Thinking about turning the 20+ shields upgrade for all units into an 100+ shields & 1+armor for Zealots and Stalkers specifically. Perhaps that could make Zealots and Stalkers more useful.
I think the cost upgrade for templar/archons need to go. Perhaps instead it could be a buff to High Templar specifically, increasing health and movement speed/attack speed.
I want to make the second row of the defence talents (which are now unused) into uprades for Immortals. And rename Defence into Mech with one tier to Defence and one for Immortals. Current idea;
tier 1: Making immortals warpable
tier 2: making immortals do splash damage.
I think I need to buff the Zerg units somewhat. Give them a bit more health and attack damage. Tune down the difficulty at beginning to compensate. Perhaps add Zerg casters but hard to keep that in line with Primal strain. If anyone have any ideas be sure to tell.
Ditched that army size difficulty variable- The difficulty now progress based on time elapsed and number of caverns destroyed.
After a set amount of time the difficulty increases (indicated by an earthquake) which causes the caves to send stronger attacks.
Passive caves now only open as a respons to another cave being destroyed, making the game more predictable
(ofcourse, passive caves still open if you outright attack them)
Nearby caves are more dangerous and the attacks are much harder early on (especially on hard mode)
I have set a limit on how many Overlords there can be on the map at once. Now only about 3 locations can be attacked at once but they are still randomly placed to create an element of surprise. Before in all 7 overlord locations could be active at once making it far too overwhelming.
Also tried to rework some attack scrips to make sure the overlord spawn actually attacks. As a failsafe the Overlords will stop generate spawns if there are too many units near them so to prevent lag-fest.
I have added a new Army talent that increases the attack speed of Zealots and Stalker by 50% making them a much more viable choice in combination with upgraded sentry. I've tested that strategy and I think it works well.
I added some new tips that explain gameplay mechanisms (cave health etc.) to avoid confusion
Bug fixes:
-Archons get full energy after merge if energy talent is active
-Shields talents now appropiately increases 20+ shields to warped in units
Definetely need to rework cave opening mechanism, should probably toughen the nearest caves over time to create an incentive to knock them out.
Nice to see the talent system work as intended.
Archon replacing Zealot/Sentry/Stalker is a problem. Perhaps I can make some talents to boost those units.
Thanks for bug reports :D
Sentries do have some niche use, I think I built 2 one for defending 1 for offensive. Crushing grip is good for boss mobs (quillgors especially, and the very shield regen is good for archons, and hp regen good for zealots. A buff to zealots would see more sentries due to zealot's 100 hp.
I'm not sure solarite works as an strategic mechanic, as its use remains fairly one-dimentional. You get income for econ greed, then use the epic income to get a tech advantage which you convert into army advantage which you increase further with army solarite tech. Feels like a flatout buff rather than a strategical, as by the time you swap you no longer need the econ advantage.
With econ talents combined with defense talents and warp observer buff talents you can turtle your way forward like in a tower defense. Warp in multiple pylons and then spam photon cannons and shield batteries and you can easily fortify a position to warp in units with.
Or you can buff archons and sentry along with generic army buff and gain a fast moving, agile power army which can regenerate.
Those are the two main strategies i mostly played with and they are very different approaches which cater to two different play styles.
I have been thinking perhaps I should tweak the amount of solarites to force hard choices. Any suggestions?
Thank you for your feedback. Very much appreciated =)
Rock gain hp so its easier to destroy early on when you have fewer units. Perhaps its not needed and I can increase rock hp overall.
Good point about warning player on caves becoming aggressive. I'll add it. Perhaps an indication that closing caves will open new and tougher ones too.
And with the later caves I can portion them out abit so that not all 5 overlord caves trigger at once. Caves are opened on a progress variable that count in number of units the player has constructed and number of caves already closed so it can trigger them all at once. The intent is that overlords should be a surprise attack at unexpected locations but triggering all 5 of them at the same time is way too overwhelming.
Thank you for reporting those bugs.
Thanks for the praise part too :)
I was hoping the solarite talents would create a feeling of strategic choices after having simplified normal research upgrades. Was also hoping having the ability to reset solar talents and pick anew based on the current situations need would add some depth to the gameplay.
Again, thank you very much for your input. I shall put it to use.
An early playable version is being tested. Alas, more work need to be done before some kind of release. Give me a tell if you want to test and offer feedback.
More progress estimated done around soon.... ish.,
Your probably right that a blizzard map can be a bit overwhelming for a newcomer, especially the trigger work. I even found a lot of them confusing to this day :P
You know, when I first started mapping I actually had a difficult time making terrain and struggled quite hard with it. On my earliest missions in the Starcraft/Warcraft3 era I took blizzards maps and modified them with my own gameplay ideas. I often had to make changes to the terrain because I wanted to change the mission layout but when doing so I took inspiration from the terrain inside the map I were working on. By doing this I also could discover some tricks blizzard used.
I think I learned a lot from this approach, so perhaps its something other people might learn from too.
Thanks for feedback.
Thinking about turning the 20+ shields upgrade for all units into an 100+ shields & 1+armor for Zealots and Stalkers specifically. Perhaps that could make Zealots and Stalkers more useful.
I think the cost upgrade for templar/archons need to go. Perhaps instead it could be a buff to High Templar specifically, increasing health and movement speed/attack speed.
I want to make the second row of the defence talents (which are now unused) into uprades for Immortals. And rename Defence into Mech with one tier to Defence and one for Immortals. Current idea;
tier 1: Making immortals warpable
tier 2: making immortals do splash damage.
I think I need to buff the Zerg units somewhat. Give them a bit more health and attack damage. Tune down the difficulty at beginning to compensate. Perhaps add Zerg casters but hard to keep that in line with Primal strain. If anyone have any ideas be sure to tell.
So I made some changes based on the feedback:
https://www.sc2mapster.com/projects/ignos/files/2546233
(temp download while waiting for approval: https://ufile.io/m9raj )
Ditched that army size difficulty variable- The difficulty now progress based on time elapsed and number of caverns destroyed.
After a set amount of time the difficulty increases (indicated by an earthquake) which causes the caves to send stronger attacks.
Passive caves now only open as a respons to another cave being destroyed, making the game more predictable
(ofcourse, passive caves still open if you outright attack them)
Nearby caves are more dangerous and the attacks are much harder early on (especially on hard mode)
I have set a limit on how many Overlords there can be on the map at once. Now only about 3 locations can be attacked at once but they are still randomly placed to create an element of surprise. Before in all 7 overlord locations could be active at once making it far too overwhelming.
Also tried to rework some attack scrips to make sure the overlord spawn actually attacks. As a failsafe the Overlords will stop generate spawns if there are too many units near them so to prevent lag-fest.
I have added a new Army talent that increases the attack speed of Zealots and Stalker by 50% making them a much more viable choice in combination with upgraded sentry. I've tested that strategy and I think it works well.
I added some new tips that explain gameplay mechanisms (cave health etc.) to avoid confusion
Bug fixes:
-Archons get full energy after merge if energy talent is active
-Shields talents now appropiately increases 20+ shields to warped in units
-Overlord gangs no longer damage immune
In reply to TChosenOne:
In reply to DudkiSC2:
Thank you for your feedback. Very much appreciated =)
Rock gain hp so its easier to destroy early on when you have fewer units. Perhaps its not needed and I can increase rock hp overall.
Good point about warning player on caves becoming aggressive. I'll add it. Perhaps an indication that closing caves will open new and tougher ones too.
And with the later caves I can portion them out abit so that not all 5 overlord caves trigger at once. Caves are opened on a progress variable that count in number of units the player has constructed and number of caves already closed so it can trigger them all at once. The intent is that overlords should be a surprise attack at unexpected locations but triggering all 5 of them at the same time is way too overwhelming.
Thank you for reporting those bugs.
Thanks for the praise part too :)
I was hoping the solarite talents would create a feeling of strategic choices after having simplified normal research upgrades. Was also hoping having the ability to reset solar talents and pick anew based on the current situations need would add some depth to the gameplay.
Again, thank you very much for your input. I shall put it to use.
God. This thread is ancient...
Anyhoo, finally put togheter a test version of a remodeling of an old mission
This is a heavily modified version of Ignos02, which is now numbered Ignos03
Ignos03SE - A remodeled version of the old Ignos02
New Stuff:
Solarite -
New resource that can be summoned at the Forge and found around the map. Can be used in the Solar Menu on new talents.
Warp Observer -
Now a hero unit. Can Mass Recall at no cost or cooldown and can get a Solar Talent to Warp in Pylons (10 sec, 200 mineral cost)
New Caves -
2 New Caves and more challenging attacks.
Modified Terrain -
Much more of the terrain is now buildable. Secrets are hidden many places.
Many more doodads and effects have been used. Can affect performance.
Bugs may occur.
@StealthToast: Go
Nice. I've already got reports on issues i need to fix. I'll fix them and send you a link on a pm as soon as possible.
Thanks :D
@DudkiSC2: Go
Very much appreciated :D
I've sent you a PM
Peekaboo
Not entirely dead yet. :)
An early playable version is being tested. Alas, more work need to be done before some kind of release. Give me a tell if you want to test and offer feedback.
More progress estimated done around soon.... ish.,
A couple of development screenshots :)
Still a lot of work to be done though
Criticism very appreciated :)
@Hockleberry: Go
Hehe, your one step ahead of me. ;)
Your probably right that a blizzard map can be a bit overwhelming for a newcomer, especially the trigger work. I even found a lot of them confusing to this day :P
@Hockleberry: Go
Haha, thanks :)
You know, when I first started mapping I actually had a difficult time making terrain and struggled quite hard with it. On my earliest missions in the Starcraft/Warcraft3 era I took blizzards maps and modified them with my own gameplay ideas. I often had to make changes to the terrain because I wanted to change the mission layout but when doing so I took inspiration from the terrain inside the map I were working on. By doing this I also could discover some tricks blizzard used.
I think I learned a lot from this approach, so perhaps its something other people might learn from too.
Thanks :)
I've also discovered that I can change doodad height via triggers. I hope to make some nifty effects with that :D
I have taken down the download for missions 1-3. I will reupload an updated version of missions 1-4 within a week.
EDIT: Up again