I want to get the jump on other map makers making modes that monopolize most member's play time. Just like Tower Defenses and DOTAs were invented early in WC3, I want to get my map idea popular.
It would be a kind of crazy custom line tower wars with attackers. The idea is that there a few builders (not that many) who build a base out of barricades, towers, and units.
The enemy is a single player who creates custom units to send on every wave. The enemy would create his units using a kind of point system. First, he'd choose a model. They would be limited to zerg units as well as a couple custom models (hopefully). This has no effect on gameplay, and costs no points. Then he'd get 12 points to distribute between Health, Attack, Defense, Speed, Attack speed, and Quantity. An average unit would have 2 points in each, and you can have up to 8 in one category. Other things you could spend your points on are abilities that include flying, range, poisonous attacks, self destruct abilities, invisibility, summoning other units, and so forth. You are able to modify a unit's set up at any time, but once you use it in game, you can't modify it. Also, the enemy can only unlock a new slot for a custom enemy every 3 waves or so.
There would also be 3 main types of units. The average unit will attack only if attacked and will otherwise try and slip past your defenses. Passive units will only fight if the path to the exit is blocked, or if an enemy "taunts" them. Aggressive units will attack everything, and will thus only be useful for weakening the enemy as unless they manage to destroy everything in their path, they won't make it to the exit.
The map itself would be a long, wide rectangle with 3 spawn points on the top, and 2 on each side a little from the top. Before the next round begins, the enemy would select each spawn point in turn, and choose which unit it spawns.
Every 5 levels, the enemy gets a choice to spawn a boss at one of the spawn points, which essentially takes the unit he chooses, takes all points out of quantity, and distributes in equally amongst everything else, then multiplies all of its stats, and doubles their size. Normally, if you don't put any points into quantity, it will spawn 6, not one.
The builders would be limited to building in an area around a pylon, which they'd get more of as the game progresses. As I'd mentioned before, they can build barracades, towers, and units. Barracades would mostly impede enemy progress and give your units something to hide behind. Towers are fairly fortified, but you can't move them. A terran seige tank would count as a tower. Units have little health, and will usually have to hide behind a barricade, though some are just fine hanging around outside. Marines and firebats would be the ones hiding. Zealots, which are hardier, taunt nearby enemies into attacking them, making them good against passive enemies.
You receive a bunch of minerals after every round, and are used to build barricades and towers, as well as upgrade barricades, towers, and units. Vespene gas is generated over time, and is used to call in units (which arrive via dropship in groups of about 5)
The goal would be to make it as long as possible, while protecting a building with a large amount of health at the bottom of the map. After the game ends, a new "enemy" is chosen and the game repeats itself.
Enemies would spawn once a minute has passed AND the units that spawn NEXT wave have been chosen.
These are some examples as to what the enemy could create. Note that these aren't their actual stats, but rather how many points are given to them. Zerglings don't really have 0 hp. I actually have more examples, but this is enough to get the idea. (I wish there were spoiler tags or something )
Ultralisk: HP: 5 Atk: 4 Def: 2 Speed: 0 Atkspeed: 0 Quantity: 0
AOE attack (1)
Even though the quantity is listed as zero, they still spawn in groups of about 6. Their AOE attack is similar to the way it is in vanilla SC2.
Baneling: HP: 1 Atk: 3 Def: 1 Speed: 3 Atkspeed: 0 Quantity: 1
Poison Selfdestruct (3)
If you try to equip any Selfdestruct move, it will automatically set the points in Atkspeed to 0, as it does nothing in this case.
Other things I'm aiming for include custom game modes where you have to protect your own pylon and enemies come from all sides, and custom models for the enemy to use.
TL;DR: It's essentially a team tower defense where the enemies fight back, and are custom created by another player.
Any good names, ideas, or tips for general balance?
Let me try and simplify it. Sorry, I've never been good at explaining stuff, but this idea has me wanting to bash my brains out with a giant telescopic sledgehammer because I can't put it anywhere but online for now.
Crappy paint time! Whoo!
Anyways, there would be about 5 players, and one enemy.
The little rectangles on the top are the spawn points. That black box at the bottom is what you have to protect.
Enemies would come from the spawn points each round, meaning that a lot of enemies spawn. Even if you don't give any points to an enemy's quantity, that still means 6 spawn per spawn point, which totals to 30, which is a helluvalot of ultralisks. Also, 5 spawn points means at most, 5 enemy unit types.
This player's base features a line of barricades, with towers on either side and marines behind the barricades. Those red enemies (lets pretend they are zerglings) are swarming in from the top, and are more or less just trying to get around this player's base, but if they get shot, they stop their task of destroying the building at the bottom of the map, and instead focus on smashing the barricades to get to the marines.
As for the enemy's unit creation, they would just unlock a new blank unit every 3 rounds or so, choose a model, and then spend points improving their stats and giving them abilities.
I like this idea alot, the concept of creating the unit yourself while playing the game.
This would be great together with a custom ui to make the customisation options easier. However some may just want to defend, if they are on a lan or something, therefore I suggest you add predefined creatures for only protection mode!
Basically in the same way? You choose the model for the tower, maybe the sort of tower is decided so let's say in level 5 you get to design your canon tower but you still get to decide in aoe, damage, range, speed and so on.
This would make it more balanced but would still allow them to create them by themselves! :D
Good idea! Maybe it should be a little different in the sense that you can apply up to a fairly large number of upgrades over any period of time, but doing so will make building more towers expensive. And the cost of the upgrade will include the price of giving all your existing towers the boost.
Ye that sounds great! It's good that you develop my idea further! :D
You should create a basic picture(Paint ftw!) about how you want the custom ui to be if you're going with one"
Basically, on the left is a list of models to choose from (zerglings, hydralisks, roaches, drones, etc... Probably also a next page button)
On the right is where you can customize the unit. Before you unlock it, you get a nice large model preview so you don't accidentally an ultralisk instead of a zergling. Once you unlock it, (second pic), you can add points to it's stats (forgot to draw a subtract points button >.<). You'd add abilities (when you hit add, the left half becomes an ability chooser) at the cost of points. At the top right is the AI chooser, so you can switch between passive, normal, and aggressive (green, yellow, and red, respectively. I like the smiley motif, so I'll probably keep it.) You can re-edit it at any time, but you can't use it in game until you hit the lock button, which prevents you from editing it any further.
Also, looking back, I should have replaced lock with create, as it's makes more sense, especially with the unlock button in the first picture.
looks, name, extra thing(text loading screen models) should come last. The actually hard part (triggers data editing camera) should be first after the initial look (basic landscape) imo. because if u cant get the stuff that makes the game the game then u would end up wasting(not total wasteing[experinace] ) time.
I want to get the jump on other map makers making modes that monopolize most member's play time. Just like Tower Defenses and DOTAs were invented early in WC3, I want to get my map idea popular.
It would be a kind of crazy custom line tower wars with attackers. The idea is that there a few builders (not that many) who build a base out of barricades, towers, and units.
The enemy is a single player who creates custom units to send on every wave. The enemy would create his units using a kind of point system. First, he'd choose a model. They would be limited to zerg units as well as a couple custom models (hopefully). This has no effect on gameplay, and costs no points. Then he'd get 12 points to distribute between Health, Attack, Defense, Speed, Attack speed, and Quantity. An average unit would have 2 points in each, and you can have up to 8 in one category. Other things you could spend your points on are abilities that include flying, range, poisonous attacks, self destruct abilities, invisibility, summoning other units, and so forth. You are able to modify a unit's set up at any time, but once you use it in game, you can't modify it. Also, the enemy can only unlock a new slot for a custom enemy every 3 waves or so.
There would also be 3 main types of units. The average unit will attack only if attacked and will otherwise try and slip past your defenses. Passive units will only fight if the path to the exit is blocked, or if an enemy "taunts" them. Aggressive units will attack everything, and will thus only be useful for weakening the enemy as unless they manage to destroy everything in their path, they won't make it to the exit.
The map itself would be a long, wide rectangle with 3 spawn points on the top, and 2 on each side a little from the top. Before the next round begins, the enemy would select each spawn point in turn, and choose which unit it spawns.
Every 5 levels, the enemy gets a choice to spawn a boss at one of the spawn points, which essentially takes the unit he chooses, takes all points out of quantity, and distributes in equally amongst everything else, then multiplies all of its stats, and doubles their size. Normally, if you don't put any points into quantity, it will spawn 6, not one.
The builders would be limited to building in an area around a pylon, which they'd get more of as the game progresses. As I'd mentioned before, they can build barracades, towers, and units. Barracades would mostly impede enemy progress and give your units something to hide behind. Towers are fairly fortified, but you can't move them. A terran seige tank would count as a tower. Units have little health, and will usually have to hide behind a barricade, though some are just fine hanging around outside. Marines and firebats would be the ones hiding. Zealots, which are hardier, taunt nearby enemies into attacking them, making them good against passive enemies.
You receive a bunch of minerals after every round, and are used to build barricades and towers, as well as upgrade barricades, towers, and units. Vespene gas is generated over time, and is used to call in units (which arrive via dropship in groups of about 5)
The goal would be to make it as long as possible, while protecting a building with a large amount of health at the bottom of the map. After the game ends, a new "enemy" is chosen and the game repeats itself.
Enemies would spawn once a minute has passed AND the units that spawn NEXT wave have been chosen.
These are some examples as to what the enemy could create. Note that these aren't their actual stats, but rather how many points are given to them. Zerglings don't really have 0 hp. I actually have more examples, but this is enough to get the idea. (I wish there were spoiler tags or something )
Drone: HP: 2 Atk: 2 Def: 2 Speed: 2 Atkspeed: 2 Quantity: 2
Zergling: HP: 0 Atk: 1 Def: 0 Speed: 3 Atkspeed: 4 Quantity: 4
Hydralisk HP: 3 Atk: 3 Def: 1 Speed: 1 Atkspeed: 1 Quantity: 2 Ranged (1)
Ultralisk: HP: 5 Atk: 4 Def: 2 Speed: 0 Atkspeed: 0 Quantity: 0 AOE attack (1) Even though the quantity is listed as zero, they still spawn in groups of about 6. Their AOE attack is similar to the way it is in vanilla SC2.
Baneling: HP: 1 Atk: 3 Def: 1 Speed: 3 Atkspeed: 0 Quantity: 1 Poison Selfdestruct (3) If you try to equip any Selfdestruct move, it will automatically set the points in Atkspeed to 0, as it does nothing in this case.
Queen: HP: 6 Atk: 2 Def: 0 Speed: 2 Atkspeed: 2 Quantity: 0
Other things I'm aiming for include custom game modes where you have to protect your own pylon and enemies come from all sides, and custom models for the enemy to use.
TL;DR: It's essentially a team tower defense where the enemies fight back, and are custom created by another player.
Any good names, ideas, or tips for general balance?
You might try drawing some mock-ups to make your idea clear, I didn't really understand it from that huge blob of text.
Let me try and simplify it. Sorry, I've never been good at explaining stuff, but this idea has me wanting to bash my brains out with a giant telescopic sledgehammer because I can't put it anywhere but online for now.
Crappy paint time! Whoo! Anyways, there would be about 5 players, and one enemy.
The little rectangles on the top are the spawn points. That black box at the bottom is what you have to protect. Enemies would come from the spawn points each round, meaning that a lot of enemies spawn. Even if you don't give any points to an enemy's quantity, that still means 6 spawn per spawn point, which totals to 30, which is a helluvalot of ultralisks. Also, 5 spawn points means at most, 5 enemy unit types.
This player's base features a line of barricades, with towers on either side and marines behind the barricades. Those red enemies (lets pretend they are zerglings) are swarming in from the top, and are more or less just trying to get around this player's base, but if they get shot, they stop their task of destroying the building at the bottom of the map, and instead focus on smashing the barricades to get to the marines.
As for the enemy's unit creation, they would just unlock a new blank unit every 3 rounds or so, choose a model, and then spend points improving their stats and giving them abilities.
I like this idea alot, the concept of creating the unit yourself while playing the game.
This would be great together with a custom ui to make the customisation options easier. However some may just want to defend, if they are on a lan or something, therefore I suggest you add predefined creatures for only protection mode!
@Kimphoe: Go
I was planning on doing that. I got a bit of inspiration from the old WC3 Gladiators map. Just a little though.
Ye now that you mention it, it reminds me of it a bit too! Like a hybrid between hero line and gladiator!
One more suggestion; What if the defenders got to design their towers and barricades in the same way as the intruder does? :)
Much better, sounds like a fun idea.
@Kimphoe: Go
Hey yeah. Now I feel stupid for not thinking about it before... :D
Not totally sure how it should be done though...
Also, I still need a name.
Basically in the same way? You choose the model for the tower, maybe the sort of tower is decided so let's say in level 5 you get to design your canon tower but you still get to decide in aoe, damage, range, speed and so on.
This would make it more balanced but would still allow them to create them by themselves! :D
@Kimphoe: Go
Good idea! Maybe it should be a little different in the sense that you can apply up to a fairly large number of upgrades over any period of time, but doing so will make building more towers expensive. And the cost of the upgrade will include the price of giving all your existing towers the boost.
Ye that sounds great! It's good that you develop my idea further! :D
You should create a basic picture(Paint ftw!) about how you want the custom ui to be if you're going with one"
Basically, on the left is a list of models to choose from (zerglings, hydralisks, roaches, drones, etc... Probably also a next page button) On the right is where you can customize the unit. Before you unlock it, you get a nice large model preview so you don't accidentally an ultralisk instead of a zergling. Once you unlock it, (second pic), you can add points to it's stats (forgot to draw a subtract points button >.<). You'd add abilities (when you hit add, the left half becomes an ability chooser) at the cost of points. At the top right is the AI chooser, so you can switch between passive, normal, and aggressive (green, yellow, and red, respectively. I like the smiley motif, so I'll probably keep it.) You can re-edit it at any time, but you can't use it in game until you hit the lock button, which prevents you from editing it any further.
Also, looking back, I should have replaced lock with create, as it's makes more sense, especially with the unlock button in the first picture.
Also, I am still struggling with a name >_>
Well I don't think you should decide on a name now, it'll come naturally! :)
True dat. But I've had this idea for a week now.
At least the map editor just just just came out so I can start on it.
Double post, but I've added this to the maps section with the name "Protector". It might end up being a temporary name.
looks, name, extra thing(text loading screen models) should come last. The actually hard part (triggers data editing camera) should be first after the initial look (basic landscape) imo. because if u cant get the stuff that makes the game the game then u would end up wasting(not total wasteing[experinace] ) time.
Lovin' the MSPaint sketches, :P.