My latest map: Death Haven, a cooperative defense map against the Zerg. Play as Scout, Medic, Engineer, Soldier, or Sniper and help defend Terran resource holds against waves of Zerg. As you gain kills, you will earn higher ranks which unlock abilities, icons, and increase damage. As well, use money to purchase upgrades and defensive structures.
Rank and kills (per class you have played as) are saved between games. Zerg waves are randomized based on a difficulty quota and the time of the game, promising a different experience every time. Also included are bosses which require teamwork to combat.
5 players is best of course to cover each class... but yes it does scale a bit based on player count. You can expect to lose though as 1 player... lots of retrying until you get to higher ranks.
Edit: The map is very hard at the moment... we'll see how I can balance it over time.
Oh no, we won't give feedback, that'd be useful and supportive.
No promises as to when, but it sounds like something we'd enjoy so I'll at least mention it.
I will not judge too soon as I have not played it yet, but it seems like it would be more interesting with more abilities available from the start. I am also a fanatic for player choice, so class customization would make my day too :-p
Yeah I see what you mean, I'm debating making the 5 hero abilities unlock on the first 5 ranks rather than every 2nd rank. It only takes a few games to get from rank 8 (initial) to 5-6.
What I was going for was sort of a 'build yourself slowly' vibe with the map. E.g. you start limited so that you really want to replay to earn those new abilities. I don't want your initial experience to be too enriched otherwise why replay. Most MMO's sort of work like this so I'm feeding off that.
Here is a suggestion...and I came up with this in about 5 minutes so I'm sorry if in reality it sucks (my fried brain appears to currently agree with me that it's not absolutely terrible):
a very simple skill tree with 3 perks per row
in each row, you select ONE of the three options, those being an ability, a passive bonus, or a different passive bonus (bonuses can affect abilities)
when you invest in a row, the next becomes available, but the current row becomes locked
a point is gained per rank
start each hero with one signature ability that improves with rank (or have all abilities scale up)
Also, another question: is this going to be a long-term supported project or a short-term having fun with it and see how it goes? If it is long-term then there are other ways to expand on the re-playability :)
I'll see. It was just a fun map I wanted to make so I did... it's in no way as big as my RPG. But if it stays known for a while I'll keep on it. Otherwise I'll finish balance and move on back to my RPG so I don't waste time.
Try switching the SCV model with the Hero Engineer/Marauder guy... Maybe alter the attacks so its a short range (3) "Psi Blast" from a archon or something.
I'm getting a little tired of seeing a simple SCV for heroes all the time now...
Using Mercs is a good change of looks too.
My bro and I were testing this out today. He played soldier and I played engineer. On our second play through it recorded some kills for both of us, but on our third round it completely forgot my accomplishments as an engineer. Oddly enough, when I moused over the soldier icon on my screen, I could have played as rank 6. He also had this option, but it was he and not I that had ranked up the soldier earlier.
Wow, thanks for the quick update. The next time I played with the engineer I got all my kills back. One small problem remains: At the start of the game, upon mouseover, it still shows the engineer as rank 8 even though upon selection I am rank 5. One last thing that is not necessarily a problem, but I think turrets are really good for their cheap cost as you can easily kite zerg around them. Downside being you don't get any kills for massing turrets, but it does seem a bit too easy from the survival point of view.
- (upgrades) armor cost up and weapon cost up slightly
- sentry cost up
- nydus worm now spawns different units as game progresses (harder ones)
- fatty has half of old hp, but double damage
- aberration has double old damage now
- ultralisk had a damage buff too
- Virus damage should scale up by 1 (per tick) on upgrades... this won't show in the tooltip.
- Waves now spawn faster for more players, and waves will come even more faster as resources get closer to 0.
- Engi model changed
- Fatty minimap size fixed
- Leviathan boss now has triggered spells
- New zerg structure spawns randomly (increases all zerg damage by 20%). Have to kill it fast! (You will be notified FYI).
- overlords spawn banelings when they come.
I still couldn't find a fix or find anything wrong with class selection buttons... Enjoy :D
Woo! More updates. As far as turret cost goes, take my comments with a grain of salt as I have only played the game with one other person at a time. Turrets are cheap enough that you can easily pile them on next to oneanother, giving you a point to kite the larger enemies around (because enemies preferentially target heroes no matter how many turrets are present). For money this strategy works well as the turrets automatically feed you cash, but for kills it sucks because you get almost nothing (and therefore take no permanent gain away from the game). The latter acts as a funny deterrent to turret use, but I'm not sure that should be the case. If turrets are changed to net you kills, then the cost should definitely be increased or the mechanics by which the enemies choose their targets should be altered so that they are not so easily kited. Again, I have no idea how this would effect a 5-man game.
Just posting another update so this thread isn't out of date...
Notes:
- Heal benefits from weapon upgrade
- Same class chosen for multiple players bug fixed (hopefully)
- Kills/rank is now global. Older players should find their global rank/kills start at the highest of their old ranks/kills.
- Drop Spider Mine is now instant rather than targeted.
- last round of hero abilities added
- hero abils now show on class selection
- Boss occurence lowered
I played this game a ton yesterday and today. Beat it twice, once in the newest update. My medic now has 6k kills.
I feel that the gap in a skill learned from 500 to 5000 is way too large. I see you already talked about it, but it would be cool if you were able to get something besides just +1 at 2k kills.
Another thing that would add to replay value is the addition of items. I'm guessing you probably thought about this already, but just having monsters drop rare items like an aberration having a .5% chance to drop a cool item would be nice. They don't have to be that powerful either, just having like a plus 3 dmg item drop or something would be cool.
Here is an idea from an old WC3 map called survival rpg that may add to replay value as well. Everyone 5 games you played, you gained another rank up on your dog tags. These were very small bonuses that gave off an aura around your character. For example, you play 5 games, you get a plus 3% move bonus, play 10 games, another aura of +1% attack speed or so. Very small, but more incentive to keep playing.
Anyways, thanks for making the map, it's been fun. If u ever want me to test anything or talk to me, you can respond here or msg me at zlingsfolife.952
Thanks... Also, would you like for me to make a writeup about this map on Teamliquid.net?
Edit: After playing I have some more ideas.
In map description or map loading screen direct players to a chatroom like Death Haven or something. That way players can find a group if they want instead of playing with randoms.
Enable some type of difficulty setting where you can make it harder so enemies are faster/do more dmg etc, but you get double the kills or more kills if you beat the map on hard or something.
My latest map: Death Haven, a cooperative defense map against the Zerg. Play as Scout, Medic, Engineer, Soldier, or Sniper and help defend Terran resource holds against waves of Zerg. As you gain kills, you will earn higher ranks which unlock abilities, icons, and increase damage. As well, use money to purchase upgrades and defensive structures.
Rank and kills (per class you have played as) are saved between games. Zerg waves are randomized based on a difficulty quota and the time of the game, promising a different experience every time. Also included are bosses which require teamwork to combat.
SC2Mapster project page: http://www.sc2mapster.com/maps/death-haven/
Published on US and EU! Let me know any feedback :D
Questions!
Does it scale with players? How many players is best? What comes after onetwo?
@Zantai: Go
5 players is best of course to cover each class... but yes it does scale a bit based on player count. You can expect to lose though as 1 player... lots of retrying until you get to higher ranks.
Edit: The map is very hard at the moment... we'll see how I can balance it over time.
What do you mean what comes after?
Correct answers would have been "SC" or "three". I would also accept "pie" and "what the hell is wrong with you?"
I will see if I can get my usual trio together, but that means we'd be tackling it with 3 people. That's ok though, we love a challenge ;-)
@Zantai: Go
I'd love to know how it went haha. As of right now the balance is a bit 'fresh' so to say.
Also, what the hell is wrong with you.
Oh no, we won't give feedback, that'd be useful and supportive.
No promises as to when, but it sounds like something we'd enjoy so I'll at least mention it.
I will not judge too soon as I have not played it yet, but it seems like it would be more interesting with more abilities available from the start. I am also a fanatic for player choice, so class customization would make my day too :-p
@Zantai: Go
Yeah I see what you mean, I'm debating making the 5 hero abilities unlock on the first 5 ranks rather than every 2nd rank. It only takes a few games to get from rank 8 (initial) to 5-6.
What I was going for was sort of a 'build yourself slowly' vibe with the map. E.g. you start limited so that you really want to replay to earn those new abilities. I don't want your initial experience to be too enriched otherwise why replay. Most MMO's sort of work like this so I'm feeding off that.
I can definitely agree with a steady progression.
Here is a suggestion...and I came up with this in about 5 minutes so I'm sorry if in reality it sucks (my fried brain appears to currently agree with me that it's not absolutely terrible):
Also, another question: is this going to be a long-term supported project or a short-term having fun with it and see how it goes? If it is long-term then there are other ways to expand on the re-playability :)
@Zantai: Go
I'll see. It was just a fun map I wanted to make so I did... it's in no way as big as my RPG. But if it stays known for a while I'll keep on it. Otherwise I'll finish balance and move on back to my RPG so I don't waste time.
Try switching the SCV model with the Hero Engineer/Marauder guy... Maybe alter the attacks so its a short range (3) "Psi Blast" from a archon or something. I'm getting a little tired of seeing a simple SCV for heroes all the time now... Using Mercs is a good change of looks too.
@OneTwoSC: Go
Im assuming no EU release as of yet?.
And, OneTwoSC, I miss your old avatar;p
Edit: Scratch that. It is released on EU. Didnt see that at first glance;p
@OneTwoSC: Go
My bro and I were testing this out today. He played soldier and I played engineer. On our second play through it recorded some kills for both of us, but on our third round it completely forgot my accomplishments as an engineer. Oddly enough, when I moused over the soldier icon on my screen, I could have played as rank 6. He also had this option, but it was he and not I that had ranked up the soldier earlier.
PS Great game.
@rockerbros: Go
Sorry rocker I had a bug with engi not loading right. I just released a patch that fixed it as well as added a new final boss & escape objective.
Glad you enjoyed it!! Let me know if you come across the bug still.
Eternal: Yep it's on EU and kept up to date on vjeuxx's account the same as US.
dra6o0n: Good idea.
@OneTwoSC: Go
Wow, thanks for the quick update. The next time I played with the engineer I got all my kills back. One small problem remains: At the start of the game, upon mouseover, it still shows the engineer as rank 8 even though upon selection I am rank 5. One last thing that is not necessarily a problem, but I think turrets are really good for their cheap cost as you can easily kite zerg around them. Downside being you don't get any kills for massing turrets, but it does seem a bit too easy from the survival point of view.
@rockerbros: Go
Nice good they came back. Weird about the selection thing.. I'll look into that.
You think turrets should be more expensive? How much more?
Another update:
- (upgrades) armor cost up and weapon cost up slightly
- sentry cost up
- nydus worm now spawns different units as game progresses (harder ones)
- fatty has half of old hp, but double damage
- aberration has double old damage now
- ultralisk had a damage buff too
- Virus damage should scale up by 1 (per tick) on upgrades... this won't show in the tooltip.
- Waves now spawn faster for more players, and waves will come even more faster as resources get closer to 0.
- Engi model changed
- Fatty minimap size fixed
- Leviathan boss now has triggered spells
- New zerg structure spawns randomly (increases all zerg damage by 20%). Have to kill it fast! (You will be notified FYI).
- overlords spawn banelings when they come.
I still couldn't find a fix or find anything wrong with class selection buttons... Enjoy :D
@OneTwoSC: Go
Woo! More updates. As far as turret cost goes, take my comments with a grain of salt as I have only played the game with one other person at a time. Turrets are cheap enough that you can easily pile them on next to oneanother, giving you a point to kite the larger enemies around (because enemies preferentially target heroes no matter how many turrets are present). For money this strategy works well as the turrets automatically feed you cash, but for kills it sucks because you get almost nothing (and therefore take no permanent gain away from the game). The latter acts as a funny deterrent to turret use, but I'm not sure that should be the case. If turrets are changed to net you kills, then the cost should definitely be increased or the mechanics by which the enemies choose their targets should be altered so that they are not so easily kited. Again, I have no idea how this would effect a 5-man game.
@rockerbros: Go
I heard from others that turrets were too spammable... so price has gone up haha.
Just posting another update so this thread isn't out of date...
Notes:
- Heal benefits from weapon upgrade
- Same class chosen for multiple players bug fixed (hopefully)
- Kills/rank is now global. Older players should find their global rank/kills start at the highest of their old ranks/kills.
- Drop Spider Mine is now instant rather than targeted.
- last round of hero abilities added
- hero abils now show on class selection
- Boss occurence lowered
Hey, registered just to give you feedback.
I played this game a ton yesterday and today. Beat it twice, once in the newest update. My medic now has 6k kills.
I feel that the gap in a skill learned from 500 to 5000 is way too large. I see you already talked about it, but it would be cool if you were able to get something besides just +1 at 2k kills.
Another thing that would add to replay value is the addition of items. I'm guessing you probably thought about this already, but just having monsters drop rare items like an aberration having a .5% chance to drop a cool item would be nice. They don't have to be that powerful either, just having like a plus 3 dmg item drop or something would be cool.
Here is an idea from an old WC3 map called survival rpg that may add to replay value as well. Everyone 5 games you played, you gained another rank up on your dog tags. These were very small bonuses that gave off an aura around your character. For example, you play 5 games, you get a plus 3% move bonus, play 10 games, another aura of +1% attack speed or so. Very small, but more incentive to keep playing.
Anyways, thanks for making the map, it's been fun. If u ever want me to test anything or talk to me, you can respond here or msg me at zlingsfolife.952
Thanks... Also, would you like for me to make a writeup about this map on Teamliquid.net?
Edit: After playing I have some more ideas.
In map description or map loading screen direct players to a chatroom like Death Haven or something. That way players can find a group if they want instead of playing with randoms.
Enable some type of difficulty setting where you can make it harder so enemies are faster/do more dmg etc, but you get double the kills or more kills if you beat the map on hard or something.
Just Ideas, good luck man.