Requesting comments/critiques: CoD Gameplay movie

[Sud]

Hi guys, was just looking for some feedback on a gameplay movie I made for my map. It's 167mb, but is in WMV format so the file should stream.

www.unittech.com/lp/ChampionsofDuranceGameplayTrailer.wmv

If you have issues streaming the file, use this to save it to disk: http://users.ox.ac.uk/~chri1957/Save As.htm

Your feedback is most appreciated.

 

[Sud]

Tsk, 1 day and only 9 views and 0 comments? Come on helpers, we surely can do better than this!

Will be +reputationing for good comments/criticisms

 

[darkmaster24]

i think the reason no one is commenting (or probably viewing if im correct) is that its file size is massive and it is very long. i havent watched all of it but it looks good

youve also added some nice looking custom models

 

[Myzteryz]

Really nice, but you should have moved the screen with the arrows keys...and also probably used the insert/delete keys to rotate the camera...also the mouse scroll that make u get closer to the action... but very nice..U captured the best moments !

Ye everything really nice though...but the big battles..should have been zoomed in a bit.. woulda been really nice

 

[Sud]

Thanks, I'll probably take your advice and split it into smaller chunks then for each hero. Might be easier to manage.

 

[Prometheus]

Omg

OMG so awsume! i can't wait to play is it released or still being worked on?
and i loved the pyro maniac guy but the 2 headed troll should have bash or cleaving attack



~

 

[Ralle_Janis]

Wow, seems like an awsome map, but seriusly u should shorten the movie, i didndt have patience to see it :/

But as soon as its finnished tell us and we should arrange a match, it would be very cool

 

[Sud]

Yes - I will be splitting the movie apart into individual parts to make for easy downloading and less dedicated watching (the movie is a 25 minute show).

This map is alpha testing, there's a thread for it, but the download link is at http://dasud.proboards7.com/index.cgi?board=CODDownload&action=display&thread=1114742361

there you will find the normal and lite versions of the map. The lite version is only a little bigger than Dota, and is easier to get hosting. Because it's a new map, the majority of people will be downloaders.

It's a hefty map. I recommend having a 2.0 ghz computer to run it on due to the amount of triggers flying around. Lowering details/resolution/color depth can help on a slower computer.

The map has 15 fully functional heroes (next update I hope to boost that to 17, as well as getting some optimized code out there to help combat some of the lag I've been getting on the map).

Also of interest might be the items page I recently put up. Some of them are actually quite spectacular to see in game. http://dasud.proboards7.com/index.cgi?board=codinfo&action=display&thread=1120150875

One thing you'll find in this map (especially from the movie footage, such as the paladin segment) is that there is a huge emphasis on aiming and dodging abilities. This does not play like dota, the action in here is a lot more fast paced, and if you play poorly you will find yourself dying quickly and often. Items should be intelligently purchased, and not to excess, because if you die with a lot of items the enemy gets bonus gold for the act of killing you, 8% of the total gold worth of the items you hold in fact. There's a lot of ways to win, not simply by hero killing, and heroes in this are very specialized in their roles, so don't be surprised when an Architect makes a bad duelling opponent for an Executioner (but the Executioner later finds himself getting destroyed by the Architect's defensive garrisons).

 

[XXXconanXXX]

Perhaps not the right thread, but jsut a few comments.

With items, you don't want people sitting at the shop pondering which item to get next. Items should be simple, effective, and not over-powered. I'm not comparing CoD to ToB, but ToB has it played out perfectly to have the simple items that won't own everything if you get them. All of them are targeted to one specific purpose, not overall giving your hero the greatest of skills.

With hero killing, you don't want a 'landslide' effect with gold. In DotA, you get a huge disadvantage if you die. Less gold for you and mroe gold for your enemies. Hero killing should give a considerable amount of experience, a bit of gold, and perhaps something else. TOO much gold can really ruin things.

Just a thought, I've played your map a few times online, and found it fun, but the only big thing I found was that the game was a bit to complicated, it took me a few times to get used to the heroes and how they work. Overall, it's great, terrain is a bit bland, and a BIT to complicated.

 

[Ralle_Janis]

Oohh the map is released already! ! then i think u should arrange a game that we here from TH.net could join, a little match with only members from here, it would be cool

 

[Myzteryz]

Problem with that is that every1 is not from the same place and time is different.. and last time we tried to do a public game (not with CoD but with AWA) only a very few amount of ppl came...

And yes I agree... the item choice is way too hard... the first time I played took me hours(literraly) to get a good item...

 

[Sud]

You are right in that there is a lot of complication in the map. It stems from my desire to create something that caters to players of a higher skill level than just the average hero. Yet there are heroes in there that are extremely simple (friendly giant for example) and still effective. Unfortunately as much as I encourage people to play the easier heroes, everyone still wants to be the hotshot it seems and pick the badass hero (who is quite badass, but only when you understand the dynamics of how he works). That leads to people being pissed off because they get beaten, despite the fact they're still learning the game.

I had been pondering the idea of how items work for awhile. The system I decided on, I feel, is the most fair featured in any AoS I've ever seen. One of my friends who has been playing AoSes refers to ToB as "balance through mediocrity" - I'd have to agree on that. The ToB items are simple - exceedingly so, and what ones there are tend to cause frustration in the normal course of gameplay (such as magic immunity espressos and healing potions). The issue is, that using a very powerful nuke such as crimson wake, I have to nail them like 5 times with the ability to get them low enough that they're considering running away. Hero killing doesn't really begin until you have groups of people, therefore referred to the stun squad and nuke patrol by ToB players. It hits me as slow and ponderous, and the items just don't grab my interest - they do only the basic of functions. In my map, items are a lot more powerful, but they carry a major double edge in that if you die while in the possession of one, the opponent cashes in on part of the gold worth. Therefore, if you plan on getting very powerful items, you'd better back it up with team support, because if the enemy team nails you as an object of opportunity, they can mount a comeback. On the flipside, if you're very skilled, the right item can turn the game around. I've been able to win a 2v5 in this manner, supporting a teammate who was very good with Archer, and he was able to get a 14 kill streak going (this adds up to significant gold bonuses, the result of skillfully killing them even in situations which did not favor him). The landslide effect is there, but only shows itself if the skill on each team is mismatched - newbies will find a CoD game ended quite quickly if they're up against players who are better than them. It's probably best this way, because it doesn't create a false illusion of hope (or unnecessarily draw a game out) like some games of Dota versus newbies can become (an hour long affair where you know they don't have a chance, but they still linger).

One of the things I thought brilliant about ToB though was the fact that you didn't have to go items to win, you could instead build user towers, I incorporated this idea, and did it one better with the inclusion of team support passive towers. The user towers are every bit as viable as items, and some heroes really work well with a tower strategy (such as Dark Conjurer, who can create items that are useful, but carry no bounty value, helping the team to survive a game with few items being purchased).

The terrain is very simplistic, and right now I find I have to leave it at that, as it seems that getting a little too fancy actually obstructs gameplay (I find issues with stuff like elevations setting off people's aim with abilities). The actual map layout I like though, it has lots of chokepoints, flank opportunities, and other unexpected surprises in the forests. This helps reduce the tedium of heroes always being able to "right click fountain" and make a clean getaway like they do in dota. I like to encourage more of a PvP combat game than sitting on opposite sides of creep lanes leeching levels, and it's up to people to be aware and assess risks before sticking their neck out.

But yeah, this is a complicated map. Unfortunately I don't think there's too much I can do in terms of simplifying it that won't harm the gameplay. On the occasion that you can get a game with people of similar skill level, this map is an absolute blast.

edit: This is sort of the alterior motive to making a movie based on my map - of course there's the coolness factor, but it is a great opportunity to show off how heroes are supposed to be played, and what their potential is given they have a good player controlling them.

edit edit! - I did try Janis, but everyone sort of had their own things to do and it never panned out. I'm more than receptive to set something up though if people want to play. Probably after I do the next version because I want to see if my code optimizations have had any effect.

 

[Anomaly]

Ok, comments on the movie first (Since I don't know what you want feedback on)

When you keep the screen static for too long, the audience begins to faze out, like during the trapper's time, where he just stood there.

Instead of chopping it up according to time, chop it up according to hero, such as Pyromaniac gets 1 movie, trapper gets another. That way, people can watch each hero and choose between them, rather than be overwhelmed by all the heroes at once.

Comments on the Game:

Looks great!! Especially the pyromaniac, that Gigantic wisp-like skill was awesome!

To keep newbs from choosing the more complicated heroes, then have a save/load feature that gives your chooser more money at the beginning according to what level your hero was when you last played. Have the more complicated heroes cost more money.

Hope my comments help.

GL with that map... RELEASE IT ON WEST. Lol.

-Anomaly

 

[Myzteryz]

Uhmm.. Sud is from west... and he plays it pretty often... ..(not insulting u as a computer freak sud.. )

 

[Sargon]

Nice movie, as far as I watched it. One thing though, put the names of people before their segments.

As far as the game goes, I like the Pyromanic-depressive mostly because of the awesome name, but also because his abilities look really cool. The Goblin looks cool too, though. I like the way he sets up little ambushes.

 

[SilverHawk]

Looks cool. Though like everyone else said, shorten it. I only watched the first few minutes.

 

[Sud]

I'm getting some requests from people who want to play some CoD so here's what we should do.

Instead of spamming up Helper's fora, I have a forum setup for the map at http://dasud.proboards7.com/ you'll find a good deal of info about the map there too.

If you make an account on there, we can maybe arrange something through posts and get a game going. Maybe vs each other, maybe a pub stomp, have to see.