Well, I could certainly lower the cliff level and reverse the ramps, my only bother then is that the only thing it can be used for without sacrificing yourself is block the subway.
Then again... the possibility of sacrificing one member to take out the entire other team would make for some interesting gameplay.
I'll get on it.
I was thinking there could be enough time to hit the plate and get to high ground before the lava rose, especially with our movement skills such as leap and teleport.
I like the lava concept. Don't you think it would make more sense to have the middle of the map, where the plate is located, be at the lowest level so it's dangerous to trigger the plate? I think with it being a safe ground there won't be much incentive to spread out or really leave the middle of the map. And stepping on the plate and getting stunned for 5 seconds and eaten by their own lava trigger should always be in a player's mind.
Looks great, man. I only have one concern: The area behind the starting zones (The raised platforms are the starting zones, right?) look like they could be abused due to their small pathways. Other than that it looks awesome.
If rrowland is planning to put all these maps into one map and have triggers spawn you at a random arena every round then he needs you guys doing one tileset. I may be mistaken but I assume that is the reason why he requested one tileset in the first place.
Yes, the reason I need them to all be one tile set is because they will all be on the same map. If you don't make the map on Avernus I can't use your arena.
To clear up the post-apoc questions, the setting isn't in the SC2 universe so protoss and zerg wouldn't fit. I don't think overgrowth or much plant life at all would fit the atmosphere we're going for.
I believe they're both the wrong tile set. The first one has no arena, and I think the large bumps in terrain may hinder game play. The second seems like it would hinder players due to small walkways and a maze-like effect. If you take a look at any of the other submissions in this thread up to this point you can see examples closer to what we're looking for.
It looks great to me. Some things look a bit asymmetrical from topleft/bottomright in the last picture, not sure if it's intended in your design but both sides of the map should be symmetrical as far as pathing. Feel free to make the map interesting and asymmetrical aesthetically, as I see you've also done. It looks great.
As far as the grungy texture, I'm all for varying different settings and environments (Variety is the spice of life) as long as it's the correct tileset (Avernus). If one arena is on a particularly grungy/dusty portion of the post-apoc planet than the other arenas, it's just that much more visually distinct and interesting. If I wanted the arenas to all look the same I'd just use one arena. :P
The area surrounding the arena looks nice. The size of the arena is good. There are a few nice details in there. One criticism I'd have is with the rainbow lights. It should be more gothic / twisted than vibrant. Most of the emissive lights should be coming from the heroes.
Other than that it looks nice. Some polish to make it more interesting and a bit less blocky/linear and it's got some potential.
I think I might give it a shot, but I have a few questions.
Are ramps/high ground features ok? Or do the players need to be on the same cliff level?
Is there line of sight/fog of war or is the entire arena revealed by default?
What is roughly the size of each player's unit? (I assume something close to zealot/ghost, just making sure so I don't make features too small.)
More great questions, I answered all three in an edit to the bottom of the original post.
Those are excellent questions Farmrush, thank you. I have edited the original post with answers. Let me know if you have anything else you'd like clarified.
The Wired for Blood team is looking for fresh, fun arenas for the upcoming mod. In order to achieve that goal, we thought it would be fun to host a contest! All selected arenas will be used in the mod, and the designers' names placed in the credits. Up to five arenas will be selected for the project.
Setting
Each arena should be between 42x42 and 74x74 in size. The setting is a post-apocalyptic world, so the Avernus tileset should be used and appropriate doodads should be placed. A fair amount of doodads will be expected, but not so many that some players may begin to get visual lag. Feel free to tweak the lighting in the arena to round off your atmosphere and give it that post-apocalyptic vibe. The characters should be easily visually distinguishable from the environment so try to avoid clutter. Each artist can win multiple times if he/she has submitted multiple awesome arenas.
Both aesthetics and gameplay will be taken into account when judging the arenas. Design your arena to be viewed diagonally. That is, rotated 45 degrees. Think diamonds instead of squares.
Time Frame
We'll keep this contest running until Friday, Nov 12. At that point we'll announce the winners and shortly thereafter post some updates on the map involving the arenas and some of our new heroes and mechanics. Good luck, everybody! We're excited to see the awesome arenas you can think up.
Inspiration
One of our big inspirations for the game (Although we are pulling from multiple muses) is the D3 arena system that was featured at BlizzCon this year. One of your inspirations for the arenas should be the D3 arena as well. However keep in mind the setting is post-apocalyptic.
Addendum
Going to answer all your questions and requests for more information here!
Q: How many players per team?
A: There are three players per team.
Q: Should we include a shop system?
A: No, the shops will be separated from the arenas. Each arena should only include the killing grounds. There are no NPCs, shops or other areas for you to be concerned about. Shopping and progression is handled between rounds.
Q: What format will the players be battling in?
A: The players will be fighting in team deathmatch style. Whichever team kills the opposing team will win.
Q: Where do players spawn?
A: Players spawn with their team on opposite sides of the map: Left and right. They only spawn once, at the beginning of the round, so there is no real-time respawn system.
Q: Are there any special features we should include?
A: Bonus points will be given for cool potential environmental hazards, but they're not required as we can always add them later. Examples would be periodic flame jets, high winds, etc.
Q: Should we section off the arena?
A: As answered above, we want up to 5 separate arenas that will not be linked. The only thing the player will be doing in these arenas is beating the snot out of each other. Each arena should be self-contained. They will be imported into one map and we will spread them out from each other manually.
Q: Can we use multiple levels or should we stick to one cliff level?
A: We will probably have a couple flat arenas and a couple leveled arenas. Any cliff level that is not accessible by foot may not be accessible by every class so we won't be able to use those. Use cliff levels in moderation, use your best judgement.
Q: Will there be line of sight and fog of war?
A: Certain skills will have a line of sight, however there will be no fog of war; The whole arena will be revealed to the players.
Q: How big are the units?
A: Build the arena as if the heroes were twice the dimensions of a zealot.
Thanks for the great questions and keep them coming if you need more clarification.
Hey guys, Haven't forgotten, just been really busy, sorry! I'll announce the winners soon.
I was thinking there could be enough time to hit the plate and get to high ground before the lava rose, especially with our movement skills such as leap and teleport.
@Mreaper: Go
I like the lava concept. Don't you think it would make more sense to have the middle of the map, where the plate is located, be at the lowest level so it's dangerous to trigger the plate? I think with it being a safe ground there won't be much incentive to spread out or really leave the middle of the map. And stepping on the plate and getting stunned for 5 seconds and eaten by their own lava trigger should always be in a player's mind.
If you swap the textures in your map to Avernus (Map->Map Textures...) you can go back through and re-texture it, keeping the terrain shape.
@QMJ3: Go
Looks great, man. I only have one concern: The area behind the starting zones (The raised platforms are the starting zones, right?) look like they could be abused due to their small pathways. Other than that it looks awesome.
Yes, the reason I need them to all be one tile set is because they will all be on the same map. If you don't make the map on Avernus I can't use your arena.
To clear up the post-apoc questions, the setting isn't in the SC2 universe so protoss and zerg wouldn't fit. I don't think overgrowth or much plant life at all would fit the atmosphere we're going for.
@thommiej: Go
I believe they're both the wrong tile set. The first one has no arena, and I think the large bumps in terrain may hinder game play. The second seems like it would hinder players due to small walkways and a maze-like effect. If you take a look at any of the other submissions in this thread up to this point you can see examples closer to what we're looking for.
@QMJ3: Go
It looks great to me. Some things look a bit asymmetrical from topleft/bottomright in the last picture, not sure if it's intended in your design but both sides of the map should be symmetrical as far as pathing. Feel free to make the map interesting and asymmetrical aesthetically, as I see you've also done. It looks great.
As far as the grungy texture, I'm all for varying different settings and environments (Variety is the spice of life) as long as it's the correct tileset (Avernus). If one arena is on a particularly grungy/dusty portion of the post-apoc planet than the other arenas, it's just that much more visually distinct and interesting. If I wanted the arenas to all look the same I'd just use one arena. :P
@lotsofcolors: Go
The area surrounding the arena looks nice. The size of the arena is good. There are a few nice details in there. One criticism I'd have is with the rainbow lights. It should be more gothic / twisted than vibrant. Most of the emissive lights should be coming from the heroes.
Other than that it looks nice. Some polish to make it more interesting and a bit less blocky/linear and it's got some potential.
Nice job.
More great questions, I answered all three in an edit to the bottom of the original post.
@Farmrush: Go
Those are excellent questions Farmrush, thank you. I have edited the original post with answers. Let me know if you have anything else you'd like clarified.
Odd coincidence, but we're looking for something more specific.
Summary
The Wired for Blood team is looking for fresh, fun arenas for the upcoming mod. In order to achieve that goal, we thought it would be fun to host a contest! All selected arenas will be used in the mod, and the designers' names placed in the credits. Up to five arenas will be selected for the project.
Setting
Each arena should be between 42x42 and 74x74 in size. The setting is a post-apocalyptic world, so the Avernus tileset should be used and appropriate doodads should be placed. A fair amount of doodads will be expected, but not so many that some players may begin to get visual lag. Feel free to tweak the lighting in the arena to round off your atmosphere and give it that post-apocalyptic vibe. The characters should be easily visually distinguishable from the environment so try to avoid clutter. Each artist can win multiple times if he/she has submitted multiple awesome arenas.
Both aesthetics and gameplay will be taken into account when judging the arenas. Design your arena to be viewed diagonally. That is, rotated 45 degrees. Think diamonds instead of squares.
Time Frame
We'll keep this contest running until Friday, Nov 12. At that point we'll announce the winners and shortly thereafter post some updates on the map involving the arenas and some of our new heroes and mechanics. Good luck, everybody! We're excited to see the awesome arenas you can think up.
Inspiration
One of our big inspirations for the game (Although we are pulling from multiple muses) is the D3 arena system that was featured at BlizzCon this year. One of your inspirations for the arenas should be the D3 arena as well. However keep in mind the setting is post-apocalyptic.
Addendum
Going to answer all your questions and requests for more information here!
Q: How many players per team? A: There are three players per team.
Q: Should we include a shop system? A: No, the shops will be separated from the arenas. Each arena should only include the killing grounds. There are no NPCs, shops or other areas for you to be concerned about. Shopping and progression is handled between rounds.
Q: What format will the players be battling in? A: The players will be fighting in team deathmatch style. Whichever team kills the opposing team will win.
Q: Where do players spawn? A: Players spawn with their team on opposite sides of the map: Left and right. They only spawn once, at the beginning of the round, so there is no real-time respawn system.
Q: Are there any special features we should include? A: Bonus points will be given for cool potential environmental hazards, but they're not required as we can always add them later. Examples would be periodic flame jets, high winds, etc.
Q: Should we section off the arena? A: As answered above, we want up to 5 separate arenas that will not be linked. The only thing the player will be doing in these arenas is beating the snot out of each other. Each arena should be self-contained. They will be imported into one map and we will spread them out from each other manually.
Q: Can we use multiple levels or should we stick to one cliff level? A: We will probably have a couple flat arenas and a couple leveled arenas. Any cliff level that is not accessible by foot may not be accessible by every class so we won't be able to use those. Use cliff levels in moderation, use your best judgement.
Q: Will there be line of sight and fog of war? A: Certain skills will have a line of sight, however there will be no fog of war; The whole arena will be revealed to the players.
Q: How big are the units? A: Build the arena as if the heroes were twice the dimensions of a zealot.
Thanks for the great questions and keep them coming if you need more clarification.