Mage Trial: Demo

Project Discussion: http://www.wc3campaigns.net/showthread.php?t=97545
This is a Demo for a map idea discussed in the previous thread. It offers about 5-10 minutes play time. I only made a demo because I wanted to see how people enjoyed my vision of the game. Anyway,

Features:

• Single Player
• Four Classes, each offering a unique solution to puzzles
• Five simple puzzles, and one boss

Known Issues:

• Short Gameplay. Even played with all classes, there is not alot of content
• Simple Puzzles. I have chosen to save the more difficult puzzles for later. Plus given the short nature of what I have so far, difficult puzzles would be frustrating.
• Cannot Guarantee a bug-free game. But that's expected.

Playtesters:

• Please give constructive criticism
• If there are bugs or crashes, please be very specific about what happened so I may fix it quickly.

Hidden information: Change log: v1.01 Altered the AI of the creeps to react intuitively to player spells. Added a defeat message instead of game doing nothing after you die. Fixed foot switch problem in second room. v1.01a "Shackles" now affects ground units Fixed bug with game ending when a summoned unit was sent into the boss room v1.01b "Shackles" now affects all ground units v1.02 Replaced the Suppression Mage ability "Suppression" with a "Suppression Ward" that stuns nearby units who get near it. This should make puzzles easier to manage. Changed hotkeys to be more accessible Added a "Reset Sheep" Ability that will move helper sheeps to their original positions. This should make puzzles easier to manage. Dying now gives the option to quit or restart at last room. This should make certain areas more forgiving. Other Minor changes

Muehehe, let's get hands on it :)

PS: I will post some more critique later

EDIT:

:( it didn't work for me very well. I couldn't trigger the platform in second room. I tried to stand on it and to put a golem on it. I also tried to lure the sheep on it (what is the sheep doing here?)

Also, is it intentional that the golem can be summoned behind closed door?

I found the problem CommanderZ. It was a line of code I thought would fix a certain problem but created a new one.

It is not my intention to be able to summon golems behind closed doors, but at this point, it shouldn't cause many problems.

If you are curious about the sheep, play a different class.

Very sorry the game is messed up first time around CommanderZ. I feel like a doofus.

UPDATE: fixed the problems for v1.01

I love that level with the demolisher, it is really good idea :)

I don't like the way you made the sheep though. Maybe there should be some generic wandering critters which would ignore you until you lure them for let's say 15 seconds (it could be another generic ability like the trigger ability). Some can even have some special stuff like that sheep.

Why do I complain? The sheep blocked me in the level with the lift near the upper lever :(

Also, the hotkeys are really bad. E + Z + X (+ C and V for third and fourth ability) is really hard to manage with fingers. I would use E + A + S + D + F instead.

This is a cool map. I found a couple of bugs however.
-The guy with telekenisis and the stun thing has a serious problem when dealing with the elevator. Timing the stunning of the sheep and being on the platform is rediculous. I had to cheat so i could telekenisis the lever
-Summoner's chains only effects air units. Only one problem, no air units
-Illusionist is uber easy compared to everyone else
-If you send in a summoned unit into the room with the murloc, stay out yourself and let the summoned unit get killed then you will lose, regardless of the fact that your hp is almost full.

Those are just some things to keep in mind. Goodluck with this promising map.

@CommanderZ: What about A-S-D-F-G for commands? I can see how that would be difficult to work the keys.

Hmmm, a lure for creeps. Maybe I should rethink how I use the creeps a bit. I included them so that the two non-summoning classes have to use their specific abilities to pass the room. Perhaps if I made a spell that reset the position of the sheep? That would solve the blocking problem, while not taking away the need to use the spells unique to the class.

I'm glad you liked the demolisher room, if you don't mind, let me know what you liked about it so I can keep that in mind for future puzzles.

@Slurgh: Fixed the summoner and boss room bug in 1.01a. What about this: what if the suppression mage had a short aoe stasis ward instead of a stun? I guess that would make the puzzles less frustrating.

For Illusion mage, maybe I should replace invisibility with something else. I see now that the spell would either be useless, or make the puzzle not require any skill to complete. Perhaps banish would be a good replacement.

Thanks for playtesting guys.

The aoe Stasis would require more skill (I think it would be fun if the stasis ward also effect you :) )

Invisibility and Simulacrum both were very powerful. Simulacrum could be used for pretty much any puzzle. Invisibility only kept you alive in the murloc battle. So in reality, invisibility isn't that strong and if you are worried about it being too strong then increase cool down or decrease duration.

Edit: You didn't fix the summoner :) the chains still don't work... This time it doesn't work on neutral units

Edit 2: Restrict the boss murloc to one room or make the demolisher neutral or something along those lines because the murloc followed me out of the room and the demolisher and murloc had a little fight :)

I liked its originality. Hmm, why does the sheep have the ammo? :) Killing innocent sheeps is aways fun. No, really, it took me some time to find the solution and I also generally liked the interaction with the sheep (I was playing as the guy with slow). Trying to lure the sheep into flames was great :)

The goal of this map I think is to have puzzles that require some thought and creativity. This is one the few maps I have seen that has had no offensive capabilities for your characters. This makes the map unique. On a completely different note, please look up to my previous post for more bugs.

I hotfixed both problems slurgh (thanks for the help).
I'm going to tweak two of the spells to remove difficulty (the keyboard management kind, not the puzzle kind), then mark that as v1.02. Hopefully I can then start working on the full game.

Sounds good. Anyways, I had a thought about your puzzles. Those puzzles (especially like the demolisher one) could stump people. That is what makes puzzles fun. However, when you replay the map over and over again at close times, then you will remember the solution to the majority of the puzzles. Replayability is decreased because of this. However, if you were to have a variable that could be 1, 2 or 3 and this variable effects how puzzles are solved or what puzzles are used, Suddenly replayability skyrockets as now not only your class changes how you do things, but the puzzles themselves can be different.

Just something to consider after you get the core game complete.

I found another bug:
Again in the level with the lift. I was playing as the guy who has stun and telekinesis (what can be it used to?). I was standing on the platform and waiting for the sheep to run on it so I could have stunned it. But I missed it, it run over the sensor platform (which sent me up) and after half a second it left it again and kept running towards me. Meanwhile, the lift with me reached the top and started descending again. The sheep managed to reach the lift while it was still in the air and it (the sheep) suddenly disappeared. It looked like the lift squished it. Poor sheep. And I was unable to finish the level :(

Hope you understood my description :)

PLS, fix it and add level reset after death.

Made a version 1.02
Should have fixed a few bugs (thanks CommanderZ and Slurgh). Also added a couple "ease of gameplay" features (check version log).

If you haven't played all classes, give it a try and you may find differences in gameplay.

Puzzle games like these tend to get obsolete after some time. Take a look at "Are you a retard" map, when I first tried it, the other players knew the way and rushed to finish it. On the other hand, puzzle games from Pyramid Escape are random, and it'll have alot more replayability and fun with randomness.

I think integrating randomness shouldn't be too hard for now.

@Malf
Those games are meant to be multiplayer however, and I see how the same puzzle makes the game "obsolete" after a few plays. This is very much single player, so you shouldn't have other players speeding through it. However the idea of longevity and replayability is a goal for me that is difficult to achieve on a purely concept level.

However the key to that seems to be variance. Such as having key switches move locations to change how the puzzle is solved. That's the reason why I chose to have 4 classes, who typically solve the puzzles in unique ways.

I think I can see what you are referring to. Puzzles like the one where you must follow the voidwalker and go the path he does, or quiz of death. Ones where it is the same form of puzzle, but the solution of it is different.