Orion: Ground Zero is a 2-player coop altered melee map featuring 6 unique subfactions to choose from to go up against 6 Zerg Broods, each with their own techtree and specialties.
The objective of the map is to gather an amount of Crimson Minerals and destroy sufficient enemy Broods. In order to do this, you have to keep a balance between offense and defense, take advantage of control points, know when to call in support powers to aid you and secure strategic areas in the map to hold the enemy off more efficiently.
The map lasts, on average, for 30-60 minutes. It varies depending on the selected difficulty however.
Gameplay Video
Screenshots
Here's the whole list of gameplay screenshots, showing the subfactions on the offense and defense: http://imgur.com/a/Qrmqr
Features
6 unique subfactions, each with their own custom content and modifications to the original techtree
6 unique Zerg Broods, all of which, similarly to the subfactions, sport their own custom content and modifications to the original techtree
5 tiers of Support Powers that can be invoked on the battlefield
Numerous Control Points situated in key locations around the map that provide a negative or positive buff to your units within them
3 events that will occur periodically in a random manner
A difficulty system with 9 levels; affecting the enemy's speed, intelligence, army size & composition and strategies
Crimson Minerals, a new resource that is one of your objectives to completing the map situated in vulnerable locations around the map
Elite Zerg Strains will act as captains for their assault groups later in the game, and become more frequent if a Brood is active for a long time
Nydus Worms will periodically spawn and spawn siege parties to attack your base, as well as Nydus Dragons on higher difficulties
Modifications to the original techtrees to ensure that every unit is properly useful in its role, on top of some new abilities and upgrades being added as well as a new mutual unit between all of a race's subfactions
Lore Summary
(full lore can be read ingame in the help menu)
After Kerrigan's victory and the fall of the New Overmind, a number of Broods, defiant of the Queen of Blades, have fled to a distant uncharted planet. There they began to recover, attempting to form a new Swarm to overthrow Kerrigan and restore the Overmind's glory to the Swarm. Only one of these Broods still had a surviving Cerebrate, Baelrog Brood, and as such they attempted to subjugate the other Broods.
The Broods were quick to discover a new resource on the planet with grand psionic capabilities, however, situated in parts of the planet's surface. They used this resource to create leaders of their own and defied Baelrog. After a long, brutal civil war, Baelrog had either devoured, destroyed or enslaved the Broods.
Months after that incident, numerous Terran groups and Protoss expedition parties have located this new planet, and the resource as well. Mining operations had been organized and escorted with military forces, to ensure their safety. They did not anticipate to encounter some old foes, however.
Gameplay
Subfactions
Once the game begins, you will be presented with a selection screen where you will be able to choose one of the subfactions. The subfactions are as follows:
Terran subfactions:
The Prospectors' Syndicate, specialized in defensive tactics and the preservation of units. They can easily fortify perimeters and slowly yet steadily secure locations.
The Odysseus Company, adept dealing high damage in short periods of time and using aggressive tactics to push and conquer enemy areas.
The Omega Division, excelling in long-ranged warfare and territorial control, while maximizing the efficiency of their bases and forces.
Protoss subfactions:
The Crusader Caste, making use of brute force and physical strength to defeat their enemies.
The Templar Conclave, boasting the most potent spellcasters, allowing them to control the battlefield and easily disrupt their foes.
The Marked of the Xel'naga, the most versatile of subfactions that is equally efficient in defense and offense. They use highly destructive robotic units to prove victorious.
Events, Nydus Worms and Control Points
As previously mentioned, random events will occur, Nydus Worms (and Dragons) will spawn and Control Points will influence the outcome of battles.
There are 3 events in total; Lava Surge, Thick Fog and Drop Pods. Lava Surges will cover the lower ground of the map, where the Crimson Minerals are located, incinerating any ground unit that passes through, Thick Fogs will limit your units' vision while it's active, and Drop Pods will reinforce the enemy with a number of squads that will be sent after your forces and/or bases.
On higher difficulties, for every 3 sets of Worms that spawn, a Nydus Dragon will instead emerge. Nydus Dragons are enormous monsters that lob fireballs at you from extremely long ranges and can tunnel around their surrounding area. However, they take some time to spawn, unlike Nydus Worms, giving you a window where you can inflict as much damage as you can with no retaliation.
The Control Points activate after 5 minutes into the game and randomize every 3 minutes. Some points are preset to always have a negative effect (such as the one in your home base), while others are preset to always have a positive effect (such as the three points in Baelrog's bases), the rest are neutral and have both types of effects. There is also a chance that a Control Point will be deactivated until the next randomization.
Zerg Broods
There are 6 Broods in total; Jormungand, Surtur, Tiamat, Garm, Fenris, and the most powerful of them, Baelrog.
Jormungand relies purely on quantity over quality, and will send the largest attack waves at you. Surtur is the opposite, making use of fewer, yet more durable, powerful and heavier units.
Tiamat specializes in aerial combat and will rarely attack you with ground forces (apart from early in the game). Garm plays more sneakily, relying on burrowing units and suspressing detection.
On the other hand, Fenris excells at using spellcasters and supporting their allies. Lastly, Baelrog is the "perfect" Brood, excelling in nearly every department and using elite units. They will rarely attack compared to other Broods, however. Take caution when engaging them.
Also, on top of each Brood using their own exclusive units, as the game goes on they will make use of elite strains; these strains are enhanced versions of normal units and are very dangerous. Initially, they will act as captains in assault waves, but the longer a Brood survives, the more frequent these strains will become.
Credits
GhostNova91 (Arclite Siege Tank, Vindicator and portrait, Nullifier)
Thrikodias (Drakken Siege Burner portrait, BW Dark Archon, Defiler Mound, Psi Emitter, Shield Battery, Avenger, Magister and portrait, Shard Cannon, Titan Strider, Banelisk, Zeg Hulk)
SoulFilcher (Defiler, Ship Ion Cannon, icons and/or wireframes for Gas Turret, Grand Cannon, APC, Assault APC, Devourer, Matriarch and Overcharged Yamato Cannon)
Buhhy (Dragoon)
Alex06 (icons for Fanaticism, Advanced Warp Conduits, Enduring Fields and Enhanced Power Cores)
Salirth and AegisRuneStone (Psionic Hydralisk)
Sound emitted by Psionic Obliterators extracted from the game Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2
Loading screen artwork from MrJack
Special thanks to Rohirrim for helping test the map and for his suggestions, and Beider along with various others for their tutorials, which helped me learn the editor.
He had a screenshot link and it looked nice but it is always good to show the screenshots in the thread. Many people just scroll down the wall of text only to read it after they have seen some interesting screenshots.
@EternalWraith: Go I edited the main post with some screenshots, I'll change them with a gameplay video and new screenies once I finish the patch, showing some of the new content.
@wargirlwargirl: Go Hope you enjoy it! :D I've also edited the main post with screenshots, as I said, the link to the list with all of them is there too.
@njordys: Go Thanks! Looking forward to hearing what you think of it :) Should mention that it isn't coop-only, it can be played solo as well.
Wonderful, see now I cant wait to get home and kick the game and start playing. Now I hate my Friday that im stuck working. Those screen shoots look soooo eye candy, I love it now. You have made me miserable that im working gr....
Very well layout extremely Zerg eye candy, This is great for the players that want to have fun and not spend 30 minutes learning the command card like me. Thank you because I hate games that take 3 to 5 trys just to learn the basics. Good job on the simplicity and yet fun all the way. I will be coming back to the game again.
I did notice the lag when the lava comes it fezzes my screen for 2 seconds or 3.
Other than that great job.
I notice some doodads maybe out of place, on the first pic bellow.
Glad to hear you liked it! :D I've fixed the lava framedrop issue in the patch, so it shouldn't be a problem anymore, also fixed that offplace doodad. I've redone the terrain (for improved loading time and performance) so there's probably a few more like that. I'll take a look once I finish the data/trigger work.
First of all, very nice selection screen and faction choice. It was an interesting read and the factions looked diverse and fun. I choose Omega and I played at casual.
However, even on casual I had a hard time defending since I spent so much time reading tool-tips for new units and upgrades instead of building up an army. :P
Among my favorite units were the Dreadnought (very nifty attack) and especially the Psionic Oblirator. The Psionic Obliriator was so fun and efficient to defend with :D I also loooved the Predotar Gunships ability. My first reaction was: Wow!
Grand Cannon was also nifty seeing as you can toggle air attack on and off at the expense of ground attack damage
One small bug: On the dreadnought the attack icon tooltip says air and ground but it can only attack ground.
The terrain was very good as well, rich in detail and varied from area to area. The night/day cycles was nice but the night were perhaps a bit too dark. Was the night a bit shorter then the day? Roomy base area to. I guess I has to be since it's a coop and you wouldn't want players to annoy each other by sloopy building placement. :)
Events are a very nice touch. Lava surge is a classic and work well. As for the area bonuses I think it was a very nice idea. I have some suggestions on that feature though.
I would suggest a minimap ping for each bonus area, just a small neutral white ping with a tooltip of the area bonus type for that location. Ideally there should be a visual effect that shows the radius for the bonus but that might be hard to do right. My immediate idea would be to try to make a yellow circle within the area the bonus are given and have an opacity at perhaps 25% so that it's partially invisible. When a player unit enters the area and are affected by the bonus the circle would turn 75% visible so that the player can easily recognize if he has a unit within the bonus area or not.
These are just suggestions so disregard them if you don't like them.
However, even on casual I had a hard time defending since I spent so much time reading tool-tips for new units and upgrades instead of building up an army. :P
Heh, I have a tendency of writing too much in tooltips :P Should rework on them, especially since I'll be adding new upgrades so there'll be new ones.
The terrain was very good as well, rich in detail and varied from area to area. The night/day cycles was nice but the night were perhaps a bit too dark. Was the night a bit shorter then the day?
Thanks! Terrain isn't my forte, but I like how it turned out. Though I've redone most of it in the patch, but it still feels the same.
As for nighttime, I'll look into it, thought it wasn't hard to see units during it but I guess it's because I played Protoss more, their glowy lights help. :P
I would suggest a minimap ping for each bonus area, just a small neutral white ping with a tooltip of the area bonus type for that location. Ideally there should be a visual effect that shows the radius for the bonus but that might be hard to do right. My immediate idea would be to try to make a yellow circle within the area the bonus are given and have an opacity at perhaps 25% so that it's partially invisible. When a player unit enters the area and are affected by the bonus the circle would turn 75% visible so that the player can easily recognize if he has a unit within the bonus area or not.
I like the minimap ping idea, should help save up time, since you can hover over it to see what control point is active instead of trying to find it in the world. As for the visual effect, how about a circle similar to Sensor Towers/artillery units to indicate the radius of the point and/or a yellow circle beneath units when they're affected by it? (or a green/red circle, for positive/negative effects)
Also, did you find it too easy or too hard on casual? I've been told easy difficulties are too hard and hard ones are too easy, but most of that was before I changed them.
I like the minimap ping idea, should help save up time, since you can hover over it to see what control point is active instead of trying to find it in the world. As for the visual effect, how about a circle similar to Sensor Towers/artillery units to indicate the radius of the point and/or a yellow circle beneath units when they're affected by it? (or a green/red circle, for positive/negative effects)
Circles beneath unit can work very well.
I was thinking of a Sensor Tower like circle that can be seen thought the fog and that would be faint when player units were absent but glowed up a little when player units enter the field. Perhaps the entire field becomes visible if the player controls units in it as well.
Also, did you find it too easy or too hard on casual? I've been told easy difficulties are too hard and hard ones are too easy, but most of that was before I changed them.
Well, since I had spent so much time ogling new units and upgrades the first attack waves came as a surprise so I used terribleterribledamage some times at the start. That kinda messes up the entire difficulty aspect of the game but perhaps the first attack waves can be more forgiving on easy difficulty since I am just getting used to the new rules and stuff.
Then again, I was reeaally unprepared. I think I started high tier buildings to early instead of building a proper defense. Most people would do much better then me there.
I can try to make some proper playthroughts later.
I tested it on the weekend, i tryed all 6 factions on solo "difficult" mode and here's my hopinions:
The map overall has a huge potential, but luck of some little polishment.
1st problem: You should put a timer with "Lava Surge coming on X:XX Minutes", not like now... I hear "Lava surge", 10 seconds or 5, the lava surge come and i am fucked, i also lost 30 expensive units with that...
Should be nice to put on the loading screen a recap of all broods, something like this : "brood x uses aberrations, infested terrans and infested terran melee troops that stuns you"
Why on "help" section there is not the unit list?It should be useful to see what spells the various units uses
Why Kraith uses the MitoScarab textures?
Captains should be more evidentiate, maybe with heroic HP bars, for now i only understood that freakin Ultralisk with uber HP regeneration, BroodMothers and Brutalisks are captains
On the description of one of the protoss faction a "Twilight Archon" is listed, but i only saw a "Twilight Templar"
You will ever do a Zerg version of this map? Like to can play as zerg? I know that creep on coop could give a lot of problems... But the faction are so good that i can't wait to see a Zerg faction, maybe a betrayer brood like Fenris :)
1st problem: You should put a timer with "Lava Surge coming on X:XX Minutes", not like now... I hear "Lava surge", 10 seconds or 5, the lava surge come and i am fucked, i also lost 30 expensive units with that...
The lava surge is one of the 3 events that can happen every 5 minutes, so I never thought about timers since I always looked at the gametime clock - an "Event in X:XX" timer sounds like a good idea, though, I'll note it down for the next patch.
Should be nice to put on the loading screen a recap of all broods, something like this : "brood x uses aberrations, infested terrans and infested terran melee troops that stuns you"
Dunno about putting it on the loading screen, but I think a help menu entry would suffice too.
Captains should be more evidentiate, maybe with heroic HP bars, for now i only understood that freakin Ultralisk with uber HP regeneration, BroodMothers and Brutalisks are captains
Sorry for the confusion, suppose I could make them a bit more obvious than what they are currently. Thought a different model would suffice, but some of them can blend in with the army.
Also, the captains are Devouring Ones (Jormungand), Hunter Killers (Surtur), Kukulzas (Tiamat), Impalers (Garm), Unclean Ones (Fenris) and Torrasques (Baelrog), they're all elite variants of standard units, similar to player reinforcements. Brutalisks and Broodmothers are normal units though.
You will ever do a Zerg version of this map? Like to can play as zerg? I know that creep on coop could give a lot of problems... But the faction are so good that i can't wait to see a Zerg faction, maybe a betrayer brood like Fenris :)
Back when I was planning the map, I was thinking of implementing an "evil" mode, where you control one of the Broods (besides Baelrog, who would be an AI ally), but I never ended up working on it.
Coop with Terran/Zerg or Protoss/Zerg wouldn't work out due to the creep, but having a game mode where both players are Zerg perhaps could. I'll consider it in the future, at least after my RPG map is at least halfway done/playable, though I think 2 races with 3 subfactions are enough for now :P
I have some immediate thoughts about the minimap ping and control points from what I watched in the video.
I really like the yellow circle pulse happening to the units in the control point field. I was just thinking of fixed yellow circle when we discussed this but the pulse works so much better.
Did you try to have all the units have one pulse at the same time? Meaning that the pulse was not happening for a random unit at a time but that all the units in a control point field would have a pulse simultaneously? I'm thorn between thinking that this would be cool to thinking that it might be distracting. Perhaps a pulse every 2-3 seconds.
I like yellow circles and pings on the minimap. I think the minimap pings perhaps are a bit too large. They might be less intruding on the minimap if you scaled them down to 0.75, or perhaps even 0.5
Links:
Orion: Ground Zero is a 2-player coop altered melee map featuring 6 unique subfactions to choose from to go up against 6 Zerg Broods, each with their own techtree and specialties.
The objective of the map is to gather an amount of Crimson Minerals and destroy sufficient enemy Broods. In order to do this, you have to keep a balance between offense and defense, take advantage of control points, know when to call in support powers to aid you and secure strategic areas in the map to hold the enemy off more efficiently.
The map lasts, on average, for 30-60 minutes. It varies depending on the selected difficulty however.
Gameplay Video
Screenshots
Here's the whole list of gameplay screenshots, showing the subfactions on the offense and defense: http://imgur.com/a/Qrmqr
Features
Lore Summary
(full lore can be read ingame in the help menu)
After Kerrigan's victory and the fall of the New Overmind, a number of Broods, defiant of the Queen of Blades, have fled to a distant uncharted planet. There they began to recover, attempting to form a new Swarm to overthrow Kerrigan and restore the Overmind's glory to the Swarm. Only one of these Broods still had a surviving Cerebrate, Baelrog Brood, and as such they attempted to subjugate the other Broods.
The Broods were quick to discover a new resource on the planet with grand psionic capabilities, however, situated in parts of the planet's surface. They used this resource to create leaders of their own and defied Baelrog. After a long, brutal civil war, Baelrog had either devoured, destroyed or enslaved the Broods.
Months after that incident, numerous Terran groups and Protoss expedition parties have located this new planet, and the resource as well. Mining operations had been organized and escorted with military forces, to ensure their safety. They did not anticipate to encounter some old foes, however.
Gameplay
Subfactions
Once the game begins, you will be presented with a selection screen where you will be able to choose one of the subfactions. The subfactions are as follows:
Terran subfactions:
Protoss subfactions:
Events, Nydus Worms and Control Points
As previously mentioned, random events will occur, Nydus Worms (and Dragons) will spawn and Control Points will influence the outcome of battles.
There are 3 events in total; Lava Surge, Thick Fog and Drop Pods. Lava Surges will cover the lower ground of the map, where the Crimson Minerals are located, incinerating any ground unit that passes through, Thick Fogs will limit your units' vision while it's active, and Drop Pods will reinforce the enemy with a number of squads that will be sent after your forces and/or bases.
On higher difficulties, for every 3 sets of Worms that spawn, a Nydus Dragon will instead emerge. Nydus Dragons are enormous monsters that lob fireballs at you from extremely long ranges and can tunnel around their surrounding area. However, they take some time to spawn, unlike Nydus Worms, giving you a window where you can inflict as much damage as you can with no retaliation.
The Control Points activate after 5 minutes into the game and randomize every 3 minutes. Some points are preset to always have a negative effect (such as the one in your home base), while others are preset to always have a positive effect (such as the three points in Baelrog's bases), the rest are neutral and have both types of effects. There is also a chance that a Control Point will be deactivated until the next randomization.
Zerg Broods
There are 6 Broods in total; Jormungand, Surtur, Tiamat, Garm, Fenris, and the most powerful of them, Baelrog.
Jormungand relies purely on quantity over quality, and will send the largest attack waves at you. Surtur is the opposite, making use of fewer, yet more durable, powerful and heavier units.
Tiamat specializes in aerial combat and will rarely attack you with ground forces (apart from early in the game). Garm plays more sneakily, relying on burrowing units and suspressing detection.
On the other hand, Fenris excells at using spellcasters and supporting their allies. Lastly, Baelrog is the "perfect" Brood, excelling in nearly every department and using elite units. They will rarely attack compared to other Broods, however. Take caution when engaging them.
Also, on top of each Brood using their own exclusive units, as the game goes on they will make use of elite strains; these strains are enhanced versions of normal units and are very dangerous. Initially, they will act as captains in assault waves, but the longer a Brood survives, the more frequent these strains will become.
Credits
Special thanks to Rohirrim for helping test the map and for his suggestions, and Beider along with various others for their tutorials, which helped me learn the editor.
Anybody tried it out? Would like to hear if anyone has any feedback/suggestions.
But anyway, just released a small patch! Here's the main changes:
Enjoy! :)
I'm planning a new patch since I found some bugs when I played it again a few days ago.
If anyone here tried it out, can you tell me what you liked/didn't like, what bugs you found or what you'd like to see? I'd really appreciate it!
Been playing some SC2 custom maps for a while,but this one i found most enjoyable and fun. good job!
@StealthToast: Go
Can you add some screenshots and/or a game-play video in the description?. It usually creates more interest and attention to a map.
I need screenshots, definitely i will be checking this out today but in the meantime show me the screenshots plz.
Marie T. Freeman If you're too busy to give your neighbor a helping hand, then you're just too darned busy. https://www.facebook.com/wargirlmaps.maps
Spread the love join DISCORD
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He had a screenshot link and it looked nice but it is always good to show the screenshots in the thread. Many people just scroll down the wall of text only to read it after they have seen some interesting screenshots.
Actually it looked very nice. Love the new unit models. :)
It's coop so I can't try it now but I think it seems quite interesting.
@noam2000: Go Thanks, glad you liked it!
@EternalWraith: Go I edited the main post with some screenshots, I'll change them with a gameplay video and new screenies once I finish the patch, showing some of the new content.
@wargirlwargirl: Go Hope you enjoy it! :D I've also edited the main post with screenshots, as I said, the link to the list with all of them is there too.
@njordys: Go Thanks! Looking forward to hearing what you think of it :) Should mention that it isn't coop-only, it can be played solo as well.
Wonderful, see now I cant wait to get home and kick the game and start playing. Now I hate my Friday that im stuck working. Those screen shoots look soooo eye candy, I love it now. You have made me miserable that im working gr....
Marie T. Freeman If you're too busy to give your neighbor a helping hand, then you're just too darned busy. https://www.facebook.com/wargirlmaps.maps
Spread the love join DISCORD
https://discord.gg/Jtzt8Su
Very well layout extremely Zerg eye candy, This is great for the players that want to have fun and not spend 30 minutes learning the command card like me. Thank you because I hate games that take 3 to 5 trys just to learn the basics. Good job on the simplicity and yet fun all the way. I will be coming back to the game again. I did notice the lag when the lava comes it fezzes my screen for 2 seconds or 3. Other than that great job.
I notice some doodads maybe out of place, on the first pic bellow.
Marie T. Freeman If you're too busy to give your neighbor a helping hand, then you're just too darned busy. https://www.facebook.com/wargirlmaps.maps
Spread the love join DISCORD
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Glad to hear you liked it! :D I've fixed the lava framedrop issue in the patch, so it shouldn't be a problem anymore, also fixed that offplace doodad. I've redone the terrain (for improved loading time and performance) so there's probably a few more like that. I'll take a look once I finish the data/trigger work.
This was a lot of fun :D
First of all, very nice selection screen and faction choice. It was an interesting read and the factions looked diverse and fun. I choose Omega and I played at casual.
However, even on casual I had a hard time defending since I spent so much time reading tool-tips for new units and upgrades instead of building up an army. :P
Among my favorite units were the Dreadnought (very nifty attack) and especially the Psionic Oblirator. The Psionic Obliriator was so fun and efficient to defend with :D I also loooved the Predotar Gunships ability. My first reaction was: Wow! Grand Cannon was also nifty seeing as you can toggle air attack on and off at the expense of ground attack damage
One small bug: On the dreadnought the attack icon tooltip says air and ground but it can only attack ground.
The terrain was very good as well, rich in detail and varied from area to area. The night/day cycles was nice but the night were perhaps a bit too dark. Was the night a bit shorter then the day? Roomy base area to. I guess I has to be since it's a coop and you wouldn't want players to annoy each other by sloopy building placement. :)
Events are a very nice touch. Lava surge is a classic and work well. As for the area bonuses I think it was a very nice idea. I have some suggestions on that feature though.
I would suggest a minimap ping for each bonus area, just a small neutral white ping with a tooltip of the area bonus type for that location. Ideally there should be a visual effect that shows the radius for the bonus but that might be hard to do right. My immediate idea would be to try to make a yellow circle within the area the bonus are given and have an opacity at perhaps 25% so that it's partially invisible. When a player unit enters the area and are affected by the bonus the circle would turn 75% visible so that the player can easily recognize if he has a unit within the bonus area or not.
These are just suggestions so disregard them if you don't like them.
Again, very nice map. Recommended.
Glad you enjoyed it! :)
Heh, I have a tendency of writing too much in tooltips :P Should rework on them, especially since I'll be adding new upgrades so there'll be new ones.
Thanks! Terrain isn't my forte, but I like how it turned out. Though I've redone most of it in the patch, but it still feels the same.
As for nighttime, I'll look into it, thought it wasn't hard to see units during it but I guess it's because I played Protoss more, their glowy lights help. :P
I like the minimap ping idea, should help save up time, since you can hover over it to see what control point is active instead of trying to find it in the world. As for the visual effect, how about a circle similar to Sensor Towers/artillery units to indicate the radius of the point and/or a yellow circle beneath units when they're affected by it? (or a green/red circle, for positive/negative effects)
Also, did you find it too easy or too hard on casual? I've been told easy difficulties are too hard and hard ones are too easy, but most of that was before I changed them.
Thanks for the feedback! :D
I don't think it's overexplained, it was just the newness of it all :)
Circles beneath unit can work very well.
I was thinking of a Sensor Tower like circle that can be seen thought the fog and that would be faint when player units were absent but glowed up a little when player units enter the field. Perhaps the entire field becomes visible if the player controls units in it as well.
Well, since I had spent so much time ogling new units and upgrades the first attack waves came as a surprise so I used terribleterribledamage some times at the start. That kinda messes up the entire difficulty aspect of the game but perhaps the first attack waves can be more forgiving on easy difficulty since I am just getting used to the new rules and stuff.
Then again, I was reeaally unprepared. I think I started high tier buildings to early instead of building a proper defense. Most people would do much better then me there.
I can try to make some proper playthroughts later.
Thanks for playing! :) Glad you liked the factions!
The lava surge is one of the 3 events that can happen every 5 minutes, so I never thought about timers since I always looked at the gametime clock - an "Event in X:XX" timer sounds like a good idea, though, I'll note it down for the next patch.
Dunno about putting it on the loading screen, but I think a help menu entry would suffice too.
The unit lists were rather messed up, displaying too many things, so I disabled them. If I can fix them sometime I'll enable them.
I used the Mitoscarab as a base for the Behemoth back when I made it, are there differences between Kraith and Mitoscarabs?
Sorry for the confusion, suppose I could make them a bit more obvious than what they are currently. Thought a different model would suffice, but some of them can blend in with the army.
Also, the captains are Devouring Ones (Jormungand), Hunter Killers (Surtur), Kukulzas (Tiamat), Impalers (Garm), Unclean Ones (Fenris) and Torrasques (Baelrog), they're all elite variants of standard units, similar to player reinforcements. Brutalisks and Broodmothers are normal units though.
Twilight Archons can't be merged with Twilight Templar, you need to use the Warp In Reinforcements support power to call them. :P
Back when I was planning the map, I was thinking of implementing an "evil" mode, where you control one of the Broods (besides Baelrog, who would be an AI ally), but I never ended up working on it.
Coop with Terran/Zerg or Protoss/Zerg wouldn't work out due to the creep, but having a game mode where both players are Zerg perhaps could. I'll consider it in the future, at least after my RPG map is at least halfway done/playable, though I think 2 races with 3 subfactions are enough for now :P
Also, the v1.3 patch has been released! Map's been greatly optimized, some new content has been added and numerous bugs have been fixed.
Here's some more specific changes:
You can click here to read the full changelog, didn't post the whole thing here since it was pretty huge :P
Also, adding a gameplay video and some new screenies to the original post.
Watched some minutes of the video. Nice job!
I have some immediate thoughts about the minimap ping and control points from what I watched in the video.
I really like the yellow circle pulse happening to the units in the control point field. I was just thinking of fixed yellow circle when we discussed this but the pulse works so much better.
Did you try to have all the units have one pulse at the same time? Meaning that the pulse was not happening for a random unit at a time but that all the units in a control point field would have a pulse simultaneously? I'm thorn between thinking that this would be cool to thinking that it might be distracting. Perhaps a pulse every 2-3 seconds.
I like yellow circles and pings on the minimap. I think the minimap pings perhaps are a bit too large. They might be less intruding on the minimap if you scaled them down to 0.75, or perhaps even 0.5
I hope to try this out during christmas :)
This is Kraith (Primal Zerg) http://th00.deviantart.net/fs70/PRE/f/2013/070/a/c/primal_zerg_kraith_by_phillgonzo-d5xrdjf.jpg