You can try using the event: Unit - Unit enters region, and set the region to playable map
That event will catch morphs too.
Just dont use too many triggers with that event, ideally limit yourself to one trigger with that event.
Added bootcamp mode for newbies. As with the other modes, it can be selected by host from lobby.
Bootcamp will allow you to familiarize yourself with the UI and teach you basic tactics.
What happens is that the game is set automatically to newbie mode if certain conditions are met (such as more then half of the players have less then 10 games played, and total exp of team is less then 1k per each).
The -newbiemode command exists for veterans, in case they decide to play with newbies so even if the game is not automatically set to newbie mode (because a vet is likely to have a lot of exp), it can still be forced.
Also newbies (<10 plays) automatically get a help-window open, on game start, with various tips they can navigate through, one of the mentioning this command, or atleast mentioning where it can be found (f12menu)
I think this combo to be rather elegant, but if people still find it hard I`m open to suggestions.
What I am saying is, changing it so you do not need to select your character to order it anymore, as all click will make it move in the same way as League of Legend's champion controlling (you always command your champions no matter what you click).
You dont always control your marine. Sometimes you need to select armed explosives (chains with detonator, satchels etc), or beacons (artillery beacon). Such a feature would remove a good amount of gameplay.
Quote from dra6o0n:
A interesting aspect to teach players as they go, is to have a "newbie" course where simple weak enemies will appear and require specific attacks to bypass.
There is already a beginner-friendly system (recently implemented). You get a small tutorial window with various informative tips and the game is set to a very easy mode if a high amount of newbies is detected. I think the game has way too many strategies and "features" for an ingame interactive illustration to be viable.
Quote from dra6o0n:
So if you can create a unlock system for every player, where leveling or ranking earns a unlock point, and allow the players to spend it, it will make the game seem more progressive.
This is an interesting suggestion that I would like to implement sometime in the future.
Quote from dra6o0n:
A good future thing to note, is to change the UI to match the game's style... Bigger Map, more visible Ally health and status, and changing it so instead of a typical RTS UI, with the bar to view every unit you click, the bottom only shows your unit's stats and never for enemies and such.
The only part of the bottom UI I can think of that is not important is the unit portrait. I don`t see how 10 health and energy bars could be crammed in there...
I`m likely to follow Gorandor`s suggestion and place health bars inside the sidemenu for each player (instead of raw numbers)
Some of the gameplay suggestions I disagree on, but I guess thats to be expected, after all each of us has their own ideas and that makes us unique.
However, your post did motivate me to focus more on beginner-friendly side, already have some ideas how this can be achieved so you can expect very soon an update targeted at newbies :)
@Fah
I think inventory icons can be resized editing sc2layout. What bugs me is that you cannot make inventory stay open, and dont auto-close if u click empty ground or select a unit w/o inventory <- This I would like some info on if anyone can help
If there will be trouble I will remove those particular songs. I have seen other maps using custom tracks and they dont seem to be in trouble, so unless someone targets us in particular it should be fine :p.
Maybe we can get someone in future to make a couple of action tracks to replace those :)
@Gorandor
Intro cinematic just gets annoying, especially in a map with focus on replayability ( you see the cinematic once, twice you get tired of it). Sure you can add the skip feature, but its just 'meh' in my opinion to make something that 90% of population will ignore. Think of Left4Dead they didnt use cinematics there either, and it was fine. You get a small intro of 5-10 sec with a camera pan and then something in the end after surviving for 1hr.
Lobby selection - yes you are right about having little information about classes. Perhaps in the future Attribute descriptions will work and this will not be an issue.
Also look on the other side, if you add in game class selection then in most of the cases 2 things happen: either someone goes afk/ wastes too much time deciding what to pick (making everyone wait after him 2 minutes or w/e timer u added) or everyone picks w/e they want and you get a team of classes that wouldnt survive even in the hands of pro players (eyes on sniper the douche bag magnet). With any of these game momentum would be broken.
I might not be an expert in game design or have read articles, but I do have 3+ years of notd experience, and I would say that counts for something when it comes to this genre of maps. In the end what I`m saying is that there really was a process of doing things, and they weren`t just slapped in there because it sounded "cool".
Nonetheless feedback is appreciated, and perhaps you could detail a bit more about UI being bad/horrible?
I would like to officially present a relatively new cooperative-survival map, that is now available on US and EU.
Night of the Dead Spec Ops is a hardcore team based survival game. It draws roots from Warcraft III custom games: NotD II and NotD:SO. If you have played them before you should feel very familiar with this one.
For newbie players various mechanics have been created to help them get into the game faster. Note that even so, Spec Ops is a game with a very steep learning curve. If you have no previous experience with NotD-style games, you will likely need to play several times and listen to veteran advice to get yourself comfortable with all the action!
The best way to get into a game is to join the starcraftII channel: notdso
You will find other players and veterans here, just ask to be invite or host a game yourself and invite others from the channel. (note: Veterans usually lurk the channel in the evenings)
The game has a strong focus on teamplay and replayability, to accomplish this many unique features are employed such as:
-Dynamic Spawn System, ensures that every game has different enemy unit wave composition. A variety of factors is also taken into consideration for each wave, such as number of players and their skill.
-Zombie Wander System, allows zombies to wander into nearby building, walk aimlessly or join into the main wave and pursue you.
-Random item distribution. Items are spawned randomly on map every time, their distribution is also dependent on number of players, making sure that smaller teams have less trouble finding equipment.
-Leadership System, allows up to 2 players to act as leaders, allowing quick and easy coordination of the squad. Efficient leading is rewarded!
-Shared Experience, the team gains shared experience, making sure fragging is not rewarded
-Complex Achievement System, rewards skillful play and punishes mindless spam. There are over 100 custom achievements to be earned: ranks, medals, badges, ribbons and codex entries!
Several game modes can be chosen from lobby, including a bootcamp mode, which will aid you in understanding the game mechanics.
The map is a co-production between myself - malkavian (EU) and FahqueL (US).
Additional credits and recent changelog can be viewed in game by pressing f12.
The map is in a highly polished and balanced state. But this will not stop us from updating the map regularly!
For discussions, questions, changelog etc. visit/join our dedicated forum.
I found some sort of ... bug. If you use the library function to add/set charges on an item it works correctly, but if you use the function to show the number of charges left on the item whose charges you just modified it will return its old number of charges. However if the item is used, even one time, the number of charges will be returned correctly.
This has also implications over the stack item function. If you stack some items, not use their charges, gather another item of that type and stack again the result will be bugged.
My items have different max,start charges so that shouldn`t be the issue.
Modifying the charges of items that are in an inventory works without problems, however when I try to set charges on an item that is on the ground this bug occurs (the item is set to max charges and won`t decrement charges when used)
That was just an example, no need to use it as trigger. You could create your own function that returns the number of units, then you can use it anywhere in triggers with just 1 line. Some quick notes if you want to achieve this:
-Create a new function with an integer type parameter
-modify 'owned by player 1' with 'owned by <parameter>'
-add a 'Return Counter' as the last action
You should be able to call upon it from any triggers with something like: 'myIntVariable=myCountFunction()', where myCountFunction() is the function you just created, and myIntVariable is an int type varaible that you define within the trigger. Good luck.
0
@jcraigk: Go
You can try using the event: Unit - Unit enters region, and set the region to playable map That event will catch morphs too. Just dont use too many triggers with that event, ideally limit yourself to one trigger with that event.
0
Added bootcamp mode for newbies. As with the other modes, it can be selected by host from lobby. Bootcamp will allow you to familiarize yourself with the UI and teach you basic tactics.
0
yeah.. fahquel didnt mention the whole side of it
What happens is that the game is set automatically to newbie mode if certain conditions are met (such as more then half of the players have less then 10 games played, and total exp of team is less then 1k per each).
The -newbiemode command exists for veterans, in case they decide to play with newbies so even if the game is not automatically set to newbie mode (because a vet is likely to have a lot of exp), it can still be forced.
Also newbies (<10 plays) automatically get a help-window open, on game start, with various tips they can navigate through, one of the mentioning this command, or atleast mentioning where it can be found (f12menu)
I think this combo to be rather elegant, but if people still find it hard I`m open to suggestions.
0
Several updates have been made over the past days, including better support for newbies!
0
@dra6o0n: Go
You dont always control your marine. Sometimes you need to select armed explosives (chains with detonator, satchels etc), or beacons (artillery beacon). Such a feature would remove a good amount of gameplay.
There is already a beginner-friendly system (recently implemented). You get a small tutorial window with various informative tips and the game is set to a very easy mode if a high amount of newbies is detected. I think the game has way too many strategies and "features" for an ingame interactive illustration to be viable.
This is an interesting suggestion that I would like to implement sometime in the future.
The only part of the bottom UI I can think of that is not important is the unit portrait. I don`t see how 10 health and energy bars could be crammed in there... I`m likely to follow Gorandor`s suggestion and place health bars inside the sidemenu for each player (instead of raw numbers)
0
@Gorandor: Go
Some of the gameplay suggestions I disagree on, but I guess thats to be expected, after all each of us has their own ideas and that makes us unique. However, your post did motivate me to focus more on beginner-friendly side, already have some ideas how this can be achieved so you can expect very soon an update targeted at newbies :)
@Fah I think inventory icons can be resized editing sc2layout. What bugs me is that you cannot make inventory stay open, and dont auto-close if u click empty ground or select a unit w/o inventory <- This I would like some info on if anyone can help
0
@KnarrenHeinz8
If there will be trouble I will remove those particular songs. I have seen other maps using custom tracks and they dont seem to be in trouble, so unless someone targets us in particular it should be fine :p. Maybe we can get someone in future to make a couple of action tracks to replace those :)
@Gorandor
Intro cinematic just gets annoying, especially in a map with focus on replayability ( you see the cinematic once, twice you get tired of it). Sure you can add the skip feature, but its just 'meh' in my opinion to make something that 90% of population will ignore. Think of Left4Dead they didnt use cinematics there either, and it was fine. You get a small intro of 5-10 sec with a camera pan and then something in the end after surviving for 1hr.
Lobby selection - yes you are right about having little information about classes. Perhaps in the future Attribute descriptions will work and this will not be an issue.
Also look on the other side, if you add in game class selection then in most of the cases 2 things happen: either someone goes afk/ wastes too much time deciding what to pick (making everyone wait after him 2 minutes or w/e timer u added) or everyone picks w/e they want and you get a team of classes that wouldnt survive even in the hands of pro players (eyes on sniper the douche bag magnet). With any of these game momentum would be broken. I might not be an expert in game design or have read articles, but I do have 3+ years of notd experience, and I would say that counts for something when it comes to this genre of maps. In the end what I`m saying is that there really was a process of doing things, and they weren`t just slapped in there because it sounded "cool".
Nonetheless feedback is appreciated, and perhaps you could detail a bit more about UI being bad/horrible?
0
Greetings,
I would like to officially present a relatively new cooperative-survival map, that is now available on US and EU.
Night of the Dead Spec Ops is a hardcore team based survival game. It draws roots from Warcraft III custom games: NotD II and NotD:SO. If you have played them before you should feel very familiar with this one.
For newbie players various mechanics have been created to help them get into the game faster. Note that even so, Spec Ops is a game with a very steep learning curve. If you have no previous experience with NotD-style games, you will likely need to play several times and listen to veteran advice to get yourself comfortable with all the action!
The best way to get into a game is to join the starcraftII channel: notdso You will find other players and veterans here, just ask to be invite or host a game yourself and invite others from the channel. (note: Veterans usually lurk the channel in the evenings)
The game has a strong focus on teamplay and replayability, to accomplish this many unique features are employed such as:
-Dynamic Spawn System, ensures that every game has different enemy unit wave composition. A variety of factors is also taken into consideration for each wave, such as number of players and their skill.
-Zombie Wander System, allows zombies to wander into nearby building, walk aimlessly or join into the main wave and pursue you.
-Random item distribution. Items are spawned randomly on map every time, their distribution is also dependent on number of players, making sure that smaller teams have less trouble finding equipment.
-Leadership System, allows up to 2 players to act as leaders, allowing quick and easy coordination of the squad. Efficient leading is rewarded!
-Shared Experience, the team gains shared experience, making sure fragging is not rewarded
-Complex Achievement System, rewards skillful play and punishes mindless spam. There are over 100 custom achievements to be earned: ranks, medals, badges, ribbons and codex entries!
Several game modes can be chosen from lobby, including a bootcamp mode, which will aid you in understanding the game mechanics.
The map is a co-production between myself - malkavian (EU) and FahqueL (US).
Additional credits and recent changelog can be viewed in game by pressing f12.
The map is in a highly polished and balanced state. But this will not stop us from updating the map regularly!
For discussions, questions, changelog etc. visit/join our dedicated forum.
Enjoy the game!
0
Is it the WorldTooltip.SC2Layout which has the tooltips?. I`ve tried modifying it and didn`t notice any changes once imported.
0
I found some sort of ... bug. If you use the library function to add/set charges on an item it works correctly, but if you use the function to show the number of charges left on the item whose charges you just modified it will return its old number of charges. However if the item is used, even one time, the number of charges will be returned correctly. This has also implications over the stack item function. If you stack some items, not use their charges, gather another item of that type and stack again the result will be bugged.
0
you can do a boolean type check on a checkbox, just search for checkbox in a comparision
0
@A52BcE: Go
Added two test triggers to the Item Harvest Map, that should illustrate the issue.
uploaded the map here : http://www.megaupload.com/?d=4ZTHSPDC
0
My items have different max,start charges so that shouldn`t be the issue. Modifying the charges of items that are in an inventory works without problems, however when I try to set charges on an item that is on the ground this bug occurs (the item is set to max charges and won`t decrement charges when used)
0
I`m having the exact same issue
0
That was just an example, no need to use it as trigger. You could create your own function that returns the number of units, then you can use it anywhere in triggers with just 1 line. Some quick notes if you want to achieve this:
-Create a new function with an integer type parameter
-modify 'owned by player 1' with 'owned by <parameter>'
-add a 'Return Counter' as the last action
You should be able to call upon it from any triggers with something like: 'myIntVariable=myCountFunction()', where myCountFunction() is the function you just created, and myIntVariable is an int type varaible that you define within the trigger. Good luck.