Scarlet Crusader

Purpose
The Scarlet Crusader was my entry for the official Hero Contest that took place here. It was built in such a manner that it could be implemented into an actual melee game as a neutral hero. It can also be used as an arena hero if a few balance tweaks are applied.

Story
Surviving members of the Order of the Silver Hand, the Scarlet Crusaders have taken a more aggressive path unlike their brothers, the Paladins. Though still not a real organization, the Scarlet Crusaders have gathered under a common cause to erradicate the Undead from Lordareon, for good. Still short in number, they fight even as mercenaries so that they can fulfill their purpose. It is rumored that they would sometimes fight (ironically) even under an Undead commander to ensure their survival.

Hero Statistics Base Stats: Attack Cooldown: 2.19 Attack Range: Melee Primary Attribute: Strength Strength Bonus: 2.3 Agility Bonus: 1.6 Intelligence Bonus: 2.3 Movement Speed: Fast (315) Level Stats: Level Attack (Ground) Armor Strength Agility Intelligence Hit Points Mana 1 22-32 [27 avg] 6 20 15 18 600 270 2 22-34 [29 avg] 6 22 16 20 650 300 3 26-36 [31 avg] 6 24 18 22 700 330 4 28-38 [33 avg] 7 26 19 24 750 360 5 31-41 [36 avg] 7 29 21 27 825 405 6 33-43 [38 avg] 8 31 23 29 875 435 7 35-45 [40 avg] 8 33 24 31 925 465 8 38-48 [43 avg] 9 36 26 34 1000 510 9 40-50 [45 avg] 9 38 27 36 1050 540 10 42-52 [47 avg] 10 40 29 39 1100 570 Proper Names: Taelan Fordring, Aarlarg Trucesword, Bedivere Fairbanks, Galford Valdelmar, Sallion Whitemane, Isillien Tharwove, Saiden Dathrohan, Renault Mograine, Barean Westwind, Gwerdinar Trusthole

Update Log
2 February 2007
- fixed some leaks and compatibility of Radiance with items manipulating life.

3 February 2007
- Martirism no longer transfers damage less than 5. This is because poison cloud would eronately give on Martiric units a "we are under attack" alert.
- New missile effect for Insidious Beacon added.
- Implemented the custom icons into the map.
- Removed debug message after Radiance ended.
- New buff effect for Blood Mana added.
- New Martyrism target effect.
[/i]

5 February 2007
- New effects for Radiance.
- New area effect for Blood Mana.
- Updated screenshot with the new SFXs.

7 February 2007
- Improved and cleaned Insidious Beacon missile movement code. It no longer uses trigonometric functions and wait period is much more accurate.

Have fun with the hero and leave comments and critics (regarding both the presentation (a.k.a this post) and the hero itself). Oh, and it is pretty obvious that I inspired the style of the presentation from Rising_Dusk. I hope ya don't mind, Dusk

~Daelin

I was inspired by Pyro who was inspired by Moyack who was (apparently) inspired by Unsung Legends.
We should probably just call it the "standard" format henceforth. xD

I really liked this hero, it added a neat melee hero to a map.
Notably, I also liked the fluid blend of caster and tank into the same hero, it's a nice concept.
However, a lot of the abilities still feel a bit complex for the WC3 melee setting.
For example, I think Insidious Beacon is a little too "Hunh?" for a melee map.
However, I feel overall the hero was very well made and had a solid concept.
I haven't had a chance to look at the code, but I'll take a gander when I get a chance.

Nicely done, Daelin.

Will you use this in RotHE?
Oh, and +rep!

No apparently's about it buddy :P

Though I admit I was inspired by Tim's avatar collection because I didnt know how tables worked on wc3c before that.


ANYWAYS

Looks cool but I think the blood elf leuitenant model would actually go better with this. I bet you're aldready using that one for RoTHE but for normal ppl who DL this map I think it would go better with that one.

I really like this hero. Another one Ill add into DoD, thx^

Things to look at:
Excessive use of ==false in some condition functions. Use not?
Do not use non-temporary BJ globals to store stuff. People may use those in GUI. Use ones that only have instant use (ie bj_GroupAddGroupDest and bj_GroupCurrentRandomPick (only rough names, but should get you there))
It appears that in function BloodMana_SSDo, timer tt is not always destroyed. (Looks like the same for timer t in function BloodMana_Main)
In function Martyrism_Main, you should start your damage refresh timer with a duration of 0.
Radiance is going to cause bugs if the hero acquires any health modifying items while it is running.

I love the new icons, of course you have to remove the border in the passive one. Just one question: Blood mana in the hero contest worked in allied units? or it's just an improvement in this version?

As soon as I fix my computer, I'll test again your hero.

I'm glad to see that more and more members around here are setting up their post(s) in a decent way (afterall, the users are submitting resources to/in a forum board :P not an actual *resource upload section*)

Anyway, you did a good job making this hero, Daelin.
I like it even more now with the new icons included :P (fits perfectly) How about taking it further, eh? A custom texture for the model xD

-- Nonetheless, keep it up

Well, yes, I seek to make this super original. So new SFXs for the spells and perhaps a new model/skin for the hero would be great. I'd need a modeler&texturer for the last part though (I can't make units on my own). But yes, I'll take care of the the SFXs. Right now fixing what Blu suggested.

Moyack, yes, it existed, I made only a few minor tweaks before resubmitting (such as fixing the annoying Radiance bug). Right now still working on Radiance as apparently like Blu also pointed out, if you are given a health bonus item and you die, the spell gets messed up. It's easy to fix, but it needs a bit of math.

And Blu, the ==false stuff ARE REQUIRED ya know. I need to compare (and contrast :P) "IsUnitType" with something if I want it to work. I hope you remember about the bug. Fixed the BJ stuff, Martyrism problem and working on fixing Radiance. However, I don't get the timers not getting destroyed problem. Could you please be more specific? Thanks!

~Daelin

Yes I do know about the bug. I thought I remembered it not having to be done on every one of them, but apparently not.

Well, if you look at the timer variables I mentioned, the timer they represent are not destroyed anywhere in the script (as far as I could see).

That bug only applies in boolean expressions and if the IsUnitType() is the LAST comparison called.
Otherwise, the == false is not required.

Fixed all leaks (especially the timer stuff, indeed, I forgot to remove it in the expiration function).
Now Radiance works perfectly with custom items that manipulate maximum life (or any other modifications of max HP that take place during the spell). Of course the bonuses received/lost are not doubled/halved.

Have fun & hope to see it approved.

~Daelin

The chain grows...

Nicely done, Daelin; I enjoyed competing against you in the hero contest. I'm glad to see the other winners taking the initiative to upload their heroes like me
/points at own hero thread

I am so proud about the results of the current effects that I will actually make a new post and mention them. You will see that the map has a changelog (meaning that yes, I'm intensely updating it). By now, new effects for Martyrism, Blood Mana (buff) and Insidious Beacon have been added. They are all made by me, really small models (around 2-4 kb), and do not require any custom textures.

Check the map periodically as I have other surprises waiting for you (after I finish the effects... though I'm stopping for today as I ran out of ideas). Have fun and don't forget to leave comments. It's good to know that the hero is actually tried and not only previewed (entering the thread).

~Daelin