I like the minimap ping idea, should help save up time, since you can hover over it to see what control point is active instead of trying to find it in the world. As for the visual effect, how about a circle similar to Sensor Towers/artillery units to indicate the radius of the point and/or a yellow circle beneath units when they're affected by it? (or a green/red circle, for positive/negative effects)
Circles beneath unit can work very well.
I was thinking of a Sensor Tower like circle that can be seen thought the fog and that would be faint when player units were absent but glowed up a little when player units enter the field. Perhaps the entire field becomes visible if the player controls units in it as well.
Also, did you find it too easy or too hard on casual? I've been told easy difficulties are too hard and hard ones are too easy, but most of that was before I changed them.
Well, since I had spent so much time ogling new units and upgrades the first attack waves came as a surprise so I used terribleterribledamage some times at the start. That kinda messes up the entire difficulty aspect of the game but perhaps the first attack waves can be more forgiving on easy difficulty since I am just getting used to the new rules and stuff.
Then again, I was reeaally unprepared. I think I started high tier buildings to early instead of building a proper defense. Most people would do much better then me there.
I can try to make some proper playthroughts later.
Two first screens look more wasteland like, but I find the other's a bit more appealing. I like this level of detail in a map, it is convincing and it has a clear path/room for unit movement between the clusters of doodads. Which type of maps are you making?
I think a closer camera would work better for a showcase, if only just to hide the black background.
First of all, very nice selection screen and faction choice. It was an interesting read and the factions looked diverse and fun. I choose Omega and I played at casual.
However, even on casual I had a hard time defending since I spent so much time reading tool-tips for new units and upgrades instead of building up an army. :P
Among my favorite units were the Dreadnought (very nifty attack) and especially the Psionic Oblirator. The Psionic Obliriator was so fun and efficient to defend with :D I also loooved the Predotar Gunships ability. My first reaction was: Wow!
Grand Cannon was also nifty seeing as you can toggle air attack on and off at the expense of ground attack damage
One small bug: On the dreadnought the attack icon tooltip says air and ground but it can only attack ground.
The terrain was very good as well, rich in detail and varied from area to area. The night/day cycles was nice but the night were perhaps a bit too dark. Was the night a bit shorter then the day? Roomy base area to. I guess I has to be since it's a coop and you wouldn't want players to annoy each other by sloopy building placement. :)
Events are a very nice touch. Lava surge is a classic and work well. As for the area bonuses I think it was a very nice idea. I have some suggestions on that feature though.
I would suggest a minimap ping for each bonus area, just a small neutral white ping with a tooltip of the area bonus type for that location. Ideally there should be a visual effect that shows the radius for the bonus but that might be hard to do right. My immediate idea would be to try to make a yellow circle within the area the bonus are given and have an opacity at perhaps 25% so that it's partially invisible. When a player unit enters the area and are affected by the bonus the circle would turn 75% visible so that the player can easily recognize if he has a unit within the bonus area or not.
These are just suggestions so disregard them if you don't like them.
He had a screenshot link and it looked nice but it is always good to show the screenshots in the thread. Many people just scroll down the wall of text only to read it after they have seen some interesting screenshots.
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.
To give the players the option to experience both types of gameplay. And in case one of the players think an encounter is too difficult the other player can make an attempt.
Idea! What if the two players has an option to switch places?
I can imagine a button at the corner of the screen. If one of the player pushes that button the other player get a 10 second countdown button which he can press to accept. If he accept the players change control.
Also, it should perhaps be a little more forgiving then most of your singleplayer missions. :P
Perhaps the infiltrator gets a Valerian Incapitation behavior or a restart if killed so it's not instant defeat for both players if he is careless for a moment.
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The bug was still there last time i tested. I have not been able to fix it.
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I have had that same bug before. I'll upload my map to.
Whatever is causing the bug is in both these maps. Perhaps that can help us figure out what's going on.
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I downloaded the map and it shows the same bug for me to so it's the map and not your system.
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I don't think it's overexplained, it was just the newness of it all :)
Circles beneath unit can work very well.
I was thinking of a Sensor Tower like circle that can be seen thought the fog and that would be faint when player units were absent but glowed up a little when player units enter the field. Perhaps the entire field becomes visible if the player controls units in it as well.
Well, since I had spent so much time ogling new units and upgrades the first attack waves came as a surprise so I used terribleterribledamage some times at the start. That kinda messes up the entire difficulty aspect of the game but perhaps the first attack waves can be more forgiving on easy difficulty since I am just getting used to the new rules and stuff.
Then again, I was reeaally unprepared. I think I started high tier buildings to early instead of building a proper defense. Most people would do much better then me there.
I can try to make some proper playthroughts later.
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@wargirlwargirl: Go
Two first screens look more wasteland like, but I find the other's a bit more appealing. I like this level of detail in a map, it is convincing and it has a clear path/room for unit movement between the clusters of doodads. Which type of maps are you making?
I think a closer camera would work better for a showcase, if only just to hide the black background.
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@Nebuli2: Go
Thanks for the advice, much appreciated. Think the scene might benefit from some extra rock doodads as well :)
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This was a lot of fun :D
First of all, very nice selection screen and faction choice. It was an interesting read and the factions looked diverse and fun. I choose Omega and I played at casual.
However, even on casual I had a hard time defending since I spent so much time reading tool-tips for new units and upgrades instead of building up an army. :P
Among my favorite units were the Dreadnought (very nifty attack) and especially the Psionic Oblirator. The Psionic Obliriator was so fun and efficient to defend with :D I also loooved the Predotar Gunships ability. My first reaction was: Wow! Grand Cannon was also nifty seeing as you can toggle air attack on and off at the expense of ground attack damage
One small bug: On the dreadnought the attack icon tooltip says air and ground but it can only attack ground.
The terrain was very good as well, rich in detail and varied from area to area. The night/day cycles was nice but the night were perhaps a bit too dark. Was the night a bit shorter then the day? Roomy base area to. I guess I has to be since it's a coop and you wouldn't want players to annoy each other by sloopy building placement. :)
Events are a very nice touch. Lava surge is a classic and work well. As for the area bonuses I think it was a very nice idea. I have some suggestions on that feature though.
I would suggest a minimap ping for each bonus area, just a small neutral white ping with a tooltip of the area bonus type for that location. Ideally there should be a visual effect that shows the radius for the bonus but that might be hard to do right. My immediate idea would be to try to make a yellow circle within the area the bonus are given and have an opacity at perhaps 25% so that it's partially invisible. When a player unit enters the area and are affected by the bonus the circle would turn 75% visible so that the player can easily recognize if he has a unit within the bonus area or not.
These are just suggestions so disregard them if you don't like them.
Again, very nice map. Recommended.
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Mar Sara, ey?
To get the ball rolling I'll upload some terrain concepts I made a while ago. It was meant to be a playable map so it isn't a pure terrain showcase.
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Actually it looked very nice. Love the new unit models. :)
It's coop so I can't try it now but I think it seems quite interesting.
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He had a screenshot link and it looked nice but it is always good to show the screenshots in the thread. Many people just scroll down the wall of text only to read it after they have seen some interesting screenshots.
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A couple of development screenshots :)
Still a lot of work to be done though
Criticism very appreciated :)
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@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
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@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.
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@EivindL: Go
To give the players the option to experience both types of gameplay. And in case one of the players think an encounter is too difficult the other player can make an attempt.
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This sounds very cool. Has alot of potential.
Idea! What if the two players has an option to switch places? I can imagine a button at the corner of the screen. If one of the player pushes that button the other player get a 10 second countdown button which he can press to accept. If he accept the players change control.
Also, it should perhaps be a little more forgiving then most of your singleplayer missions. :P
Perhaps the infiltrator gets a Valerian Incapitation behavior or a restart if killed so it's not instant defeat for both players if he is careless for a moment.