Note that this is a project and has not yet been released.
’Give me a Quest’ is a co-op Boss fights map.
In case you’re unsure what I mean by this I’ll explain it briefly. The Idea of the map is simple, you join up with a group of people, pick a hero and together you fight bosses and earn rewards.
Map Details
Heroes
Each Hero has 5 unique abilities, 1 passive and 1 invulnerability skill, summing up to a total of 7 Abilities per Hero. The intent is to keep the Heroes simple but still interesting and fun.
I don’t intend to have a lot of ‘skillshots’ this is because I want the map to be more about timing and execution than having to constantly aim your abilities. This doesn’t mean that ‘skillshots’ will be non-existent, but I don’t intend to make heroes entirely reliant on aiming abilities.
Bosses
Bosses will have a majority of ‘skillshot’ abilities with an AI that will hopefully challenge even the most skillful of players. I have a couple of general mechanics I’m planning to use on several bosses, these mechanics are very basic and I would call them minor mechanics which come in play differently between bosses.
Minor Mechanics
Dispel mechanic, this mechanic comes in play when a Boss applies debuffs to targets. Certain Heroes will have abilities to remove debuffs or rather ‘dispel’ them.
Interrupt mechanic, this mechanic comes in play on certain boss abilities which will be interruptible. There might be an ability which has devastating consequences unless interrupted. I want players to have a choice on how to handle some of these abilities. Some may choose to ignore interrupting the ability and instead deal with the effects by perhaps having an additional healer. However some abilities will be absolutely crucial to interrupt. Some situations may even force you to choose between two abilities and decide which one is most important to interrupt.
Enrage mechanic, this mechanic will come in play differently between bosses. Some may be on a timer and if a criterion is not met by the end of that timer the boss will gain a buff of some kind. They may also gain a buff if you fail achieving something during the boss fight. The most basic enrage, that most likely only will come in play on harder difficulties, would be based on how long the fight continues. For example, a fight might have a limit of continuing for 5 minutes, after which point the boss will be very difficult to defeat.
‘skillshot’ mechanic, this is a very basic mechanic. It simply just means that most bosses will have abilities that are possible to avoid through moving your Hero around.
All bosses will have a lot more to them than these minor mechanics. They’re simply there to make some abilities more interactable and force players to react to certain situations and actually have a choice of how to handle a situation.
Smart AI
For purpose of difficulty I intend to make an AI that actually responds to what the players are doing. Standing too close to each other may result in AoE abilities being cast, the boss will always try to take advantage of how the player acts.
I’ll give you some examples below:
Example 1
The Player interrupts the abilities cast by the Boss. Then the boss might stun the player responisble just before attempting a new cast at a later point in the battle.
Example 2
The Player doesn’t interrupt the abilities cast by the Boss. Then he might cast an ability that has to be interrupted or it’ll have even more dire consequences. This might be an ability that targets a player, stunning them and drains their health. This might channel until the player either dies or the boss is interrupted.
Example 3
Players are standing very close to one another. Then the Boss might use AoE abilities at that location or perhaps he applies a debuff that spreads between all nearby players.
Example 4
Players are standing spread across the room. Then he might use abilities that forces players to get closer to one another. There are many different means of doing so, perhaps he gives one player a buff that defends all nearby units from an instant kill ability that the boss attempts to cast shortly after.
There are many ways the boss could react to certain situations and they wont necessarily counter every single strategy. But this will atleast force players to act and react depending on what they’re putting out and how they’re performing.
Items
This is somewhat a major part of the map. I want items to change how a Hero is played. That is why I’ve decided to divide them into 3 categories:
Usable items, this means that an item might have a usable effect such as granting your hero energy, health or possibly boosting their shield for a few seconds. Simple enough, these are items with a usable ability.
Modifier items, these items will modify the abilities your hero as. Perhaps they change a damage ability to heal your hero for half of the damage dealt at the cost of reducing the damage by a percentage. However I want these items to modify abilities so that the hero can be played differently, I don’t intend these items to purely increase the strength of a Hero. So there won’t be a item that just says ‘Increases the damage of ‘ability’ by 100%’.
Core items / Stat items, these items simply enough improve your heroes stats. I hope to achieve a point where these items also apply to changing how a hero is played. Let’s say you play a Healer archetype, but you’ve come up with a way to change the healer into a tank. Then you might want to acquire items that boost stats that are important to a tank.
Even though items will be a major part of the game, I intend to make the changes they give fairly minor. I’d hate to see Heroes getting items that simply make the Bosses ‘a walk in the park’. Items will also be fairly hard to attain, so don’t expect having all the best items after one playthrough. I hope this also gives an incentive for replayability.
Difficulty
I intend to have 4 difficulty levels on the map, Easy, Normal, Hard and Very Hard. At the start of the map you vote which difficulty it should be played at and then all Bosses will be played at that difficulty. I won’t go too in-depth on how I’ve planned the difficulties but I will talk about what player base I intend which difficulty to fit:
Easy, this will be beatable by most players. I still intend it to offer somewhat of a challenge but easy enough to not require a lot of coordination between players.
Normal, will offer a higher challenge than easy but still be beatable by most players. This is targeted at players who know the boss fights and know their heroes.
Hard, this is intended for players who know everything about the boss they’re fighting and the role their hero plays in that fight. Most abilities will be harder in some respect and failing on a mechanic will have major consequences.
Very Hard, intended for near flawless players. Any mistake you make will have consequences on the fight. Perhaps you’re hit by an ability. The ability itself might not do anything too major but at a certain point in the fight the boss gains a buff which will be increasingly strong depending on how many people where hit by his original ability. This difficulty will also require coordination, strategy and even a good team composition. Other difficulties might not have the same necessity of a varying composition of heroes.
Interface / Camera
The camera view will be that of the original SCII. Perhaps a more zoomed out view, but the angle will be the same.
‘Give me a Quest’ will offer a fully reworked interface displaying only the necessities of the map. These features include:
A health & energy bar
A buff / debuff bar
An ability card
A Boss bar, including all necessities regarding boss information (health, energy, debuffs, buffs etc).
A mini map, just for the sake of knowing where your allies are.
Braging Rights!
When it comes to maps that offer a challenge and conquering bosses I think it's essential to have some form of braging rights. That is why I've decided to include achievements and have unit frame rewards, I know it's not much but at least it's a start.
So as you defeat bosses you gain achievements which other users can view inside the game. The rewards from achieving for example a full clear of the game on Normal might award you with a specific Unit frame. These frames appear around your hero in-game, so everyone can see that you've defeated the game on Normal. I'm also thinking of adding visual feedback on the Hero available. Let's say you defeat the game on Hard, then you might be awarded with an attachment such as burning hands or something in that nature.
I'd love for there to be unlockable models, but since SCII has such a limited amount of models to start with I doubt this will be a feature I'd be able to include.
Project Notes
I’ll update this project as I go along. I’ve already gotten a few heroes created and pretty fleshed out. Hoping to release an alpha soon..ish, can’t really say a date.
If you have any questions, suggestions or feedback you'd like to give me, Please post that below and I’ll be happy to answer.
Note that this is a project and has not yet been released.
’Give me a Quest’ is a co-op Boss fights map.
In case you’re unsure what I mean by this I’ll explain it briefly. The Idea of the map is simple, you join up with a group of people, pick a hero and together you fight bosses and earn rewards.
Map Details
Heroes
Each Hero has 5 unique abilities, 1 passive and 1 invulnerability skill, summing up to a total of 7 Abilities per Hero. The intent is to keep the Heroes simple but still interesting and fun.
I don’t intend to have a lot of ‘skillshots’ this is because I want the map to be more about timing and execution than having to constantly aim your abilities. This doesn’t mean that ‘skillshots’ will be non-existent, but I don’t intend to make heroes entirely reliant on aiming abilities.
Bosses
Bosses will have a majority of ‘skillshot’ abilities with an AI that will hopefully challenge even the most skillful of players. I have a couple of general mechanics I’m planning to use on several bosses, these mechanics are very basic and I would call them minor mechanics which come in play differently between bosses.
Minor Mechanics
All bosses will have a lot more to them than these minor mechanics. They’re simply there to make some abilities more interactable and force players to react to certain situations and actually have a choice of how to handle a situation.
Smart AI
For purpose of difficulty I intend to make an AI that actually responds to what the players are doing. Standing too close to each other may result in AoE abilities being cast, the boss will always try to take advantage of how the player acts.
I’ll give you some examples below:
Example 1
The Player interrupts the abilities cast by the Boss. Then the boss might stun the player responisble just before attempting a new cast at a later point in the battle.
Example 2
The Player doesn’t interrupt the abilities cast by the Boss. Then he might cast an ability that has to be interrupted or it’ll have even more dire consequences. This might be an ability that targets a player, stunning them and drains their health. This might channel until the player either dies or the boss is interrupted.
Example 3
Players are standing very close to one another. Then the Boss might use AoE abilities at that location or perhaps he applies a debuff that spreads between all nearby players.
Example 4
Players are standing spread across the room. Then he might use abilities that forces players to get closer to one another. There are many different means of doing so, perhaps he gives one player a buff that defends all nearby units from an instant kill ability that the boss attempts to cast shortly after.
There are many ways the boss could react to certain situations and they wont necessarily counter every single strategy. But this will atleast force players to act and react depending on what they’re putting out and how they’re performing.
Items
This is somewhat a major part of the map. I want items to change how a Hero is played. That is why I’ve decided to divide them into 3 categories:
Even though items will be a major part of the game, I intend to make the changes they give fairly minor. I’d hate to see Heroes getting items that simply make the Bosses ‘a walk in the park’. Items will also be fairly hard to attain, so don’t expect having all the best items after one playthrough. I hope this also gives an incentive for replayability.
Difficulty
I intend to have 4 difficulty levels on the map, Easy, Normal, Hard and Very Hard. At the start of the map you vote which difficulty it should be played at and then all Bosses will be played at that difficulty. I won’t go too in-depth on how I’ve planned the difficulties but I will talk about what player base I intend which difficulty to fit:
Interface / Camera
The camera view will be that of the original SCII. Perhaps a more zoomed out view, but the angle will be the same. ‘Give me a Quest’ will offer a fully reworked interface displaying only the necessities of the map. These features include:
Braging Rights!
When it comes to maps that offer a challenge and conquering bosses I think it's essential to have some form of braging rights. That is why I've decided to include achievements and have unit frame rewards, I know it's not much but at least it's a start.
So as you defeat bosses you gain achievements which other users can view inside the game. The rewards from achieving for example a full clear of the game on Normal might award you with a specific Unit frame. These frames appear around your hero in-game, so everyone can see that you've defeated the game on Normal. I'm also thinking of adding visual feedback on the Hero available. Let's say you defeat the game on Hard, then you might be awarded with an attachment such as burning hands or something in that nature.
I'd love for there to be unlockable models, but since SCII has such a limited amount of models to start with I doubt this will be a feature I'd be able to include.
Project Notes
I’ll update this project as I go along. I’ve already gotten a few heroes created and pretty fleshed out. Hoping to release an alpha soon..ish, can’t really say a date.
If you have any questions, suggestions or feedback you'd like to give me, Please post that below and I’ll be happy to answer.