Map Size: 54x54
Tileset: Sunken Ruins
Concept: Real-Time Strategy/Mini-game
Introduction
Sunken Frenzy is one of my long-time abandoned projects from 3 years ago, so many will hardly remember or even recognize it. If you don't know what it is, then don't think you must've lived under a rock. This map is quite old itself and was shelved on the top drawer that collects dust, and not many held interest to begin with (even myyself), so there's no worry there. It's original design was to imitate AceHart's Hatchery Havoc, only weld by my own perception and inspiration. I'm under a different alias, but I do not wish to run off topic here (send a PM and we'll chat from there for whatever reason you need to discuss about, if needed). In any case, this is not map-stealing, just a continuation and dusting off a map with room for improvement.
Gameplay
Being a real-time strategy map, or mini-game one can say, the basic idea is to train units and demolish the enemy's tier structure before they can do the same to yours. Last man standing wins in this map. You have a selection of (currently) four different types of units with different races of which you have access to, all of which are dependent on your current tier level. I suppose and strongly believe they're not balanced even halfway yet, but they're intended to play different roles as you progress through the game. Each unit race is different and listed below, with their basic properties.
Murlocs - Melee, inexpensive and hasty.
Makrura - Melee, moderate and defensive.
Sea Turtles - Ranged, moderate and defensive.
Hydras - Ranged, slow, expensive and offensive.
More races will be avaliable in time, and speaking of time, upgrades and lumber usage as well. Some races have specific upgrades, while some will be shared. Should you favor one race over another, you can use lumber to specialize into it, which in essence, improves all statistics of that race. Lumber is given in values of 1 every 30 seconds of gameplay. The more lumber you invest, the stronger they'll be. Beware that you can only select one specialization!
The first specialization you select is free of cost, but the next will cost 1 lumber. More points spent will slowly raise the lumber cost in this way. The intentions are listed below, but are subject to change. From left to right will be the attributes that will be raised significantly to minor change.
Murlocs - Increased attack speed, movement speed and health.
Makrura - Increased health, armor and movement speed.
Sea Turtles - Increased armor, damage and movement speed.
Hydras - Increased health regeneration, armor and attack speed.
Lumber can not only just be used for specializations, but it can also be used to elevate your current tier. Elevating tiers cost 1 lumber up to the final tier, which will require 8 lumber to ascend. Tiers judge what units you may train and the upgrades avaliable. In order to train stronger units and gain access to upgrades, you must save and spend lumber to do so. Spend lumber wisely as well.
That pretty much covers gameplay, but I'm a little terrible with explaining anyways. I won't be able to completely fill you in since I'm unable to host a test version of the map. Moving on...
New Implementations
Yes, there are planned simple changes I'll make. I'm sure everyone else can, too, but for those that don't know - this is the first map that I actually made. I don't have sufficient knowledge of triggers and programming to bring you works of DotA or all those popular maps on Battle.net, but I'm quite as familiar with dreaming and placing my input of ideas.
What should you expect with the new version? Here's some ideas I'm going to pin-point out really quick.
I'm going to make an attempt to make a "Random Recruitment" event. The event happens every minute, granting each active player 3 free units of any given tier, regardless of that player's current tier. That should add some "surprise" or "table-turning" in early games, but I'll add more that will heighten that effect in the future.
Lumber will become a valid resource! Instead of tiers demanding you to spend gold to allow you to elevate and wait on income to finally train units, they will instead demand lumber, given every 30 seconds as stated before. Specializations are also being introduced to increase the number of choices rather than facerolling and just massing hydras (pre-nerf) without being in the state of mind or such related.
Hydras will once again recieve some nerfs. I've had complaints long ago that they were just too damn overpowered and one could win by just creating them. That will change, hopefully. The new version should make Hydras less desirable as other races will recieve some or many buffs and maybe a nerf or two. Be aware that the "bulk" of the nerfs can be covered up by simply specializing into Hydras.
Two new races will be introduced: Sunken Orcs and Sea Giants! Originally in 1.0e, I had accidentally made a huge mistake of releasing the map. Sunken Orcs were unable to be trained due to the fact that the primary tier structure was unable to do so. Besides, the Champion unit was far too strong (in the editor). That will change and they will become accessable. Old news, but Sea Giants definately aren't.
I'll stop there, for now. I'm going to advise everyone to not download Sunken Frenzy 1.0e, as I'm currently working on 1.1a. It may take a few weeks, but I'll keep everyone posted.
Thanks for your time!