I have been working on this multilayer map for a while now, at least, bringing it up to scratch with friends testing it and giving feedback. I published it to version 1.0 in the EU region for the map night on Friday. And it turned out to be quite successful!
Meet the Teams
This multiplayer map allows 2-12 players to battle, the more the merrier. Each player chooses to play as one of three opposing teams. Each team has a base, consisting of 3 turrets, 1 orbital command, 1 barracks, 1 factory, 1 supply depot. The objective is to destroy the enemy bases.
The teams are Team Life, Team Range and Team Speed. The units belonging to each team are specialised as the team names suggests. After choosing the team, players choose what unique unit they want, and also what unique ability that unit has. They then choose a general upgrade of for all of their units, or "Age up", and may choose again at 5, 10 and 15 minutes.
Meet the Units
Players spawn 3 marines and an SCV in their base for so long as they are alive. If they do not have 3 marines or an SCV then new ones respawn.
Marines allow the player to purchase a variety of units. These units spawn beside the marine, not the structure which it is typically associated with. Marines can also purchase new marines. This allows the player a unique and reactive way to deploy their forces.
Advanced barracks and factory units require the player's team to have their barracks or factory alive. These structures are more of a requirement than a production facility.
The units that can be purchased function in similar ways to their melee game equivalents. Some units however have been modified... ghosts have less health but do more damage, firebats have more health and a larger area of effect, dark templars function more like mercenary zealots, etc. The only completely unique unit is the Heavy, which is a slow and tough unit with a rapid rate of fire.
Players earn minerals to spend on their units via a trickle. Keeping the supply depot alive doubles this. Players also earn minerals via making kills, and their SCVs can collect minerals which are positioned outside of the bases in no-mans-land.
Summary
Mode: Multiplayer
Published to: EU
Number of Players: 2-12 (recommended 6+)
Number of Teams: 3 (Life, Range, Speed)
Bases per Team: 1 (No base expansion)
Number of Buildable units: 15 (+1 from a choice of 10)
Number of upgrade choices per Age up: 8
Changes that have been implimented are listed below:
Balancing Changes
vikings (& Hel's Angels) +1 armour (well, they're classed as "armoured" with 0 armour) & cost increased by 10
vikings (& Hel's Angels) spawn in air mode instead of ground
dark templars -1 armour (classed as "light") & cost reduced by 20
base structure life trebled and +1 armour
marine/scv respawn slowed (increased to 5 seconds from 1 second)
score now equivalent to the value of kills
can now earn minerals from killing marines, but cannot earn from killing allied marines.
hardened shields upgrade maximum damage changed from 10 to 15.
mineral field yields now the correct way around and sped up/yield reduced (10 per 2 seconds for rich, and 5 per 2 seconds for normal... from 10 per 5 and 20 per 5)
kill reward reduced from 50% to 25%
cost and rate of fire upgrades halved, reduced from *0.9 (>10% better) to *0.95 (>5% better), etc
predator speed increased from 3 to 4
predators do +15 damage versus armoured
ghost & spectre range +1, period +0.5
firebat & devildog weapon area of effect increased from 0.6 to 1.0 & 1.5 respectively
firebat & devildog life increased by 50% to 150 and 225 respectively
team life and range map positions swapped
team range and range upgrades halved
reaper damage increased to 5+5, life increased to 60
heavy damage increased to 8
dark templars behave like dark templars again, instead of improved zealots
all unit costs rebalanced: range is far more important and speed less so. Prices are also now rounded up to 5s and 10s. Some more expensive, some less, some the same. (Aircraft & diamondbacks cost still *1.5/*1.25 respectively)
Additions
teams may select additional stat increases to begin with
Life: damage (+50%), armour (+3), cost (-25%)
Range: rate of fire (-25%), armour (+3), cost (-25%)
Speed: damage (+50%), rate of fire (-25%), cost (-25%)
team speed's Siege Breakers & Vikings (and their merc forms) now transform twice as fast
new age up option: architectural advisor:
+10% base structure life, +0.5 life regen, +1 photon cannon damage, +200 minerals
new unique unit upgrade option: nuclear deterrent:
On death the unit explodes, dealing 100 damage to friends and foes over a radius of 3.
rocks, lots and lots of rocks!
lights disappear when their parent building is destroyed - oooh, spooky!
Issues Fixed
lighting is now corrected to agria night
odins are excluded from mass cloak
hint text on load screen put in the proper place
reaper jump upgrade now works
spectre energy removed
damage & period upgrades for Siege Tank and Siege Breaker's deployed weapons now work
Siege Breaker's deployed weapon damage reduced from 100 to 90
Siege Breaker & Tank's deployed LOS increased from 11 to 13, in line with weapon range
armour upgrades now work for the Diamondback
unique units no longer mass select non-unique units as well, or vice versa (like firebats/devildogs)
wraith energy removed
new gold mine positions
all unique unit upgrades have representation on the player's unit data GUI
DT's definitely don't need less armour, as they're already disadvantage by being one of the only melee units in the map and usually the focus of target.
You've made it more advantageous now to kill workers rather than armies. We'll see how that plays out.
"Cost and rate of fire upgrades halved" - Really not necessary. If anything, stat upgrades should be increased to make the game more variable.
The additional team stat options don't make any sense. "Life" should give more HP, not more armour. The "Range" option you haven't actually given a range increase! And overall, the bonuses should literally ONLY give bonuses to what it says, and not reduce other stats.
I'm not sure whether faster tank undeployment for one team is good. We'll have to see.
Lighting should be bright and cheerful to make it more attractive and not cast a sense of dullness.
Siege breakers stats (by my understanding) are a 50% increase over regular siege tanks, but for double the price of siege tanks. Decreasing weapon damage by 10 makes it unbalanced.
-----
Changes I think should be made:
In general siege should be more rare, as at the moment, everyone just gets siege when they can. Siege should be more expensive, +50%?
Heavys should be as fast as marines. They lag behind from the army too much for them to really be useful outside the base.
I still believe you should be able to build more workers (maybe in the form of probes). Whilst SCVs regain the ability to use a forcefield.
Thanks for the feedback Zumaa! I appreciate it.
I think you may have misunderstood some of the mathematics behind the changes, which is probably my fault for not explaining it more.
If you have a weapon period (rate of fire) of 1.0, and reduce it by 50%, to 0.5, then it effectively doubles it's effectiveness. It spits out twice the number of attacks, and would be equivalent to two units. Reducing the cost by 50% allows you to produce 2 for 1 as well. I had missed this obvious mathematics in my initial designs by giving the upgrades all 10%, which is unbalanced as it makes rate of fire and cost upgrades twice as effective comparatively.
The siege breaker's damage I was not able to modify successfully to begin with, so the value of 100 damage is the unmodified game value... which is not +50% of the Siege Tank's 60 damage (as a rule of thumb for uniques, which have +50% life and damage, not +100%, otherwise they dominate too easily).
The additional initial stat options is to help players be more able to streamline their army's purpose, and to help make it in a way more similar to the Age of Mythology custom map which inspired this one. In that speed was also a damage-dealer, while many life units were as good at dealing damage as taking it.
As for your suggestions...
I am becoming more sympathetic to the idea of allowing for the purchase of more SCVs, but for a high price.
I am not sure about raising heavy speed, for they don't really need it, and it helps to balance the fact they have exceptional rate of fire and health.
The point of Siege tanks is interesting, since I did raise the cost of aircraft by 50% above their equation cost to accommodate for the fact they can fly. So, perhaps the same should be done for Siege? Not sure.
Age of Renegade Fortress
I have been working on this multilayer map for a while now, at least, bringing it up to scratch with friends testing it and giving feedback. I published it to version 1.0 in the EU region for the map night on Friday. And it turned out to be quite successful!
Meet the Teams
This multiplayer map allows 2-12 players to battle, the more the merrier. Each player chooses to play as one of three opposing teams. Each team has a base, consisting of 3 turrets, 1 orbital command, 1 barracks, 1 factory, 1 supply depot. The objective is to destroy the enemy bases.
The teams are Team Life, Team Range and Team Speed. The units belonging to each team are specialised as the team names suggests. After choosing the team, players choose what unique unit they want, and also what unique ability that unit has. They then choose a general upgrade of for all of their units, or "Age up", and may choose again at 5, 10 and 15 minutes.
Meet the Units
Players spawn 3 marines and an SCV in their base for so long as they are alive. If they do not have 3 marines or an SCV then new ones respawn.
Marines allow the player to purchase a variety of units. These units spawn beside the marine, not the structure which it is typically associated with. Marines can also purchase new marines. This allows the player a unique and reactive way to deploy their forces.
Advanced barracks and factory units require the player's team to have their barracks or factory alive. These structures are more of a requirement than a production facility.
The units that can be purchased function in similar ways to their melee game equivalents. Some units however have been modified... ghosts have less health but do more damage, firebats have more health and a larger area of effect, dark templars function more like mercenary zealots, etc. The only completely unique unit is the Heavy, which is a slow and tough unit with a rapid rate of fire.
Players earn minerals to spend on their units via a trickle. Keeping the supply depot alive doubles this. Players also earn minerals via making kills, and their SCVs can collect minerals which are positioned outside of the bases in no-mans-land.
Summary
Mode: Multiplayer
Published to: EU
Number of Players: 2-12 (recommended 6+)
Number of Teams: 3 (Life, Range, Speed)
Bases per Team: 1 (No base expansion)
Number of Buildable units: 15 (+1 from a choice of 10)
Number of upgrade choices per Age up: 8
Video
Changes that have been implimented are listed below:
Balancing Changes
Additions
Life: damage (+50%), armour (+3), cost (-25%)
Range: rate of fire (-25%), armour (+3), cost (-25%)
Speed: damage (+50%), rate of fire (-25%), cost (-25%)
+10% base structure life, +0.5 life regen, +1 photon cannon damage, +200 minerals
On death the unit explodes, dealing 100 damage to friends and foes over a radius of 3.
Issues Fixed
Pretty good nodgene :) but I have a few concerns.
DT's definitely don't need less armour, as they're already disadvantage by being one of the only melee units in the map and usually the focus of target.
You've made it more advantageous now to kill workers rather than armies. We'll see how that plays out.
"Cost and rate of fire upgrades halved" - Really not necessary. If anything, stat upgrades should be increased to make the game more variable.
The additional team stat options don't make any sense. "Life" should give more HP, not more armour. The "Range" option you haven't actually given a range increase! And overall, the bonuses should literally ONLY give bonuses to what it says, and not reduce other stats.
I'm not sure whether faster tank undeployment for one team is good. We'll have to see.
Lighting should be bright and cheerful to make it more attractive and not cast a sense of dullness.
Siege breakers stats (by my understanding) are a 50% increase over regular siege tanks, but for double the price of siege tanks. Decreasing weapon damage by 10 makes it unbalanced.
-----Changes I think should be made:
In general siege should be more rare, as at the moment, everyone just gets siege when they can. Siege should be more expensive, +50%?
Heavys should be as fast as marines. They lag behind from the army too much for them to really be useful outside the base.
I still believe you should be able to build more workers (maybe in the form of probes). Whilst SCVs regain the ability to use a forcefield.
@Zumaa: Go
Thanks for the feedback Zumaa! I appreciate it.
I think you may have misunderstood some of the mathematics behind the changes, which is probably my fault for not explaining it more.
If you have a weapon period (rate of fire) of 1.0, and reduce it by 50%, to 0.5, then it effectively doubles it's effectiveness. It spits out twice the number of attacks, and would be equivalent to two units. Reducing the cost by 50% allows you to produce 2 for 1 as well. I had missed this obvious mathematics in my initial designs by giving the upgrades all 10%, which is unbalanced as it makes rate of fire and cost upgrades twice as effective comparatively.
The siege breaker's damage I was not able to modify successfully to begin with, so the value of 100 damage is the unmodified game value... which is not +50% of the Siege Tank's 60 damage (as a rule of thumb for uniques, which have +50% life and damage, not +100%, otherwise they dominate too easily).
The additional initial stat options is to help players be more able to streamline their army's purpose, and to help make it in a way more similar to the Age of Mythology custom map which inspired this one. In that speed was also a damage-dealer, while many life units were as good at dealing damage as taking it.
As for your suggestions...
I am becoming more sympathetic to the idea of allowing for the purchase of more SCVs, but for a high price.
I am not sure about raising heavy speed, for they don't really need it, and it helps to balance the fact they have exceptional rate of fire and health.
The point of Siege tanks is interesting, since I did raise the cost of aircraft by 50% above their equation cost to accommodate for the fact they can fly. So, perhaps the same should be done for Siege? Not sure.
Thanks again.