wolves and their current abilities if you want.

yes, only one alpha male. Both in game and real life.

About radioactivity, as I said earlier, make the radioactive boss give you more radioactivity level than regular units when you kill him or w/e. Should it replace all your abilities? Wouldn't you have to make 5/6 different "radioactive" sets for each class of wolf? I think my idea earlier, where it just replaces one ability (doesn't have to be extremely different, could just add more damage, or a slowing effect, or damage over time to it).. more like "upgrades" than replaces. This way you could go train in different areas, and receive the bonus from that area like in my previous post. (It would suck to do the radioactive one, then take too much damage from bears and morph and lose all your abilites for different ones lol).

I spose you could give the passive ability from boss kill to everyone on the team mayb... or just the guy who got the last hit (enemy can come steal perhaps). If command card is full, it doesn't matter, because it would be a passive ability and you don't need to see it.

Can there be only one mother? Wouldn't it be imba if half the enemies pick mothers so have many many pups and lots of lives (as well as healing)..? Btw, how are you going to approach birth? Does it just say to the mother, "you are pregnant etc... you are going to give birth in X days, be careful or w/e"... then another reminder with a few mins to go to tell to get to a safe place. When time has elapsed, they are paused for XX seconds until they have given birth then can move again? I think I have said this before, but pups that aren't controlled by players (your "lives") should age verrrry slowly in comparison to a player.

About the only one alpha male thing: I don't think they should be a pickable class, would be better if perhaps randomly selects one of the fighter wolves to become alpha male (could be similar skill-set, but with auras etc, reinforcing their role in the group) when they reach a certain age. Perhaps position of alpha male could be contested by vote or something in case of a new player being randomly selected for one of the most important classes.

To enhance the whole "wolf" feeling of the game, you could make it so every X seconds, all enemies within XXXX distance in front of your wolf (choose whatever angle for this, perhaps 90 deg?) are pinged on minimap. This is kinda like the wolves sense of smell. This way teams that have a good position will be able to find the enemy easier, which will also encourage fighting with the enemy. Also, wolves would hunt in a pack, so it would be good if there was some way of easily letting people know what you want them to do (without typing). Perhaps the alpha male can turn on "target calling", that will give a text message to his team every time he engages a different target, saying who it is he's attacking, and pinging them on minimap. (use issued order "attack", so alpha male player can press a and click on people, before he actually reaches them, to point out who they are focussing).

Btw, do deer etc wander around to different areas, and run when they are attacked? It would be good if a deer was fast and required teamwork to take down, but would provide lots of food for your pack.

Are you going to have items? How would they carry them lol? I spose there could be like herbs etc on ground you can eat, some healing you, some increasing your speed for a while, some removing negative buffs etc. But they would be more like powerups, not stuff you could carry with you.

Yeah, a list of abilities would be cool.

My gosh, you like to type dont you?
Well here we go... XD

The Radioactive wolf IS a wolf all his own, it replaces your wolf, (unless its alpha male or female, but im trying to figure out a way around that). You see, the Radioactive wolf is a wolf with his own skillset that has nothing to do with the type of wolf you previously had. Although it would be more realistic that way, its an overall pain. And the boss gives 2 radioactive xp per hit, rather than 1.

You get a special item from him, they appear at your main den. Everyone on the team can have 1, but only 1.

Only one mother (shes ALPHA female.). See, the alphas are the most important in a pack. The point is to use them wisely, as they are strong, but losing them is bad. If you lose your Alpha male, you lose alot of buffs and a good fighter. If you lose your female, you lose your ability to have pups, and if you don't have a caretaker or caretaker pup, then you have no healing either. (other than herbs)

Well here's my outlook on the alpha male situation:
Its slecetable, first come first serve. HOWEVER!
Should he die, he returns as a pup, and a free-for-all breaks out for dominance. (mothers and caretakers do not take part) The last one standing becomes an alpha male (the actual wolf, skills and all)

Hmm... Wolf smell... That's a Fighter's action. He can ping the map of all prey. However, pinging didn't work for me when I tried to use it. I'll try again though. Thers also one for enemy wolves, although it only pings 2-3 rather than all of them.

Uhm, now that i think about it, deer come in varying ages (which means more/less hp, speed, attack, etc.). They will either run or fight, depending on what kind of deer it is.

Items are ones a wolf could carry. Amulets, fangs, claws, pouch of herbs, etc. But they aren't anything supreme.

List of abilities coming up soon.

Abilities and Actions:

Alpha Male:-The leader; strong and good with buffs.
Attribute: Strength

Father's Morale:(autocast)
Rapid casting Bloodlust, but cannot be cast upon self.
Howl of Valor:(active)
Every ally on the map receives an attack increase, and nearby enemies are stunned for a short time (less than 2 seconds)
Pack Leadership:(passive)
Increases nearby defense by x%
Male's Strength:(passive)
Allows for a % chance to dodge and a smaller % chance to do x times more damage.
Claws of Flame: (ultimate)(active)
Fan of Knives with fire affect, that hits all nearby units for a good chunk of damage.
(Actions)
Eat - replenishes mana (food)
Sleep - replenishes HP, can be cancelled by pressing ESC key, but cancels all sleeping for any wolf that player owns.
Lick Wounds - Heals 25 HP over a few seconds time.

Alpha Female:-The Healer and supporter, not too strong, but her ultimate makes up for it.
Attribute: Intelligence

Distraction:(active)
Forces all nearby enemies to attack the female, but with slowed attack speeds. This ability targets an ally, allowing them to windwalk away from harm.
Flee:(active)
Blink.
Love of the Mother:(active)
Turns all nearby allies invulnerable for a very short period of time.
Mother's Cure:(active)
Quick bolt of healing.
Nature's Arrow: (ultimate)(autocast)
Whenever an enemy is attacked, it receives this buff, if it dies with this buff it spawns a treant. Saps mana with each hit. (this is a risky ability, as it is powerful but it drains mana quickly)
(Actions)
Eat
Sleep
Lick Wounds
Give Birth - Creates a pup; long long cooldown.
Feed Pup - Gives the pup mana in replacement for a portion of the mother's.

Fighter:-Quick and strong, good with debuffing invidual enemies.
Attribute: Agility

Crippling Blow:(active)
Cripples an enemy, but slows the Fighter's attack speed in compensation.
Dip 'n' Dodge:(passive)
Evasion.
Micro Claws:(passive)
Cleaving Strike.
Random Blow:(active)
Deals damage, but also does one of the following: Slows attack or move speed, lowers armor, lowers attack damage, or deals extra damage.
Static Attraction: (ultimate)(active)
Creates a Static Being which forces all nearby enemies to attack it. Whenever one does, it is hit with a weak bolt of bouncing lightning. (this is really good for large fights)
(Actions)
Eat
Sleep
Lick Wounds
Stalk - Windwalk, but slowed move speed rather than faster
Prey Sense - Pings the location of all prey on the map.
Wolf Sense - Pings the location of 3 enemy wolves on the map.

Werewolf:-The wolf with the lowest attack. However, food dissapates slower as it is usually regained quickly.
Attribute: Intelligence

Blood Spray:(active)
Drunken haze... but only makes enemies miss, nothing else.
Flesh and Blood:(passive)
Turns a % of your attack into HP, and restores a small amount of food.
Lycanthrope Virus:(active)
Makes an enemy (non-wolf/boss/anything big) rot away into a were-beast which lasts 5 minutes.
Tainted Blood:(active)
Mana Burn.
Full Moon Rising: (ultimate)(active)
Forces a full moon, which increases the attack/move speed of ALL werewolves drastically.
(Actions)
Sleep
Lick wounds
Shadows of the Night - Shadowmeld

Demon Wolf:-A vicious wolf, with the highest attack, but slow attack speed. Uses chaotic abilities.
Attribute: Strength

Spawns of Chaos:(active)
Stops an enemy from any sort of casting, and deals a certain amount of periodic damage a certain number of times. (This was a shitting pain to script in the map it came from, also made by me.)
(thats all I have for demon wolf at this particular moment)

DragunWulf-An almost extinct breed, good with many types of elemental powers. Part wolf, part dragon.
Attribute: TBA

Sand Trap:(active)
Encases an enemy in sand, slowly crushing them.
Fireball Breath:(active)
Creates a fireball and hurls it at an enemy, then explodes, dealing AOE damage. If ANY enemy is hit by this while under the effects of Sand Trap, Crystal Cage will be auto-cast for free.
Crystal Cage(active/passive)
A stronger Sand Trap. Costs more mana than the previous 2 combined, but isn't as hard to use.
Lightning Shock:(passive)
When attacking, the DragunWulf has a chance to stun an enemy with lightning momentarily (also deals damage)
Dragonic Soul: (ultimate)(active)
Morphs the DragunWulf into a powerful flying dragon, with a ranged attack, etc.
(actions)
TBA

Well, there ya go. Every wolf has at least 1 JASS enchanced ability.

Couldn't you have, for the Spawns of Chaos ability, just use the Soul Burn template?

It uses soul burn as the base, but this one is different. It's like soul burn, but it makes periodic explosion graphics, and has a specific formula for damage. Also, you can't set how many times the damage is dealt w/ soul burn. if you can, its complicated.

Are all these abilities set in stone, or am I allowed to post some suggestions?

Btw, when the mother's pups are born / grow up, do they use them and control a whole lot of wolves... or do the pups just stay in base and are used as "lives"?