SC2Mapster

I've seen several new portraits. Could be they haven't finished all graphics yet. I also noticed the UI is vertically slightly smaller now in HD.

Quote from EDHRIANO >>

Well, Artanis must've done something during the first game . Can't remember what it is, I assume something important to get him appointed as Heirarch.

 

Beta 4 is up.. No news on the voice over yet :(

Changelog:
- Added new boss Skiver which can burrow, impale and leap on units
- Game now randomly picks Devastator or Skiver at start
- Added Marines to enemy player bases
- Added new bonus objective transmissions
- Game now randomly picks appropriate transmissions for the bonus objective
- Removed weapon and attack indicator of Mothmam
- Added aura for Mothmam which damages nearby player units
- Increased movement speed of Devastator from 2 to 5 when not burrowed
- Increased Devastator Shockwave bonus damage to heroic targets from 0 to 30
- Decreased height of progress bar for Devastator from 5.0 to 4.5
- New custom status bars for bosses
- Status bars of bosses are now always turned on
- Added visual hint to the first Void Crystals
- New Void Crystal ability Spawner: Void Crystal frequently spawns Zerglings and Hydralisks
- Decreased wait time until a pathing-blocked Void Crystal moves from 20 to 15 seconds
- Cloaked Void Crystals will now uncloak for 10 seconds every 30 seconds
- Added subtips to Void Crystals about their abilities
- Will no longer play Attack Single/Multiple Crystal" transmissions right after each other
- Replaced Huge Crystals with Large Crystals at the Mothmam boss area
- Removed No Fly Zones at the Mothmam boss area
- Fixed damage display of Collect Essence
- Increased Collect Essence damage for Carnozor from 15 to 20
- Increased Collect Essence Damage for Mothmam from 15 to 25
- Increased Collect Essence damage for Uldra from 15 to 30
- Added a secret
- New map preview image
- Changed battle.net tip to "Destroy active Void Crystals..."
- Added How To Play screenshots

I want to be careful to not make the Void Crystal abilities too complicated:

a) Boss fights on macro maps are a bit different than micro maps. People get distracted easily by things that happen in other areas, e.g. having to tend to your base. This is actually one of the reasons why you often see people go for the boss and not the Crystals; they just don't see it.

b) I know the ability you wrote was just a quick idea, but let me walk you through my thinking process: Having to single out a unit might be really hard when so much is going on; having to kill it might be frustrating too, because players didn't really make a mistake, other than bringing units to the battlefield. Also, what happens if players built a really expensive unit and lose it? Zerg would be at an advantage.

Unless it was a bug you should have faced four different types of Crystals. Could be that you saw Speed (has a brighter color) and Twin (twice as many Crystals), or Psi Storm (which might be a bit hard to spot with its red/black color).

I can't change the color of units directly. I can "add" colors and HDR but the darker the original color is, the harder it gets to have a natural-looking color. I was hoping that the effects themselves (area effects or multiple crystals) would be enough. I will think about changing the beam color, but will probably just add some text on the unit. Initially the effects were visible before the Crystals became active, but that was overkill of effects.

Some people might have life bars turned off, so they don't realize they can't damage a boss. Will try to add special life bars which always show.

Crazy as it sounds, but today I started working on a new boss. My plan was to have the first three bosses switch randomly at map start. I wanted to have two movers/burrowers, two stationary, and two flyers. No plans to change the last one. I realize now that even one boss ist still a lot of work, so I will just finish the one I started, and then continue polishing.

You'll be interested to know that I've added multiple abilities to the Void Crystals. Basically each group of Crystals is given a single ability in addition to their healing. These abilities are chosen randomly at map start and shuffle, so no other Voud Crystal group has the same abiliy. The abilities are:

Psi Storm Aura: Damages player units around a Void Crystal
Slow Aura: Slows player units around a Void Crystal
Cloak: Cloaks a Void Crystal (never used with Devastator) - will tweak it so the VC uncloaks from time to time.
Speed: Increases movement speed of a Void Crystal
Twin: Creates duplicate of a Void Crystal

Might add more in the future (e.g. spawn corrupted Marines)

I'm curious how the controls are going to be. Also that HUD looks huge.

Today was a busy day:

- Decreased map size from 208x208 to 176x192 (-22%)
- Changed terrain art in various areas
- Removed second bonus objective
- First objective will now start 1 minute earlier
- Void Crystals are now summoned after dealing enough damage to a Boss
- Void Crystals will no longer stand still for long periods of time
- Decreased life of most Void Crystals and bosses
- Increased starting distance of Void Crystals at most bosses
- Changed minimap ping of Void Crystals to a circle
- Bosses will now wake up faster
- Bosses will no longer try to target invulnerable units
- Decreased tech and army size of Terran forces
- Removed many pre-placed Primal Zerg and Terran forces
- Terran forces will no longer use Cloak
- Improved pathing of Terran forces
- First attack wave now appears after 4.2 minutes
- Fixed color and text of objectives when failed
- Improved appearance of loading screen
- Structures within a radius of 4 are now destroyed when the Ash Worm unburrows
- Decreased life of Ash Worms from 4000 to 3200
- Carnozor can now be attacked by anti-air weapons
- Decreased size of Carnozor from 2.3 to 2.0
- Uldra and Carnozor now push back stationary air units they are colliding with
- Increased minimap radius of Uldra and Carnozor
- Structures within a radius of 6 are now destroyed when Uldra unburrows
- Uldra will now always burrow regardless of what might block his path
- Will no longer deny bosses the creation of eggs if too many structures or Void Crystals are nearby

I've seen some people play now, thanks to the power of Replay! It was more difficult for them than intended so there is a chance I might create an easier difficulty as the new Normal.

I'm currently working on making the map smaller (from 208x208 to 176x192 (-22%)), decreasing enemy waves and number of static enemies, so all in all it should actually become easier in the next few updates.

I'm also reworking how the Void Crystals work. You now have to damage a boss a bit before a Void Crystals is summoned.

I'Ve also removed the second bonus objective. Mainly to save some space, but because also I thought it was a bit redundant.

Due to the amount of changes I've now made it so the NA Server now always has the last stable version and the EU Server has the version I am currently testing.

I can change your name if you want.

It's done: https://us.battle.net/forums/en/sc2/topic/20753885202

Time to spam a different forum^^

Terrain is now complete. I've also added a new loading screen. Tonight (5-6 hours from now) I will add screenshots and create the thread on battle.net. Discussion should be moved there then. Voice over is still missing, and there are still a few bugs to be squashed and some polishing to be done, but nothing that can't be done after creating the thread.

I know I've kinda hijacked this thread with my own project, but since Mapster doesn't have that many active people anymore I thought "why not?"

edit: if you are looking for the map on bnet. I've reuploaded it under "RTC 2017: Primal Ascension"

Thanks. Only the areas for the last two bosses remain. I like the terrain but I fear it's too detailed. Some people might have performance issues. There are actually some rules in the co-op guideline I simply ignored: Not too have too many complex doodads within another. Not add any tall doodads which require Air Path Blockers. Not add too much water.

I made it so the Ash Worm destroys any buildings when first created, but I must admit I don't know what happens when he just burrows to a different location. Will check.

I was thinking about making the terrain unbuildable around the Ash Worm but didn't for two reasons: 1. simply a lack of proper terrain textures or doodads. Just adding water would look stupid with the fire-based Ash Worm. 2. I don't have a problem with people just building static defenses for the Ash Worm. It's still a form of commitment and the Ash Worm unburrows between far away locations that you would have to build more than just a few defenses. 

If I can make it so the Ash Worm destroys buildings when burrowing to a new location we should have a compromise we can both agree on: Static defenses won't be as effective, but still will still be an option.

Adding voice acting by a different person also means a commitment to certain choices I have made now. I can no longer change the gameplay in a way that would require Dehaka to explain things. I don't want to bother the voice actor, since he's doing it for free, there are a lot of lines, and Dehaka's voice is difficult to mimic.

I don't know if you saw, but there was a version where I tried some of the models you recommended. The Primal Hive model looked cool, but adding another 1,5MB to the map was a bit much in my opinion. Eventually I decided to just use the editor to apply some color effects. I think the Ravager looks cool now, and the other bosses were fine anyway.

Just published new version with around 50% of the terrain finished. No updates on gameplay. Despite your awesome suggestions the bonus objectives will probably not change. I don't want to hassle that poor voice actor anymore. Only thing I will do is add some additional markers to the Rock Towers.

My todo list/notes:

- Make the rest of the terrain and check for performance. I think it's way too detailed.

- Ash Worm still buggy.

- Replace some boss models with custom models

- fix some issues with the bonus timer

- add bnet info

- create thread on bnet forum

My opinion is, with Blizzard being a professional company, and us just mere hobby modders, it is highly unlikely that anything that has a small question mark on it, will remain the same. What I mean is, they will use the winning map as inspiration to create a completely new map. Let's take my map for example: They see Zerus tileset and the objective to have to fight four different bosses. They don't have a Zerus map yet, and they don't have a boss-centric map yet; but I think it's likely they will change almost anything else: Announcer, level design, boss types and mechanics, story, new form of timer (instead of eggs), different bonus objectives.

That's interesting. I like how you reintroduced the caves in a meaningful way. Even though I'm very far in the gameplay and unlikely to change anythign I'll copy your suggestions and review them in the following days.

The problem I've had with the co-op maps is not creative ideas, but describing them within a short sentence for the objective. For example, defending a specific unit over a period of time would be written something like this:

- Protect the Quillgor Alpha (500 life remaining) (3:00 remaining)

That's too much in my opinion.

Thank you. I'll check the ideas out.

I would just decrease the life on each egg. It's easier than decreasing the number of eggs and adjusting the objective text. Also visually nothing gets messed up (egg pools might look weird with not enough or too many eggs).

Talking about egg pools. "Finished" around 20% of the terrain. Just published it. I also took a lot of notes on balancing, but didn't really change anything. Need to play it more myself and get more feedback. Hopefully I can finish the terrain in 3-5 days and post it on battle.net forums.