If you ever decide to make bigger map with all the same setup, I would be even a bigger fan(if that would even be possible). :D
It's funny that you say that, because this is pretty much my current terraining project. It's a 192*192 version of Catalyst with 3 central outposts, 2 "close" outposts per team and the map utilizes the full play area. It's basically a much larger and more progressive version of the current map. It takes me a long, long time to terrain though, so it's not something I'd expect soon!
Yeah, there should be some sort of upgrade system for the AI. It performs quite well, but it remains on the starter vehicle forever and doesn't seem to buy additional equipment, either.
I've been fighting with a way to remove items from the AI's inventory without assigning them variables. It's essential given my current inventory system, and I'm struggling to find a solution.
Thank you for the kind words! It's things like this that really keep me going. I can usually be found on a weekend, though in honesty I have more fun creating the map than playing it. It's not because I dislike my own map, but I always just preferred making maps to playing them. I rely heavily on player feedback. Though that doesn't mean I take all feedback blindly, just I have my own suspicions and in all honesty, the feedback I've been getting over catalyst has nearly always been very targetted and useful.
As far as saving is concerned, the game will never, ever reach a point where a player who has played more has a physical unfair advantage over those that haven't. I'd love to include more aesthetic features, though. Rank icons are something I'd like to add, with a track for how many matches you've won. That'd be after I get a solid save system working, however. The one I have right now is honestly rather flimsy, and likely the only reason it works at all is because the stat that it saves is quite pointless. It was an intentional choice by me to start with a rather worthless stat and work my way up from there.
On topic, I'll have a huge content patch coming this weekend unless something horrid goes wrong. I'm really pleased with this.
I'll see about some trigger optimisation work today and tomorrow. These are my raid days however, and I'm working all day so I won't really have much time until Thursday.
Hi, I was wondering, I've PMed you and posted here, but I think you missed it, could you post this map on the US BNET servers somehow or post it somewhere so we non-EU players could also get a chance to play it?
Unfortunately I don't have access to a US account to upload, and I'm not quite willing to just hand out the source code for something I've spent months working on. If someone with a US account wants to let me use their details to upload, then I'd be okay with that.
I never really saw much confusion in the earlier versions, and there's not even that much that's changed.
I've uploaded a new version. It's various bug fixes and implements the tower repair ability. You'll know how to use it. I've changed the loading screen to be more descriptive. Feedback is appreciated.
I've also implemented all the stuff to make the entire base rebuildable (bar the fortress, of course). I plan to experiment with making the repair zone killable (and subsequently capturable by building a repair tower at their repair zone). This isn't ingame yet, but if all goes well with the turret rebuild mechanic, I'll implement it to give it a trial.
Speaking of turrets; what really grinds my gears is that to build a new turret, I need to manually destroy the old one. Would it be an idea to implement a couple of triggers that allow the 'place turret' button to automatically kill older turrets if I'm at my limit when trying to place one?
I wasn't really sure how to go about this. When I implemented it, I was either going to use the current model or a "kill the first turret you placed" model. I picked the current model, but I'm quite open to change.
Made a pretty nifty system for replacing dead turrets. I don't plan to allow landing towers to be replaceable. If this goes well I'll expand upon it. I'll upload today. There's various small changes and bug fixes that'll come along with the turret change.
I'll always be making one step at a time with updates to avoid issues I've had in the past with making too many changes too soon. If this goes well, I'll allow turrets to be upgradeable for vespene, neutral turret build locations and/or perhaps a huge artillery turret that is built in your base costing around 3000 vespene. Basically a game ender that will shell enemy buildings. Shall see. Right now I'll leave it at replacing dead turrets.
Turrets are also weaker, but scale over time like infantry. This should improve early game play, I hope. I've also lowered the income a little to extend the midgame. I'm hoping that the combination of weaker but scaling turrets and extended midgame will solve a few issues.
You can build on enemy turret slots. This is quite intentional and I don't plan to change it.
sc2 mapster file system is completely broken for me. I can't see any images on the site, nor download any files. Would you mind uploading it somewhere else? Dropbox for example.
I shouldn't reveal too much about the inner workings of the map, but the way my system handles death is a little... different than most. Very sneaky.
Replay recording is enabled. I'll check that out, sure it isn't in some subfolder somewhere?
I agree, that's an oversight on my part. Pilot vision is gone.
Right now the only saved stat is unit kills, displayed on your unit's info pane.
I disagree with adding more expensive items right now. I feel that the problem is my income model. This is my current income model;
Any income model I make must support playstyles that don't require you to kill things. I want this so that pure healer or supporter styles are available for play.
I plan for vespene to be used for 1-time units that will make their way towards the enemy base. I'm trying to add this in the next version. Ability upgrades for vespene does sound rather fetching though...
I perhaps did go a little overboard with nerfing the wraith's hp.
The kill system right now is that the game records who has hit who and saves it to a variable. When that player dies, the person who scored the last hit will be credited. I'll probably look to a more powerful system whereby the game records who has done the most damage to you, and credits that person. I had a hell of a lot of complaints in the past about the previous "Last hit, kill" score system because the AI marines seem to be completely adept at killstealing.
Fair number of graphical updates. Mostly abilities.
Altered most abilities to be more useful.
Fixed (hopefully) save system.
Added the pilot respawn system. You will respawn after 20 seconds as usual, however now you will spawn at the closest spawn point to your pilot. Your pilot is invisible, invulnerable and may teleport anywhere on the map.
Various other small changes.
I'll be playing the game a lot in the coming time to iron out any gameplay issues I see. Thank you for the continued feedback!
Also, syphon shoots even with no sufficient energy gathered.
It doesn't shoot at full power. If you have half the required energy, it will fire half a volley. The energy requirement is per full volley, but the weapon will still fire half volleys if it can.
Missiles are units. I'd basically turn them into banelings and change the missile mover to ballistic. They'd fire at where you were, and you'd be able to dodge them. The downside is that sc2 only works in one plane, so air units would be graphically kinda messed up dodging these things. I probably won't go through with this yet.
I have a graphical update patch coming. I'm pretty happy with the machine gun graphics however.
I'll be adding protoss and zerg as playable factions in the future (most likely their sc2 expansions, as this gives more models to play with). You'll basically choose your race in the lobby and you'll play with that race's weaponry/vehicles. Zerg will create abominations as opposed to vehicles, and instead of drones, you will have swarming masses of lesser zerg. Protoss will control things like stalkers and immortals, but will gain a "sidekick" instead of a drone. Drone slots would directly buff your sidekick. They'd be things like zealots, dark templar or high templar, each with their own abilities and style. That's my current concept at least.
The repair item for life armour really should work. It won't spend energy if it can't repair fully, however. So if you have a 320 life repair item and are 319 life away from max, it won't trigger. I thought about changing this, but in the end I want repairing your life to feel different to repairing your shields, and the armour repair item should cover the gaps left anyway.
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Popularity resets suck. That is all.
It's funny that you say that, because this is pretty much my current terraining project. It's a 192*192 version of Catalyst with 3 central outposts, 2 "close" outposts per team and the map utilizes the full play area. It's basically a much larger and more progressive version of the current map. It takes me a long, long time to terrain though, so it's not something I'd expect soon!
I've been fighting with a way to remove items from the AI's inventory without assigning them variables. It's essential given my current inventory system, and I'm struggling to find a solution.
Thank you for the kind words! It's things like this that really keep me going. I can usually be found on a weekend, though in honesty I have more fun creating the map than playing it. It's not because I dislike my own map, but I always just preferred making maps to playing them. I rely heavily on player feedback. Though that doesn't mean I take all feedback blindly, just I have my own suspicions and in all honesty, the feedback I've been getting over catalyst has nearly always been very targetted and useful.
As far as saving is concerned, the game will never, ever reach a point where a player who has played more has a physical unfair advantage over those that haven't. I'd love to include more aesthetic features, though. Rank icons are something I'd like to add, with a track for how many matches you've won. That'd be after I get a solid save system working, however. The one I have right now is honestly rather flimsy, and likely the only reason it works at all is because the stat that it saves is quite pointless. It was an intentional choice by me to start with a rather worthless stat and work my way up from there.
On topic, I'll have a huge content patch coming this weekend unless something horrid goes wrong. I'm really pleased with this.
I'll see about some trigger optimisation work today and tomorrow. These are my raid days however, and I'm working all day so I won't really have much time until Thursday.
Unfortunately I don't have access to a US account to upload, and I'm not quite willing to just hand out the source code for something I've spent months working on. If someone with a US account wants to let me use their details to upload, then I'd be okay with that.
I've not really made any trigger changes in .51. I'll check it out though.
Can you upload that with another service please? sc2mapster upload is broken for me.
Edit: Nevermind. Seen it first hand. I see what you mean.
I never really saw much confusion in the earlier versions, and there's not even that much that's changed.
I've uploaded a new version. It's various bug fixes and implements the tower repair ability. You'll know how to use it. I've changed the loading screen to be more descriptive. Feedback is appreciated.
I've also implemented all the stuff to make the entire base rebuildable (bar the fortress, of course). I plan to experiment with making the repair zone killable (and subsequently capturable by building a repair tower at their repair zone). This isn't ingame yet, but if all goes well with the turret rebuild mechanic, I'll implement it to give it a trial.
I wasn't really sure how to go about this. When I implemented it, I was either going to use the current model or a "kill the first turret you placed" model. I picked the current model, but I'm quite open to change.
I make heavy use of decals. They cause a surprising amount of lag. They aren't displayed if you set your graphics to low, which should fix this.
I don't really want to remove the decals, as I quite like them.
There's also an insane amount of triggers. Could potentially be those!
Made a pretty nifty system for replacing dead turrets. I don't plan to allow landing towers to be replaceable. If this goes well I'll expand upon it. I'll upload today. There's various small changes and bug fixes that'll come along with the turret change.
I'll always be making one step at a time with updates to avoid issues I've had in the past with making too many changes too soon. If this goes well, I'll allow turrets to be upgradeable for vespene, neutral turret build locations and/or perhaps a huge artillery turret that is built in your base costing around 3000 vespene. Basically a game ender that will shell enemy buildings. Shall see. Right now I'll leave it at replacing dead turrets.
Turrets are also weaker, but scale over time like infantry. This should improve early game play, I hope. I've also lowered the income a little to extend the midgame. I'm hoping that the combination of weaker but scaling turrets and extended midgame will solve a few issues.
You can build on enemy turret slots. This is quite intentional and I don't plan to change it.
sc2 mapster file system is completely broken for me. I can't see any images on the site, nor download any files. Would you mind uploading it somewhere else? Dropbox for example.
I shouldn't reveal too much about the inner workings of the map, but the way my system handles death is a little... different than most. Very sneaky.
Replay recording is enabled. I'll check that out, sure it isn't in some subfolder somewhere?
I agree, that's an oversight on my part. Pilot vision is gone.
Right now the only saved stat is unit kills, displayed on your unit's info pane.
I disagree with adding more expensive items right now. I feel that the problem is my income model. This is my current income model;
Any income model I make must support playstyles that don't require you to kill things. I want this so that pure healer or supporter styles are available for play.
I plan for vespene to be used for 1-time units that will make their way towards the enemy base. I'm trying to add this in the next version. Ability upgrades for vespene does sound rather fetching though...
I perhaps did go a little overboard with nerfing the wraith's hp.
The kill system right now is that the game records who has hit who and saves it to a variable. When that player dies, the person who scored the last hit will be credited. I'll probably look to a more powerful system whereby the game records who has done the most damage to you, and credits that person. I had a hell of a lot of complaints in the past about the previous "Last hit, kill" score system because the AI marines seem to be completely adept at killstealing.
Version 1.49
I'll be playing the game a lot in the coming time to iron out any gameplay issues I see. Thank you for the continued feedback!
It doesn't shoot at full power. If you have half the required energy, it will fire half a volley. The energy requirement is per full volley, but the weapon will still fire half volleys if it can.
Missiles are units. I'd basically turn them into banelings and change the missile mover to ballistic. They'd fire at where you were, and you'd be able to dodge them. The downside is that sc2 only works in one plane, so air units would be graphically kinda messed up dodging these things. I probably won't go through with this yet.
I have a graphical update patch coming. I'm pretty happy with the machine gun graphics however.
I'll be adding protoss and zerg as playable factions in the future (most likely their sc2 expansions, as this gives more models to play with). You'll basically choose your race in the lobby and you'll play with that race's weaponry/vehicles. Zerg will create abominations as opposed to vehicles, and instead of drones, you will have swarming masses of lesser zerg. Protoss will control things like stalkers and immortals, but will gain a "sidekick" instead of a drone. Drone slots would directly buff your sidekick. They'd be things like zealots, dark templar or high templar, each with their own abilities and style. That's my current concept at least.
The repair item for life armour really should work. It won't spend energy if it can't repair fully, however. So if you have a 320 life repair item and are 319 life away from max, it won't trigger. I thought about changing this, but in the end I want repairing your life to feel different to repairing your shields, and the armour repair item should cover the gaps left anyway.