Mercenary Battles: The Gulch is a DoTA style map I am working on that gets its inspiration from Halo. Since Storm of the Imperium already has classic DoTA locked down I feel the need to go a different route with MercB:G. So, I am making it faster and giving it a more "actiony" feel to the game (more haloish you could say). Matches will be shorter, death time will be shorter, there are man cannons at the bases to shoot you into battle quicker and the map is much more open. All items are consumables and spawn on the map in specific places like they would in halo.
Map Specific details:
Attribute System: Instead of buying gear players get attribute points every level that they can spend to upgrade their character. (Currently in the game and working with revive)
Reactive Skills- Each player will have a reactive skill that has a short duration and moderate cooldown. You can think of a reactive skill as a block button, and it is for some heroes. Others will have skills similar but different in mechanics (ie. blink as a reactive). Heroes will also have 2 regular skills, an ultimate and a teleport (with lengthy cooldown). (9 out of 18 heroes have their skills set at this point in time)
Man Cannons- Just like Halo these are used to blast you quickly back to the front lines after dying or going back to the base. (Currently in the game)
Consumable Items- Items will spawn regularly or drop off creep mobs that can augment your heroes normal abilities. (examples are temporary buffs, grenades, mines, med kits, etc)
Project is about 50% done now and I hope to have it ready to beta test within the next few months (Its playable now just not "presentable" :p) If you would like to contribute to the project pm me here. It would be great if a team could get put together. I can use all the help I can get but specifically I need:
3d artist/texture artist
Someone really good at Actors/special FX
Data junkies :D (would love to have a few dedicated people working on the abilities and getting them completely ready)
Youtube hype guru ;)
If you want to join the project it would be great if you had ventrilo so we can discuss plans in real time. Anyways, that's the project for now. I will update periodically with status reports and more info.
Current character select screen (names are just placeholders right now)
Credit for the character select goes out to Shinoogie12. Thanks a lot for the help:D
Karul charging up an ability
Malici using his "skillshot" ultimate on some helpless marines (loosely based of the yamato cannon has a range of 200 and fires where you aim)
Nadia chillin by the man cannon with her pet predators. The attribute system is shown off in this pic as well.
Credit for the attribute system goes out to alderis and his team at ninja core studios. Great system!
Middle Turrets and capturable central sensory towers
Right Lane Turrets
Left Lane Turrets
Front of waterfall
top of waterfall
Notes:
As you might have noticed, "symmetry" is not really my thing. While there is some symmetry to the map. It is not perfectly symmetrical like other dota maps. Also you don't play this map on an angle. I'm planning on using custom cameras for each team so your base is always bottom and their base is always top.
Looking at some of these pics makes me realize I'm nowhere near done with texturing. Its a good thing I love terrain editing :D .
The "meet (battle) points" for the minions at start are actually staggered. In the left lane the blue team gets the advantage. In the right lane the red team. I did this to have each team extended on one side and away from the tower. Thus promoting early ganks and early kills. Once again a way I am trying to speed up the game.
Looks nice. I wanted to make a halo wars style map, but I'm afraid it might get deleted by blizzard due to copyright stuff. Just keep that in mind. But anyway, I like Dota style maps, and the idea of capture-able sentry towers provides a cool feature. I've never had the dedication to create enough heroes in my Dota style map for it to be any good. Good luck though! I cant wait to play it.
oh and by the way, News-ing is when a moderator puts this forum on the front page for everybody to see.
You can use the program called 'Fraps', there are others out there aswell but I don't know all those names. You can use that to record an ingame video. Though I believe you can also record ingame through a special trigger (I think I saw it somewhere in the trigger editor) I don't know how that trigger works though.
Ohh for sure. I just don't want to get deleted once I publish publicly. Blood Gulch is part of Halo so I'm sure its part of their copyright. A map with the subtitle "Gulch" and armies of Red and Blue fighting each other....might be pushing it.
Although there are maps that use Starship troopers in the title that don't get deleted soooooo.
I have fraps. I know how to push the record button. But how do I use a free camera to show the terrain in game without making my video card (a freaking fermi no less) cry tears of pain?
I know I can enable mouse look and walk a character around but is that the best way?
This really does look fascinating, i like the idea of the flying units, really does bring alot more diversity to the map. Also can i ask a question about Nadias pet predators, are those an ability that will have a cd and will last for like 20 seconds or are they permanently out, and how do the mechanics work, like do they attack what Nadias attacking or do they just do as they please?
Great work so far, really looking forward to playing this.
Nadia can have two predators out at anytime but no more than two. Basically all pet classes have two extra skills on the bottom of their command card. They are "order to attack" and "recall". Order to attack will send the pets to attack, recall will bring them back to your side and cause them to follow.
She will have a 1 minute cooldown on each summoning and it costs lots of mana.
Subsequent levels of the skills (I only have levels up to 4 right now). Will increase her predators health and damage.
Nadia is designed to be a support/pet class. Her DPS output is hampered by the mana costs for her skills which require most attribute points to be spent in stamina, intellect and spell power.
Her other skills are an aoe psi stun, a bubble shield (reactive) that she can put on others as well as herself and her original "snipe" ability from the game which has been beefed up and possibly made into a skill shot (i like skill shots). Again her role in combat is to CC, bubble shield and use her predators wisely.
I am going to go into detail about each character soon (hopefully with video too). Also I will go over how the attributes work soon.
Ah thanks, i was just curious as to how they would work. When you say skill shot you mean the rock lawncher from sotis and the arrow thing from the priestess of the moon hero on dota? if so that really does sound like a great addition to a hero like her. Again really looking forward to this :)
If you have every played around with the raynor sniper hero his penetrator round is a skill shot. If you played League of Legends Ashes arrow is a skill shot as well.
Basically you create a persistent with actor or not and have it check periodically whether there is an enemy in its path. You aim at a point and it fires to that point.
This looks really good. It has some unique features and thew lanes are all strait, unlike other Dota maps. Just be really careful not to take too much stuff from halo or your might get in trouble.
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Mercenary Battles: The Gulch is a DoTA style map I am working on that gets its inspiration from Halo. Since Storm of the Imperium already has classic DoTA locked down I feel the need to go a different route with MercB:G. So, I am making it faster and giving it a more "actiony" feel to the game (more haloish you could say). Matches will be shorter, death time will be shorter, there are man cannons at the bases to shoot you into battle quicker and the map is much more open. All items are consumables and spawn on the map in specific places like they would in halo.
Map Specific details:
Attribute System: Instead of buying gear players get attribute points every level that they can spend to upgrade their character. (Currently in the game and working with revive)
Reactive Skills- Each player will have a reactive skill that has a short duration and moderate cooldown. You can think of a reactive skill as a block button, and it is for some heroes. Others will have skills similar but different in mechanics (ie. blink as a reactive). Heroes will also have 2 regular skills, an ultimate and a teleport (with lengthy cooldown). (9 out of 18 heroes have their skills set at this point in time)
Man Cannons- Just like Halo these are used to blast you quickly back to the front lines after dying or going back to the base. (Currently in the game)
Consumable Items- Items will spawn regularly or drop off creep mobs that can augment your heroes normal abilities. (examples are temporary buffs, grenades, mines, med kits, etc)
Project is about 50% done now and I hope to have it ready to beta test within the next few months (Its playable now just not "presentable" :p) If you would like to contribute to the project pm me here. It would be great if a team could get put together. I can use all the help I can get but specifically I need:
3d artist/texture artist
Someone really good at Actors/special FX
Data junkies :D (would love to have a few dedicated people working on the abilities and getting them completely ready)
Youtube hype guru ;)
If you want to join the project it would be great if you had ventrilo so we can discuss plans in real time. Anyways, that's the project for now. I will update periodically with status reports and more info.
A few pics:
Pic 1 of the map
Pic 2 of the map
Current character select screen (names are just placeholders right now) Credit for the character select goes out to Shinoogie12. Thanks a lot for the help:D
Karul charging up an ability
Malici using his "skillshot" ultimate on some helpless marines (loosely based of the yamato cannon has a range of 200 and fires where you aim)
Nadia chillin by the man cannon with her pet predators. The attribute system is shown off in this pic as well. Credit for the attribute system goes out to alderis and his team at ninja core studios. Great system!
Do you have a video of the map? I would love to news it!
@vjeux: Go
Not currently but I have more pics incoming. What is "news(ing)" btw?
I have never done video capture...thats why I need the youtube guy :D
I do have fraps though....what would be the best way to go about taking a proper video?
@Redfox777: Go
Looks cool looking forward to trying this out! :)
@gankstapony: Go
Thanks a lot! I want to extend testing out from "friends and family" stage asap but not too early. :p
Last batch of pics for today:
Red side
Blue side
Middle Turrets and capturable central sensory towers
Right Lane Turrets
Left Lane Turrets
Front of waterfall
top of waterfall
Notes: As you might have noticed, "symmetry" is not really my thing. While there is some symmetry to the map. It is not perfectly symmetrical like other dota maps. Also you don't play this map on an angle. I'm planning on using custom cameras for each team so your base is always bottom and their base is always top.
Looking at some of these pics makes me realize I'm nowhere near done with texturing. Its a good thing I love terrain editing :D .
The "meet (battle) points" for the minions at start are actually staggered. In the left lane the blue team gets the advantage. In the right lane the red team. I did this to have each team extended on one side and away from the tower. Thus promoting early ganks and early kills. Once again a way I am trying to speed up the game.
Looks nice. I wanted to make a halo wars style map, but I'm afraid it might get deleted by blizzard due to copyright stuff. Just keep that in mind. But anyway, I like Dota style maps, and the idea of capture-able sentry towers provides a cool feature. I've never had the dedication to create enough heroes in my Dota style map for it to be any good. Good luck though! I cant wait to play it.
oh and by the way, News-ing is when a moderator puts this forum on the front page for everybody to see.
@zeldarules28: Go
Yeah that's why I made it rather different from blood gulch. I am debating changing "gulch" in the title to something else too. Like "the canyon" lol.
About newsing: Ohh ok gotcha, dang guess I should make a video :p. Only a flyby would do it justice....how would one go about doing that?!?!
You can use the program called 'Fraps', there are others out there aswell but I don't know all those names. You can use that to record an ingame video. Though I believe you can also record ingame through a special trigger (I think I saw it somewhere in the trigger editor) I don't know how that trigger works though.
@Redfox777: Go
I like the name gulch, it reminds me of Champions Online Maybe see what other people think before going the canyon route :D
@Nigle: Go
Ohh for sure. I just don't want to get deleted once I publish publicly. Blood Gulch is part of Halo so I'm sure its part of their copyright. A map with the subtitle "Gulch" and armies of Red and Blue fighting each other....might be pushing it.
Although there are maps that use Starship troopers in the title that don't get deleted soooooo.
@Mogranlocky: Go
I have fraps. I know how to push the record button. But how do I use a free camera to show the terrain in game without making my video card (a freaking fermi no less) cry tears of pain?
I know I can enable mouse look and walk a character around but is that the best way?
→
First youtube video ever for me. Messed the resolution up so its only 480p. I will do 720p at least next time. :)
Looks good so far, i'll be looking forward to this ^^
This really does look fascinating, i like the idea of the flying units, really does bring alot more diversity to the map. Also can i ask a question about Nadias pet predators, are those an ability that will have a cd and will last for like 20 seconds or are they permanently out, and how do the mechanics work, like do they attack what Nadias attacking or do they just do as they please?
Great work so far, really looking forward to playing this.
@fokk: Go
Nadia can have two predators out at anytime but no more than two. Basically all pet classes have two extra skills on the bottom of their command card. They are "order to attack" and "recall". Order to attack will send the pets to attack, recall will bring them back to your side and cause them to follow.
She will have a 1 minute cooldown on each summoning and it costs lots of mana.
Subsequent levels of the skills (I only have levels up to 4 right now). Will increase her predators health and damage.
Nadia is designed to be a support/pet class. Her DPS output is hampered by the mana costs for her skills which require most attribute points to be spent in stamina, intellect and spell power.
Her other skills are an aoe psi stun, a bubble shield (reactive) that she can put on others as well as herself and her original "snipe" ability from the game which has been beefed up and possibly made into a skill shot (i like skill shots). Again her role in combat is to CC, bubble shield and use her predators wisely.
I am going to go into detail about each character soon (hopefully with video too). Also I will go over how the attributes work soon.
Ah thanks, i was just curious as to how they would work. When you say skill shot you mean the rock lawncher from sotis and the arrow thing from the priestess of the moon hero on dota? if so that really does sound like a great addition to a hero like her. Again really looking forward to this :)
@fokk: Go
If you have every played around with the raynor sniper hero his penetrator round is a skill shot. If you played League of Legends Ashes arrow is a skill shot as well.
Basically you create a persistent with actor or not and have it check periodically whether there is an enemy in its path. You aim at a point and it fires to that point.
This looks really good. It has some unique features and thew lanes are all strait, unlike other Dota maps. Just be really careful not to take too much stuff from halo or your might get in trouble.