the map received some upgrades and I made a little promo.
Content
2 teams a 5 players fight for the resource terrazine on an abandoned space platform.
Every player controls one mercenary.
The player's income is based on how many terrazine veins the team controls.
The mercenary can calldown units and construct buildings by spending the ressources. A team wins when all enemy heroes are dead for 30 seconds at the same time.
Archetypes
Every mercenary has a specific purpose in the team.
everyone has 5 difference skills
can construct buildings
can calldown units
Support & Eco Heroes: Prospector & Queen
These mercenaries are the backbone of every team. They can calldown the „Builder“ or „Morpher“ which can also tap terrazine veins. The Prospector and the Queen build the most important structure: The recovery building. While this building is up all Heroes who die on the battlefield will respawn there.
The Prospector and the Queen have good survival skills due to their importance in the game.
Support & Heal Heroes: Medic & Weaver
They have a lot of skills to support the team in any kind of situation. Besides being able to heal, both mercenaries can defend themselves. With different support skills they support the team.
Assault & Tactical Heroes: Engineer & Predator
The Engineer and Predator gain their power through tactical moves and smart positioning.
Both can construct defensive buildings to secure map control. Additional they have good skills to hold or break defenses.
Assault & Heavy Heroes: Gunner & Enforcer
These mercenaries are the towers of strength in their teams. They have damage reducing skills and engage with a lot of damage having aoe damage ability.
They can also construct defensive buildings.
Specialist & Scout Heroes: Seargent & Lisker
The Seargent and Lisker are scouts. They have to locate the enemy and support their team with some unique skills.
Combined with good teamplay their ultimates can unleash a huge threat to the enemy.
Gameplay
You start at one of 4 randomized positions on the map. The teams have to secure as many terrazine veins as possible.
Invest the ressources given to you wisely. Set up defenses around your recovery buildings (It is recommended to build more than one). Only the Prospector and Queen can build them, so guard them well.
Since you can spawn units via Call Downs, I assume you can control them as well like normal? And are the units shared through out the entire team or are units you spawn clearly yours only?
If they are separated per player, is it possible to still have shared unit control enabled without letting the control effect the Heroes?
Also, I believe the end game goal needs to be clarified a bit more. All players on the opposing team need to be dead for 30 seconds. How's that supposed to happen? The chances of doing this just by kills is slim; I don't think any one can master killing all 5 players at the same time. It seams the easiest way to victory is to kill all the Hero Recovery Buildings and simply snipe the Heroes. If that is the focus, if all players are dead and no way to spawn... how do you construct another Recovery building so you can spawn?
If you can't, what's the point of the 30 second timer?
Do Heroes have a spawn time? That could mean we could kill all 5 heroes within 10 seconds of each other and get a win.
Is Ranking Planned?
Are achievements planned?
Is their a plan for possible game modes? I can see Greed and King of Hill styles working very well with this map concept.
All the best to you. I hope this map turns out well and can't wait for it make State Side.
- currently everybody has his own units and you can just share like normale(including heroes)
- the win condition seems unfamilar to RTS and thats right.
currently it works this way: you have your recovery building, you can rebuild it everywhere on the map and relocate your whole base if you get rushed or anything else happens. The intention is to implement a "catch-up" mechanic for the whole team. Heroes currently have a respawn time of 20 seconds so if all of you die you can still respawn when you base defense/recovery building is alive.
I think I will change it to something like if the "recovery building is not alive you have 30 secs to rebuild it, or loose" in the next versions.
ranking an achievements/gamemodes can all be implemented but currently I have some issues to get fixed first. The overall gameplay!
I need to get it balanced and the gameplay right(a lot of people already tell me its fun when I get them to play it) but I cant get a continuous group of players(dont know if the game is just not fun enough or if it is bnet 2.0). So Iam running a little bit around in the nirvana in my decisions.
The point I am struggling is that my concept was to make a big dynamic playground for 5v5. You spawn at 4 random position on the map and scout and conquer territory. With the ability to build a new recovery building(respawn point for your heroes) you are able to relocate your whole base. There are e.g. 2 smart double res locations where it would be clever to relocate to. My intention is to let the teams decide where to build their base.They can either stay in their starting base or create a new one. So you have several opening strategies. Because of that the win trigger is not bound to the recovery building.
If a team is beeing just luckily rushed in early/early-mid game and the support/eco archetype of the loosing team can escape.
He shall be able to create a new base anywhere(due to the size of the map)and the team would have the chance to make a comeback. Such a comeback can also be denied by nice scouting etc. It all shall be upon the players and more upon the whole teams arrangement and coordination what is possible and what not.
One another point fitting into this is that the heroes can construct buildings. You can guess of somewhat a mix of sc2,wc3,dota and a zone control map. The defense buildings are expensive but also strong. With a coordinated team strategy and gameplay you can also break such a defense. It is getting really complex right here and there are dozens of ways to play and react with several counter stragies. I wanted much focus on a more team-strategy oriented gameplay than just tactical and item decided moves like in the MOBAs out there.
The dynamic approach shall grant the map a higher replay value. But to achieve that it also has to be large to generate a lot of action and make it exiting in 5v5. The drawback is that 1v1 is playable and due to small automatic attack waves(which scale in strength upon the current number of tapped terrazine veins) there is also some action. But the fun is not that intense and funny like in 5v5.
The calldown mechanism up to now is accepted well and can only be used when you are not in combat, to deny easy hero surrounding in the fight. But if you calldown a lot of marines or lings old graphic cards get busted . Thats something to be discussed an evaluated.
We have to figure out how big the army of a one player can be and how much supply different units shall cost. One other point on the calldown is that you have to hold shift and press the hotkey to make several calldowns in a row. A guy didn't like that and wanted more buttons to make e.g. a calldown of 20 units at once. I think thats something to perhaps come in the future.
The game is at alpha status and I just want to see if it makes sense to invest more time into the project or not.
Overall the map and all the stuff is complex and I am still figuring out how to evolve it.
(10 heroes, 40 different skills, 15 different units, 15 different units, +28items)
There are a lot of things to be improved and developed.
As soon as I get it to be played constantly I will release it to the US.
Right now I am very busy with my job.
But I am happy to any approach/idea and everything is up to be changed. It is still alpha.
Well said. I sense that you feel the concept is rounded, but lacks some strong foundation to justify some of the complexities. Of which, we cannot identify until you get constant full lobbies. This brings me to the first note-
One, it's a 10 player map. Lobbies are going to need dedicated masses in order to even start. Can the map be played on a 3v3 basis? Smaller lobbies means easier testing until more players can be found.
Second, certain heroes seem required. When it comes to games where it invites that you have a choice as to how you play? Forcing the player's hand on making a choice is not the way to go. I'll get to my point: you might be able to play the game fine without a scout hero, but some one HAS to play the builder Hero to even rebuild the Recovery buildings. I'd suggest making the Recovery buildings more generic in their purchase. All players, reguardless of class, should be able to create the building. Maybe the Builder can have an advantage on the Recovery Building by builing it faster, but still. If My team kills your Recovery Base AND snipes the only Hero that builds it? It's GG via attrition.
Thirdly, Invite player choice whole heartily. Allow for players to pick the same Classes. If certain game focused mechanics are made shared class wide (like the recov building), another way to create replay-ability is by letting players choose what they want to play despite what their team mates decide, in order to inject more variety each time the game is played. 1 match might be a team of 2 scouts and 3 assaults vs 1 Builder, 2 Engineers and 2 Supports! That'd make for some interesting content!
Lastly, I asked about game modes because it might be simpler to have the goals be over all team performance based rather than individual kill based. I'm expecting after a time (when the game is being played constantly enough) for combat to devolve into massive "Focus Fire the Hero!" situations; which completely destroys the RTS depth entirely. If the goal was say, a Greed objective, players would have to be strategical beyond just sniping heroes. Should they spend money on Defense Buildings? How much should they budget themselves on calling down more units? Can I really afford that item with only 1k resources left til victory? Same with King of Hill. One team decides how to best turtle while the other decides how to best crack the shell. This doesn't always involve just sniping the heroes when in this mode, people will obviously be looking into the Defenses and Troops to do most of the defending.
The map is playable in 3on3 but it is still to large for the goal to "kill the enemy". But other game modes can/should concentrate the gameplay to a more channelled goal and more easily to achieve in 3on3 (to not get lost on the big map) so I will work on that.
Hi there,
the map received some upgrades and I made a little promo.
Content
2 teams a 5 players fight for the resource terrazine on an abandoned space platform.
Every player controls one mercenary.
The player's income is based on how many terrazine veins the team controls.
The mercenary can calldown units and construct buildings by spending the ressources. A team wins when all enemy heroes are dead for 30 seconds at the same time.
Archetypes
Every mercenary has a specific purpose in the team.
Support & Eco Heroes: Prospector & Queen
These mercenaries are the backbone of every team. They can calldown the „Builder“ or „Morpher“ which can also tap terrazine veins. The Prospector and the Queen build the most important structure: The recovery building. While this building is up all Heroes who die on the battlefield will respawn there.
The Prospector and the Queen have good survival skills due to their importance in the game.
Support & Heal Heroes: Medic & Weaver
They have a lot of skills to support the team in any kind of situation. Besides being able to heal, both mercenaries can defend themselves. With different support skills they support the team.
Assault & Tactical Heroes: Engineer & Predator
The Engineer and Predator gain their power through tactical moves and smart positioning.
Both can construct defensive buildings to secure map control. Additional they have good skills to hold or break defenses.
Assault & Heavy Heroes: Gunner & Enforcer
These mercenaries are the towers of strength in their teams. They have damage reducing skills and engage with a lot of damage having aoe damage ability.
They can also construct defensive buildings.
Specialist & Scout Heroes: Seargent & Lisker
The Seargent and Lisker are scouts. They have to locate the enemy and support their team with some unique skills.
Combined with good teamplay their ultimates can unleash a huge threat to the enemy.
Gameplay
You start at one of 4 randomized positions on the map. The teams have to secure as many terrazine veins as possible.
Invest the ressources given to you wisely. Set up defenses around your recovery buildings (It is recommended to build more than one). Only the Prospector and Queen can build them, so guard them well.
Remember: This is alpha version
Good luck in battle!
Some pictures:
green dots = start locations
pink dots = terrazine veins
yellow dots = shops
team1
team2
terrazine tapping
shop 1
shop 2
space for updates
@lom4R: Go
Looks great, and we got your news request. :D
Beware! I bombard thee with questions!!!!
The promo is incredible, but we don't learn much about the gameplay... tanx to the description text i know it better.
hi and thanks,
to answer your questions here we go
- currently everybody has his own units and you can just share like normale(including heroes) - the win condition seems unfamilar to RTS and thats right. currently it works this way: you have your recovery building, you can rebuild it everywhere on the map and relocate your whole base if you get rushed or anything else happens. The intention is to implement a "catch-up" mechanic for the whole team. Heroes currently have a respawn time of 20 seconds so if all of you die you can still respawn when you base defense/recovery building is alive. I think I will change it to something like if the "recovery building is not alive you have 30 secs to rebuild it, or loose" in the next versions.
ranking an achievements/gamemodes can all be implemented but currently I have some issues to get fixed first. The overall gameplay!
I need to get it balanced and the gameplay right(a lot of people already tell me its fun when I get them to play it) but I cant get a continuous group of players(dont know if the game is just not fun enough or if it is bnet 2.0). So Iam running a little bit around in the nirvana in my decisions.
The point I am struggling is that my concept was to make a big dynamic playground for 5v5. You spawn at 4 random position on the map and scout and conquer territory. With the ability to build a new recovery building(respawn point for your heroes) you are able to relocate your whole base. There are e.g. 2 smart double res locations where it would be clever to relocate to. My intention is to let the teams decide where to build their base.They can either stay in their starting base or create a new one. So you have several opening strategies. Because of that the win trigger is not bound to the recovery building. If a team is beeing just luckily rushed in early/early-mid game and the support/eco archetype of the loosing team can escape. He shall be able to create a new base anywhere(due to the size of the map)and the team would have the chance to make a comeback. Such a comeback can also be denied by nice scouting etc. It all shall be upon the players and more upon the whole teams arrangement and coordination what is possible and what not.
One another point fitting into this is that the heroes can construct buildings. You can guess of somewhat a mix of sc2,wc3,dota and a zone control map. The defense buildings are expensive but also strong. With a coordinated team strategy and gameplay you can also break such a defense. It is getting really complex right here and there are dozens of ways to play and react with several counter stragies. I wanted much focus on a more team-strategy oriented gameplay than just tactical and item decided moves like in the MOBAs out there.
The dynamic approach shall grant the map a higher replay value. But to achieve that it also has to be large to generate a lot of action and make it exiting in 5v5. The drawback is that 1v1 is playable and due to small automatic attack waves(which scale in strength upon the current number of tapped terrazine veins) there is also some action. But the fun is not that intense and funny like in 5v5.
The calldown mechanism up to now is accepted well and can only be used when you are not in combat, to deny easy hero surrounding in the fight. But if you calldown a lot of marines or lings old graphic cards get busted . Thats something to be discussed an evaluated. We have to figure out how big the army of a one player can be and how much supply different units shall cost. One other point on the calldown is that you have to hold shift and press the hotkey to make several calldowns in a row. A guy didn't like that and wanted more buttons to make e.g. a calldown of 20 units at once. I think thats something to perhaps come in the future.
The game is at alpha status and I just want to see if it makes sense to invest more time into the project or not.
Overall the map and all the stuff is complex and I am still figuring out how to evolve it. (10 heroes, 40 different skills, 15 different units, 15 different units, +28items)
There are a lot of things to be improved and developed. As soon as I get it to be played constantly I will release it to the US. Right now I am very busy with my job. But I am happy to any approach/idea and everything is up to be changed. It is still alpha.
@lom4R: Go
Well said. I sense that you feel the concept is rounded, but lacks some strong foundation to justify some of the complexities. Of which, we cannot identify until you get constant full lobbies. This brings me to the first note-
@Pimpmunkeh: Go
You nailed it :)
The map is playable in 3on3 but it is still to large for the goal to "kill the enemy". But other game modes can/should concentrate the gameplay to a more channelled goal and more easily to achieve in 3on3 (to not get lost on the big map) so I will work on that.
Should publish this on NA, I really want to play it.