Creating Units

[MissKerrigan]

Hey,

Can somebody download my map 'Terran Random Defense' and give me some feedback?

I know I create the enemies at the wrong way, but I didn't know any other solution hehe

MissKerrigan

 

[X-maul]

To be honest, I do not understand the spawn system.
But you could try to explain your idea. The map seems like a good concept, it lacks some variaty on the units for the player.
Also, maybe you should make the marines cost 25 minerals and deal 50% the damage? (It gets a little boring sitting there waiting for the SCV's to get minerals, especially in the start)

Also I would suggest making the marines and other player units, walk faster - even make them walk very very fast, but not able to attack outside the bunker?

Also I noticed that the enemy units display both rank and kills, you can disable this in your unit, under the "UI: Rank Display" and "UI: Kill Display" and setting both to never.

 

[MissKerrigan]

1. I can't let the marines unable to fire outside the bunker

2. try the map again, I changed some balance

3. the spawn system is a 'work arround' because I don't understand the random integer creating unit which you explained last time

4. thanks for the disable rank & kills

5. the speed of the units is slow by purpose because you may not move and hit to easy

6. now I would really appreciate if you could tell me how to remove this damn loading bar in the loading screen and just see the background image

7. I tried to make a boss sometimes but I don't know how to stop the normal wave spawns so I just created the game without any bosses

 

[X-maul]

1. I can't let the marines unable to fire outside the bunker

I'm pretty sure this is possible, I just dont know how. Create a thread for this

2. try the map again, I changed some balance

Will do it again, when I got time.

3. the spawn system is a 'work arround' because I don't understand the random integer creating unit which you explained last time

I can help you create a good, and easy to modify which unit, and how many they should spawn each round

4. thanks for the disable rank & kills

You are welcome

5. the speed of the units is slow by purpose because you may not move and hit to easy

Ok, but please try to make part 1 work, and if you get it to work, increase the movement speed

6. now I would really appreciate if you could tell me how to remove this damn loading bar in the loading screen and just see the background image

I'm not sure if it is possible to remove the loading bar. I do belive that you could modify to UI data, to move it or decrease it's size.

7. I tried to make a boss sometimes but I don't know how to stop the normal wave spawns so I just created the game without any bosses

This could also very easily be done with the system I mentioned at part 3.

 

[MissKerrigan]

alright I saw your anwsers, thanks

3. The spawn system works as followed:

- every 60 game seconds the hellion (wave creator) moves to a random point in the large region
- this large region contains all small regions, so this means that the hellion always enters 1 of the small regions
- at every region I made a trigger which spawns each a different unit
- this is how I created my random spawn

5. actually the speed of the units isn't that slow, it looks like slow but becuase the units are small they actually have normal speed

6. I removed all the tips in the UI data, but like I said before in other posts, the tooltips just wont removed

 

[X-maul]

3. The spawn system works as followed:

- every 60 game seconds the hellion (wave creator) moves to a random point in the large region
- this large region contains all small regions, so this means that the hellion always enters 1 of the small regions
- at every region I made a trigger which spawns each a different unit
- this is how I created my random spawn

I will help you create a new system when I get home, tomorrow night.

5. actually the speed of the units isn't that slow, it looks like slow but becuase the units are small they actually have normal speed

Yeah, but the distance they have to travel is still pretty long considered the speed.

6. I removed all the tips in the UI data, but like I said before in other posts, the tooltips just wont removed

I'll check this out when I get home aswell.

 

[hopy]

Hope you're ready for a long read...

Alright, before I post, let me say the following: I like to complain about and point out every little thing I can find. And if I ever posted a map, I'd want someone to tell me every, little, tiny mistake I made. Not because it's a bad map or anything, but it's just what I do. So, expect me to point out some really small mistakes here, and write about 5 pages about it. Not meant insulting, bad, or anything, so please don't take it as such.
In short: I will point out EVERYTHING I could find in the map I can find, so that you can (if needed) fix it, and get your map perfect.

You said something about a spawning system, and a helion or something... ? Just post your current spawning trigger, and I can help you with it. I might be a complete nooby with the object editor, but I'm still pretty good with the trigger part of the editor.

The map itself:
Alright, let me start of by saying: I like the map concept, and the general idea behind it. With some work it could be a pretty fun map. I doubt a tower defence will ever get top ranked, since they aren't ment for many replays, but it'll atleast get high in the rankings.
Currently the main problems are:
- The difficulty; after about 20 minutes it becomes impossible for me to hold all.
- The unit variety; there are 4 units total, none of them with interesting abilities. You can beat the first 20 minutes with just Marines, getting a tank seems nearly impossible.
More on that later.

The map pacing:
The map is a bit slow paced. Basicly my current experiences with the map in question is the following:
- Build a Marine every ~1.5 minutes and place it into a Bunker.
And that's about it... I never got any more than that. Building Ghosts seemed a bit pointless ( I did better with pure Marine than Marine/Ghost). And building Tanks would get me killed because I didn't have enough money to keep up.

Basicly what's needed to be done is the following: Increase the mineral gain, and/or decrease the mineral cost of units and upgrades. Currently I had to wait about a minute and a half to buy 1 Marine, and wait again. I'd like it to speed up a bit. Allow me to buy more units, and most of all: faster. Give acces to multiple units earlier in the game. Currently it's a tad dull. Remember that it's a game, and not a book.
- More minerals.
- Lower costs.
- More units.
- Allow higher tier units easier and faster.

Unit and wave types:
I only build Marines, and a few Ghosts, that's it. Neither of the two had any cool abilities or micro. They sat there in a bunker and that's it. Now, I don't expect high action from a tower-defence-like map, however it wasn't all that interesting. A tower-defence-like map generally has choises, this one didn't really have those; there are 4 units, two of which are too expensive to even build. Give players some more units and abilities to play around with. A few examples:
- A Marauder with a slowing attack.
- Give Ghosts a long range snipe (long cooldown), to snipe down low health units that escape.
- Add a Diomond back that can attack while moving (allows for micro).
- Allow Firebats in Bunkers for short range AoE damage, with bonus on light units.
- A Sience Vesel or Raven, with a slowing field and it can place Auto-Turrets.
- Give Vultures an anti-light attack and a mine placement ability.

Wave types:
Other than that I see you've used 'light' and 'heavy' wave types. Great and all, but it's impossible to base decisions on it. Give players a message saying "Next round: Zerglings, light unit", "Next round: Roach, heavy unit". So that people know what's coming. Next give Marauders some anti-armored damage bonus, and Reapers an anti-light attack.
- Maybe a round of invisible units, that require detection to beat.
- - Give Ghosts a (0 energie, high cooldown) EMP that reveals stealth for a time, in such a way that about 2 Ghosts is more or less enough for early rounds.
- - Give the Command Centre some scan abilitie for minerals or something.
- Good use of air-units.
- Speed rounds.
- boss rounds.
- mass rounds (double units spawned (weaker ofcourse) - requires some more AoE).
Let people counter waves and rounds a bit more. Let people make choises in units.
Just some ideas to make it a bit more dynamic. Maybe even let units upgrade to "Level 2 Marine".

SCV speed/SCV mineral mining:
I don't know if you've ran any math over this, but I really get the feeling that SCV speed is a LOT better than the +1 mineral gain. They do stack up, but Speed>+1 imo. Maybe want to change that a bit. In fact, maybe even replace +1 minerals with "build SCV".

The scaling:
The enemie scaling in the map is a bit off. It's too easy at the start (build Marines, place in Bunker, win round), later rounds are nearly impossible. Increase the early difficulty, and decrease the difficulty increase at later rounds.

Auto-mining:
I didn't notice I had a second Command Centre/SCV at the start of my first match. This caused me to lose a lot of minerals in the process. Maybe set the SCVs on auto-mining at the start.

Difficulty levels:
Once all is done, maybe add some difficulty levels. "Very Easy", "Easy", "Normal", "Hard", "Very Hard", "Insane". So that a less experienced and an experienced players can get different difficulties.

Small things (non-gameplay):
Spelling mistakes:
Noticed multiple spelling mistakes and strange word usages in your map. Now, English isn't my main language either, and it's only common for a map to have issues like this. That's what threats like these are for I guess, to help filter those out.
- (In the battle.net map help section): "important".
- (Marine tooltip): "fires at a decent rate."
(( - (Ghost tooltip): I found the "deals serious damage" a bit odd. I think it's technically correct, I personally just found it sound a bit odd.))
- (Battlecruiser tooltip): "Nothing stands in the way of this-". I found calling a Battlecruiser a warrior was odd. How about: engine of destruction, mighty warship, I don't know.

Show the health of the Colonist Bio-Dome:
Make a little window that shows the remaining health of the Colonist Bio-Dome. Currently the only way to check how much health the Bio-Dome has left is to actually click it. A window would be a nice quality of life change.

Hide spawn timer when units are on the field/Wave counter:
Currently there's always a timer on the screen with 'next wave', which is a bit loopy... It'd be a bit more refined if the timer would only show when all enemie units are gone. Also you can add a "round 1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9 etc" in the messages and the timer window.

Heavy Overseër shadows:
Could be just me, but the shadows on the Heavy Overseër round seemed to be a bit off. The shadow of the unit moved about a meter in front of the actual unit. Not sure how to fix this, since I'm a complete beginner on the Starcraft 2 object editor.

Give player 8 a name:
Told you I'd complain about everything. I mean: "The invaders", "The Swarm" or "Evil people" seems like a bit more of a threatening name than "Player 8".

Spawning unit's facing angle:
When a new (enemie) unit spawns it faces down, which causes them to make a strange looking turn on spawn. A tiny little detail, but easy to fix depending on your triggers. I assume every spawning point is a region? And that every unit is created in a loop?
Change the unit spawning trigger with the following:

• Actions
  • Unit - Create 1 Zergling for player 8 at Point facing (Center of (Entire map)) (No Options)

That was all for now I think. Let me know if you want me to take another look at your map, or if you need some help with your spawning system or anything. glhf, and happy mapping.

 

[MissKerrigan]

ok mister, here we go...


- to start the map is called 'terran random defense' so it wont tell you what will be the next wave

- there are not 4 units

- ofcourse you are losing the game if build only marines... (made it that way)

- no marauder with slowing attack, doesn't matter if the unit goes slow or not

- diamondback attacking while moving would be to easy (remember train mission in campaign)

- firebats can't make the range from the bunker

- no placing auto-turrets, would be possible to 'block' enemies

- no vultures with mines, units may NOT enter the path (blocking enemy)

- you speaking of marauder/reapers but these are not in the game

(they were in game and the marauder had bonus to HEAVY and reaper to LIGHT

- it's not the purpose of the game to spot invisible units, it's about resist the balance

- boss rounds + mass rounds, I am trying to make something like that in a new map right now

- no upgrade for marines to 2: would be annoying to load/unload from bunker all the time

(I better should make a tower defense where placing marines and upgr them higher level)

- I'm pretty good in math and I explain it to you here:

upgrade scv speed: from 2.0 to 2.5 = 25% increase
income from 5 minerals to 6 minerals = 20% increase

so you were right about the speed upgrade is better but the next speed level is 2.5 to 3.0 = 20% increase

so what I basically did, is the speed upgr more valuable but after that you must upgr both

- you are right about auto-mining but I have no idea how to give scv's a gather move to minerals

- I really like to make an easy/normal/hard mode but haven't any clue on how doing this

(do I have to make 3 maps now?)

- you said it is 'important', isn't the word 'importain'? ghosts deal serious damage to light because their attack is 8 damage (24 to light) so nothing wrong with description... yes you were right about the battlecruiser, it is not a warrior, sorry my english sux sometimes

- About the Bio-Dome you are right, I must make some table where you can see the number of lifes, but haven't any clue on this

- Yes, the wave timer should show a level 1,2,3,4,5,6 etc... but I don't know how to make a timer that shows 'level 1' and after every minute it adds +1 level, no idea how

- yes I noticed some shadows were to big, so I changed them in the model data becuase I scaled all units smaller, for some reason the shadows are not automatically changed

- Yes I should give player 8 a name 'Intruders' but map can't upload when changing this is player properties, some kinda error

- I already noticed that the units facing down when spawned I should change this

If you are NOT agree with my complainments then just tell me

MissKerrigan

 

[X-maul]

This is where you HAVE to quote. (Your reply is a total mess, which I for one cant figure out)
ALSO - I totally agree with Hopy - The game, as it is right now, is too slow. You spend a lot of time sitting there waiting for the minirals to very slowly reach the desired amount.
(also he did not say anything about any marauders in the game, he suggested you to create new units, such as a marauder with a slow attack)

 

[MissKerrigan]

that's why I said there are no marauders in the game

 

[X-maul]

that's why I said there are no marauders in the game

Okay, no problem, but please quote the individual parts you are responding to, when responding to a thread with more than one question/ansver.

 

[MissKerrigan]

I have no any clue on how you do that

'that's why I said there are no marauders in the game '

(how to copy and paste these texts?)

 

[X-maul]

I have no any clue on how you do that

'that's why I said there are no marauders in the game '

(how to copy and paste these texts?)

Anything that is standing inside the [quote.] TEXT HERE [/quote.] stands inside the quote box. (without the . ofcourse)

 

[MissKerrigan]

I don't see a quote box anywhere...

 

[X-maul]

The "Reply" button (BLUE CIRCLE) apearing on every post, automatically quotes the entire post.
The "Quote" button (RED CIRCLE) will make the text you have marked, get "capsuled" in a quote box.

 

[MissKerrigan]

thx now I know !

 

[X-maul]

thx now I know !

A little sidenote, the button to the left of the "Quote" button, named "Code". When you click that, it will open a box, in which you can paste your triggers, that you copied as text.

 

[MissKerrigan]

thanks!