SC2Mapster

Its standard RTS controls.

It was going to be third person WASD at first actually, but then it would have gotten rather complicated to do upgrades and such on the fly. The mouse would be used for both aiming and upgrades, so that would have been a hassle to play the game with.

After some fiddling, i got the basics of some zerg players down. They control an invincible overseer (that also uses the ground plane, so no flying over cliffs) that spawns the various units the zerg have. The units range from crap like zerglings to Brutalisks and Hybrids. They are restricted by the overseer's energy and the supply count.

For right now, the Zerg player's only purpose is to destroy the neutral towns and essentially provide the two other teams their kills. With clever tectics, overwhelming a Titan should be possible but not common. In all, the zerg players enjoys themselves as an extra open slot that isnt necessary.

Thoughts?

@Shad0wsEdge: Go

Originally i had it to where if your pilot died (which it will if your vehicle dies) your game ended. Also, the zerg will not be cannon fodder. People will die to them. Ganking people while they are defending vs zerg would also be common i would imagine.

I guess it could work to where you are given a fraction of what you spent upgrading a vehicle if it dies. Death does need a penalty.

As for normal vehicles, its so that people know what is going on before having tools of destruction and so that they dont carelessly lose them. Its not like they are sitting around waiting to be used, you either buy them or one is spawned somewhere on the map and people rush to get it before the other team.

@Iamthecreeper: Go

But then the zerg player could flat out ignore his actual objective and go player hunting =/

This is called

Pilot

It involves pilots.

The rundown

A mixture of hero arena, base defense, and flat out conquest. Each player controls a pilot, which as the name suggests, can pilot vehicles and will respawn on death. There are 2 teams, each with a safe hangar for the team to use.

Generic vehicles are Vultures, Goliaths, Tanks, Diamondbacks, Vikings, and Thors. These are expendable and are expected to die frequently, but dont be afraid theres plenty sitting around in the team hangar and neutral hangars. They respawn too.

Heroic vehicles (or what i like to call "titans") are the main focus of the game. Teams can either purchase or find them one at a time for use. Like any vehicle, they can be used or left sitting around with no pilot at all. Now heres what makes Titans important:

• Becomes stronger over time.
• Upgradeable
• Multiple weapons
• Vastly superior to normal vehicles.
• When a Titan dies, all progress with it goes as well. One of the key upgrades are weapons. They all start with their most basic weapons, with additions doing, for instance, splash damage or one that fires while you move. They all stack too.

The player is expected to use one asap. Now heres a list of them

• Incinerator (Hellion): Specializes in fire and electricity. Fastest Titan. Splash damage.
• Spartan (Goliath): Specializes in beams and lasers. Variety of weapons.
• Behemoth (Tank): Specializes in explosives. Slow but powerful.
• Gatling (Viking): Specializes in rapid fire and bullets in general.
• Warbot (ARES): (wip, intended to be a jack of all trades with its multiple attack modes provided from the campaign)
• Super Crane (is a super crane): Specializes in construction of buildings and assisting units, Only weapon is melee, but its a strong one.
• Titan (Odin): Specializes in overall destruction. This is intended to be the ultimate and only one is allowed per team. Cannot be found, must be purchased. Also the slowest.

The map consists of 2 bases, one for each team to have a safe haven, and 4 neutral towns. These towns come under attack from legions of zerg every so often and its up to the pilots to save them. However, each team tends to hold grudges so they both fight each other while fighting to save the towns from zerg. The overall objective is to destroy the enemy team's base, but if a certain number of towns are overrun, everyone loses.

Upgrades are obtained using minerals which are earned from kills. Killing an enemy pilot grants more minerals. Upgrades are used on a vehicle to vehicle basis, as in upgrades don't follow the pilot and stay with the vehicle they were used on.

The zerg aren't filler either. I'm using multiple custom units to spice things up and make it more interesting than mass zerg carnage. For instance, a roach with a spore crawler on its face that shoots banelings from far away, and a mid range attacker than stuns you for a millisecond.

After fiddling with this concept, it seems like it could became a very dynamic game with the whole town defense part. It would be interesting to see how people would deal with enemy players in the same zone going after the same goal. A lot of sneaky business i supposed.

So anyway, thoughts? Opinions?

(side note: Terrain is done, doodads and neutral buildings are under revision, base design is under revision, and Hero vehicle abilities are up and coming)