The cool thing about these Void Crystals abilities is that they work like their own mutators. You always add more and more abilities and it will never be too much. Unfortunately I won't be having much time working on the map anymore, which is why I'm handing it over to you^^, so the map is now feature-complete. I'll only be assisting you with some bugfixing and polishing until the release date. I wish you good luck and I am sure it will perform well! If you win the tickets and visit Blizzcon please tell us about your journey and the convention!
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)
- 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
If you add a Void dependency chances are you have noticed that the Trigger "UI - Show Text Crawl" does no longer show a green text (http://www.galaxywiki.net/images/9/9d/Text_Crawl.jpg) but the new protoss blue text.
I did some digging and found how to revert it. In the UI editor add a new file, name it anything you like (e.g. TextCrawlGreen), add the following XML text and save it:
<!-- MOVES THE PANEL TO THE BOTTOM LEFT -->
<Anchor side="Left" relative="$parent" pos="Min" offset="20"/>
<Anchor side="Bottom" relative="$parent" pos="Max" offset="-180"/>
<!-- MOVES THE PANEL TO THE BOTTOM LEFT -->
<!-- SET TO TextCrawl_Blue.swf FOR A PROTOSS LOOK-->
<File val="UI/Flash/GameUI/TextCrawl_Green.swf"/>
<!-- SET TO TextCrawl_Blue.swf FOR A PROTOSS LOOK-->
<FlashInputEnabled val="false"/>
<UseAlternateTime val="false"/> <!-- MSS: Used to be true -->
</Frame>
</Frame>
</Frame>
</Desc>
This will also move the text crawl to the bottom left as it used to be.
Please note this is my first time I manipulated UI files myself. If anything else breaks because of it then tell me and maybe we can find a better solution together.
0.994535519125683
No it wasn't Pronogo (unless he is this guy: https://www.georgeexley.com/)!
The cool thing about these Void Crystals abilities is that they work like their own mutators. You always add more and more abilities and it will never be too much. Unfortunately I won't be having much time working on the map anymore, which is why I'm handing it over to you^^, so the map is now feature-complete. I'll only be assisting you with some bugfixing and polishing until the release date. I wish you good luck and I am sure it will perform well! If you win the tickets and visit Blizzcon please tell us about your journey and the convention!
0.987654320987654
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
0.990476190476191
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.
0.989966555183946
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)
0.990033222591362
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
1.30680533751962
If you add a Void dependency chances are you have noticed that the Trigger "UI - Show Text Crawl" does no longer show a green text (http://www.galaxywiki.net/images/9/9d/Text_Crawl.jpg) but the new protoss blue text.
I did some digging and found how to revert it. In the UI editor add a new file, name it anything you like (e.g. TextCrawlGreen), add the following XML text and save it:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="yes"?>
<Desc>
<Frame type="Frame" name="GameUI/UIContainer/FullscreenUpperContainer" file="GameUI">
<Frame type="TextCrawlPanel" name="TextCrawlPanel">
<!-- MOVES THE PANEL TO THE BOTTOM LEFT -->
<Anchor side="Left" relative="$parent" pos="Min" offset="20"/>
<Anchor side="Bottom" relative="$parent" pos="Max" offset="-180"/>
<!-- MOVES THE PANEL TO THE BOTTOM LEFT -->
<Width val="1200"/>
<Height val="200"/>
<Visible val="false"/>
<Frame type="FlashFrame" name="FlashFrame">
<Anchor side="Top" relative="$parent" pos="Min" offset="0"/>
<Anchor side="Left" relative="$parent" pos="Min" offset="0"/>
<!-- SET TO TextCrawl_Blue.swf FOR A PROTOSS LOOK-->
<File val="UI/Flash/GameUI/TextCrawl_Green.swf"/>
<!-- SET TO TextCrawl_Blue.swf FOR A PROTOSS LOOK-->
<FlashInputEnabled val="false"/>
<UseAlternateTime val="false"/> <!-- MSS: Used to be true -->
</Frame>
</Frame>
</Frame>
</Desc>
This will also move the text crawl to the bottom left as it used to be.
Please note this is my first time I manipulated UI files myself. If anything else breaks because of it then tell me and maybe we can find a better solution together.