• 0

    posted a message on Enemy progress bar

    Enemy Ability progress bars, can you do it?

    I've searched all over but can't seem to find enough information on this.

    Is it possible to have Ability Progress bar display from enemy abilities? Currently I can only get it to work for allied units, but I really need the bar to be displayed from enemy unit castings.

    Posted in: Data
  • 0

    posted a message on What's happening?

    It's a pity the Forums have gotten so in-active. If you want opinions on a topic you get 4-5 different responses at best. People aren't particularly interested in new projects, seems like everyone expects projects to just fail. Suppose it's a valid opinion considering how many projects go down the drain.

    Posted in: General Chat
  • 0

    posted a message on Map Concept: Boss Fights

    I've created a project page now: Give me a Quest

    Posted in: Map Suggestions/Requests
  • 0

    posted a message on Map Concept: Boss Fights

    @abvdzh: Go

    It's a cool idea to have Random skill-sets. But I'd rather have a responsive AI which will actually acts differently depending on how situations are handled. I'll give two scenarios as an example of how this might work.

    Scenario 1

    You don't interrupt abilities or simply don't have the means to. Then the boss will realize this and use it to it's advantage. This might be in the form of actually using more dangerous interruptible abilities.

    Scenario 2

    You interrupt the abilities. Then the boss might try to cancel out the player who is responsible for interrupting before casting his ability. Perhaps this would be by stunning the player with an interrupt as he begins casting the ability. This stun might then be removed by another Hero which then allows the ability to be interrupted. If you have several interrupters the Boss might act differently according to that situation.

    Scenario 3

    Your group is really cluttered up, constantly moving together as a pack. Then the boss might cast an AOE ability in the center of your group or perhaps apply a spreading debuff on one Hero which spreads to all nearby Heroes.

    Scenario 4

    Your group is scattered across the map, never standing close to each other. Then the boss might simply cast a spell which forces you to be closer, there are many ways to do this. I think you get the general idea.

    Does this sound like a fun way for bosses to work?
    Some of these AI reactions might not be active on ALL difficulties, but on Very Hard I want there to be Chaos. A Chaos that you will want to control but may get out of hand if you fail to. I want there to be consequences to failure and success. However failure should always be more punishing.

    Please respond whether this sounds interesting or not, perhaps you have an entirely different idea which is a ton better.

    Posted in: Map Suggestions/Requests
  • 0

    posted a message on [Model Showcase] Warcraft Units

    @Triceron: Go

    But Shamans, Sorceresses and Priests aren't in Warcraft II are they?
    Anyways, if you intend on remaking the Warcraft II units, I presume you're not making all the ship units, like the Batttleship and the Juggernaught?

    I'd presume you'll make,

    • Peasant / Peon
    • Demolition Squads / Goblin Sappers
    • Footman / Grunt, released
    • Archer / Axe thrower, released
    • Knight / Ogre
    • Mage / Death knight, seen
    • possibly, Gryphon / Dragon?

    Correct me if there's any other units you intend to create / not create.
    I'm simply curious about the models because I was considering using them for my Map. However I'd require a lot of models for it, so I'll just create it with SCII Models and possibly switch them in the future.

    Posted in: Artist Tavern
  • 0

    posted a message on What's happening?

    I'm just curious if there's anything interesting going on. Most contests etc are at least a year old and there aren't really any major map projects posted. Kind of feels like SC2 Mapping community is somewhat... Dead, Correct me if I'm wrong.

    Anyone got some cool stuff to share that might be interesting to look at?
    The only promising thing I've seen lately is Triceron's Warcraft Models

    Posted in: General Chat
  • 0

    posted a message on [Model Showcase] Warcraft Units

    @Triceron: Go

    All the models look truly fantastic, you're a huge credit to the SCII modding community.
    I'd like to ask a few questions though, if you don't mind answering them :)

    Keep up the good work

    Posted in: Artist Tavern
  • 0

    posted a message on Give me a Quest [working title]

    Note that this is a project and has not yet been released.
    ’Give me a Quest’ is a co-op Boss fights map.
    In case you’re unsure what I mean by this I’ll explain it briefly. The Idea of the map is simple, you join up with a group of people, pick a hero and together you fight bosses and earn rewards.

    Map Details

    Heroes

    Each Hero has 5 unique abilities, 1 passive and 1 invulnerability skill, summing up to a total of 7 Abilities per Hero. The intent is to keep the Heroes simple but still interesting and fun.
    I don’t intend to have a lot of ‘skillshots’ this is because I want the map to be more about timing and execution than having to constantly aim your abilities. This doesn’t mean that ‘skillshots’ will be non-existent, but I don’t intend to make heroes entirely reliant on aiming abilities.

    Bosses

    Bosses will have a majority of ‘skillshot’ abilities with an AI that will hopefully challenge even the most skillful of players. I have a couple of general mechanics I’m planning to use on several bosses, these mechanics are very basic and I would call them minor mechanics which come in play differently between bosses.

    Minor Mechanics

    • Dispel mechanic, this mechanic comes in play when a Boss applies debuffs to targets. Certain Heroes will have abilities to remove debuffs or rather ‘dispel’ them.
    • Interrupt mechanic, this mechanic comes in play on certain boss abilities which will be interruptible. There might be an ability which has devastating consequences unless interrupted. I want players to have a choice on how to handle some of these abilities. Some may choose to ignore interrupting the ability and instead deal with the effects by perhaps having an additional healer. However some abilities will be absolutely crucial to interrupt. Some situations may even force you to choose between two abilities and decide which one is most important to interrupt.
    • Enrage mechanic, this mechanic will come in play differently between bosses. Some may be on a timer and if a criterion is not met by the end of that timer the boss will gain a buff of some kind. They may also gain a buff if you fail achieving something during the boss fight. The most basic enrage, that most likely only will come in play on harder difficulties, would be based on how long the fight continues. For example, a fight might have a limit of continuing for 5 minutes, after which point the boss will be very difficult to defeat.
    • ‘skillshot’ mechanic, this is a very basic mechanic. It simply just means that most bosses will have abilities that are possible to avoid through moving your Hero around.

    All bosses will have a lot more to them than these minor mechanics. They’re simply there to make some abilities more interactable and force players to react to certain situations and actually have a choice of how to handle a situation.

    Smart AI

    For purpose of difficulty I intend to make an AI that actually responds to what the players are doing. Standing too close to each other may result in AoE abilities being cast, the boss will always try to take advantage of how the player acts.
    I’ll give you some examples below:

    Example 1
    The Player interrupts the abilities cast by the Boss. Then the boss might stun the player responisble just before attempting a new cast at a later point in the battle.

    Example 2
    The Player doesn’t interrupt the abilities cast by the Boss. Then he might cast an ability that has to be interrupted or it’ll have even more dire consequences. This might be an ability that targets a player, stunning them and drains their health. This might channel until the player either dies or the boss is interrupted.

    Example 3
    Players are standing very close to one another. Then the Boss might use AoE abilities at that location or perhaps he applies a debuff that spreads between all nearby players.

    Example 4
    Players are standing spread across the room. Then he might use abilities that forces players to get closer to one another. There are many different means of doing so, perhaps he gives one player a buff that defends all nearby units from an instant kill ability that the boss attempts to cast shortly after.

    There are many ways the boss could react to certain situations and they wont necessarily counter every single strategy. But this will atleast force players to act and react depending on what they’re putting out and how they’re performing.

    Items

    This is somewhat a major part of the map. I want items to change how a Hero is played. That is why I’ve decided to divide them into 3 categories:

    • Usable items, this means that an item might have a usable effect such as granting your hero energy, health or possibly boosting their shield for a few seconds. Simple enough, these are items with a usable ability.
    • Modifier items, these items will modify the abilities your hero as. Perhaps they change a damage ability to heal your hero for half of the damage dealt at the cost of reducing the damage by a percentage. However I want these items to modify abilities so that the hero can be played differently, I don’t intend these items to purely increase the strength of a Hero. So there won’t be a item that just says ‘Increases the damage of ‘ability’ by 100%’.
    • Core items / Stat items, these items simply enough improve your heroes stats. I hope to achieve a point where these items also apply to changing how a hero is played. Let’s say you play a Healer archetype, but you’ve come up with a way to change the healer into a tank. Then you might want to acquire items that boost stats that are important to a tank.

    Even though items will be a major part of the game, I intend to make the changes they give fairly minor. I’d hate to see Heroes getting items that simply make the Bosses ‘a walk in the park’. Items will also be fairly hard to attain, so don’t expect having all the best items after one playthrough. I hope this also gives an incentive for replayability.

    Difficulty

    I intend to have 4 difficulty levels on the map, Easy, Normal, Hard and Very Hard. At the start of the map you vote which difficulty it should be played at and then all Bosses will be played at that difficulty. I won’t go too in-depth on how I’ve planned the difficulties but I will talk about what player base I intend which difficulty to fit:

    • Easy, this will be beatable by most players. I still intend it to offer somewhat of a challenge but easy enough to not require a lot of coordination between players.
    • Normal, will offer a higher challenge than easy but still be beatable by most players. This is targeted at players who know the boss fights and know their heroes.
    • Hard, this is intended for players who know everything about the boss they’re fighting and the role their hero plays in that fight. Most abilities will be harder in some respect and failing on a mechanic will have major consequences.
    • Very Hard, intended for near flawless players. Any mistake you make will have consequences on the fight. Perhaps you’re hit by an ability. The ability itself might not do anything too major but at a certain point in the fight the boss gains a buff which will be increasingly strong depending on how many people where hit by his original ability. This difficulty will also require coordination, strategy and even a good team composition. Other difficulties might not have the same necessity of a varying composition of heroes.

    Interface / Camera

    The camera view will be that of the original SCII. Perhaps a more zoomed out view, but the angle will be the same. ‘Give me a Quest’ will offer a fully reworked interface displaying only the necessities of the map. These features include:

    • A health & energy bar
    • A buff / debuff bar
    • An ability card
    • A Boss bar, including all necessities regarding boss information (health, energy, debuffs, buffs etc).
    • A mini map, just for the sake of knowing where your allies are.

    Braging Rights!

    When it comes to maps that offer a challenge and conquering bosses I think it's essential to have some form of braging rights. That is why I've decided to include achievements and have unit frame rewards, I know it's not much but at least it's a start.
    So as you defeat bosses you gain achievements which other users can view inside the game. The rewards from achieving for example a full clear of the game on Normal might award you with a specific Unit frame. These frames appear around your hero in-game, so everyone can see that you've defeated the game on Normal. I'm also thinking of adding visual feedback on the Hero available. Let's say you defeat the game on Hard, then you might be awarded with an attachment such as burning hands or something in that nature.

    I'd love for there to be unlockable models, but since SCII has such a limited amount of models to start with I doubt this will be a feature I'd be able to include.

    Project Notes

    I’ll update this project as I go along. I’ve already gotten a few heroes created and pretty fleshed out. Hoping to release an alpha soon..ish, can’t really say a date.
    If you have any questions, suggestions or feedback you'd like to give me, Please post that below and I’ll be happy to answer.

    Posted in: Project Workplace
  • 0

    posted a message on -RAID- (Impossible Bosses)

    I got two questions,

    • Is the map up on Bnet?
    • Are you still working on the map?
    Posted in: Project Workplace
  • 0

    posted a message on Map Concept: Boss Fights

    I'll look into creating the Project for my Map today.

    Posted in: Map Suggestions/Requests
  • 0

    posted a message on Map Concept: Boss Fights

    Hm, the -RAID- (Impossible Bosses) one seems fairly interesting. Most of the other ones I've already checked out and quickly realized they're not what I'm trying to create.

    One of the major reasons why I'm interested in creating this map is because it's something I'd really like to play.

    Quote from abvdzh: Go

    Yes this sounds good. I hope you know how to implement target position prediction for boss skillshots and your manuvering mechanic. Also like your minimalistic aproach with hero development process. Didnt like when in 30 min map author adding 3000 skills and items. If all that you desctibed above will work as it should this will be one hell ofa great map. Work hard on AI plz.

    Considering AI, I'm definitely going to work on it a lot. I myself want to be able to play something truly difficult. I'd rather have the difficulty at a point where dodging abilities is so hard you'll likely get hit a couple of times, and when you get hit it's not too severely punishing. Instead of having easily dodgable abilities, but if you get hit you instantly die.

    Posted in: Map Suggestions/Requests
  • 0

    posted a message on Map Concept: Boss Fights

    Does anyone find the concept appealing? And is it something you'd like to play?

    Posted in: Map Suggestions/Requests
  • 0

    posted a message on Creating the Heroes!

    @ezbeats: Go

    I'm fully aware that two of the abilities are exactly the same as Penance and Prayer of Mending from World of Warcraft. It doesn't really bother me... I guess it bothers you since you had to post your response. I don't really see the issue though, lots of abilities in Games are similar... Would you post an equal response if one of my abilities summoned a unit and then hint at it being similar to a Warlock or possibly a Hunter ability? Then telling me that I should make a CTF and add Aimed shot, Scatter Shot, Silencing Shot & Serpent Sting to the Hero?

    Posted in: General Chat
  • 0

    posted a message on Creating the Heroes!

    I'm currently creating a SC2 Boss Fights map and thought I'd let people influence the map a bit.
    As of now I'm still making some Heroes, I'm looking to create at least 4-5 Heroes so I can start creating bosses. The map will be designed for 5 People, but allow 4-8 people with a scaling difficulty. I haven't decided how the difficulty will scale yet, I suppose it will be percentage health & damage increase on bosses.

    But back to the point of this Thread, I'd like you to post below a hero you'd like to see in the Arcade Map.
    Each Hero will have 7 Abilities, including an Invulnerability ability and 1 Passive ability. The map itself is highly influenced by 'Impossible Bosses', I suppose. But I don't intend to make a copy of it. Let's continue.

    The Hero can have interrupt, energy burn and dispel abilities in addition to the basic deal damage / heal abilities. So this is how I'd like you to post the Hero:

    Example:

    Name, Skin & Role

    Hero Name: Sentry
    Skin: Sentry
    Role: Healer

    Ability List, excluding invulnerability:

    • Penance: Launches 3 projectiles at a target unit healing him/her for X. 2s channel
    • Upspring: Launches a projectile at a unit which applies a behavior. instant cast
      Behavior: When the unit takes damage he is healed, then launches a projectile to another friendly target in range applying the same behavior. This effect can occur 4 times.
    • Deplete Rage. Drains the target of its energy, draining X every 0.5 Seconds up to a maximum of 5 Seconds.
    • Mind Sap: Interrupts the targets current ability. instant cast
    • Force Shield: Creates a shield around the caster, targets within range will have their damage taken reduced. instant cast
    • Passive: Apply Behavior, Rage Addict
      Deplete Rage: Grants 1 Stack per period.

      Behavior Changes the following abilities:
      Mind Sap: Deals damage, each stack increases damage dealt by X%.
      Penance: Each stack increases casting speed.
      Upspring: Heals the target unit when the ability is cast, each stack increases the healing by X%.
      Stacks 10 Times.

    My Hero example is actually a Hero I'm working on, everything in the example however isn't final or entirely correct. Just thought I'd show an example of how a Hero could work. If you don't have a suggestion with all the abilities, you may post a suggestion including what type of role the Hero would fill and what it would be centered around.

    So if you're interested please post your idea of a Hero that could fit in a Group based Boss Fighting map.

    Best regards, Velkydia.

    Posted in: General Chat
  • 0

    posted a message on Map Concept: Boss Fights

    @TheUltragon: Go

    I'll check 'In Development' out. Might get some inspiration and flesh out more mechanics and systems for my map.

    Update:
    I have now played the map, It's pretty cool actually. However it doesn't really give the feel that 'Impossible Bosses' did. I wont go too in-depth about the map but there are some key difference's that I feel is good to point out.

    In my map I intend to disable auto-attacking, this is because I consider auto-attacks dull. I want there to be ways to optimize your DPS with your Hero by understanding his/her abilities. I want there to be a difference both in how well a player reacts to situations, maneuvers as well as usage of abilities.

    Also I intend for the map to be for 4-8 players, I haven't decided how I'll scale it with players yet.

    Posted in: Map Suggestions/Requests
  • To post a comment, please or register a new account.