i was thinking we should have some kinda ability making contest. people can submit different ability ideas and when we get a list of like 10 or 15 different abilities we make the full list of what abilities there are and everyone people can try to make them and save them all in a small map and then a "judge" can evaluate the abilities that people made based on how well they work, how they look, are there any bugs with the abilities, and efficiency. maybe the admins can give the winner some kind of thing to show off their skills like.. i dont know... maybe they put a little tag next to someone's name to show they're the best ability maker.
if we do, dont tell anyone how you make the abilities because you'd just be helping your competition. the maps would probably have to be emailed to the judge or judges instead of being posted on here because people could easily copy them, the maps should not be protected though because the judge(s) would have to look at them and see if there are any problems, declaring unnecessary variables, using more triggers than it needs, things like that. and then the best abilities could be posted in the free trigger code thread
Judging Criteria (in order of most important to least):
effect: does it do what its supposed to do?
Visuals/Sounds: it should look like an actual spell that comes with wc3. it shouldnt look like something that was just thrown together in the triggers. there should be buffs and/or effects on most of the abilities, or at least some target/caster art. no units should just suddenly lose health for no apparent reason just because i clicked on an icon. do the sounds it has make sense? a fire spell shouldnt have chain lighting sound.
efficiency: look through the code, if you notice unnecessary variables being used or if someone uses 4 triggers do something that could easily be done with 1 trigger that'd be bad too.
i put visuals before efficiency because i want it to look good. i wouldnt put something in my map that looks like crap just because it works good. if it looks like crap i'd do it a different way.
heres a starting list:
Abilities
If anyone has any ideas, just post them and I will add them to the list. If i get anything wrong just let me know and I'll correct it. If there are any questions about any abilities just ask and I will clearify them. And do not talk about how to make these abilities because then everyone will know and this whole thing would just be pointless.
Twister- Summons a tornado with slow aura, when the tornado dies it spawns 2 smaller tornadoes with a weaker slow aura.
Whirling Winds- The casters ends out a tornado in a straight line, it throws all enemy units around it in the air for a few seconds, when they land they are stunned and some damage.
Smoke Bomb- Blink that creates a cloud of smoke where the caster was standing before being blinked. The cloud of smoke slows down movement and attack speed to all units in the area under the smoke (lowered reaction time inside the smoke) and all units in the smoke have a 40% chance to dodge attacks (not really "dodging" because they have lowered reaction time, but it's harder to aim at a unit inside a cloud of smoke, making them harder to hit.)
Ball of eletricity- Creates a globe of heavy electricity, and the globe will slowly move towards a unit/point (the target of the spell) on its own, it should not be controlable. It throws (some projectile, probably some type of lightning based projectile) at nearby enemies which will damage and stun the target. After a little time (or when it reaches the target) the globe vanishes.
Blood Vial- Kills target non-hero enemy unit, and creates a Vial of Blood for the casting hero. If the hero already has a vial of blood it should be added to the "stack". every time the spell is cast the charges should increase instead of adding more 1 charge items to it. If the caster's inventory is full and it has no Vial of Blood items, it should not create any items. when the Vial of Blood is used, the caster is healed for some HP and gets a 30% increased attack speed for some time.
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ok i guess Im_On_56k is changing this so just read his post
if we do, dont tell anyone how you make the abilities because you'd just be helping your competition. the maps would probably have to be emailed to the judge or judges instead of being posted on here because people could easily copy them, the maps should not be protected though because the judge(s) would have to look at them and see if there are any problems, declaring unnecessary variables, using more triggers than it needs, things like that. and then the best abilities could be posted in the free trigger code thread
Judging Criteria (in order of most important to least):
effect: does it do what its supposed to do?
Visuals/Sounds: it should look like an actual spell that comes with wc3. it shouldnt look like something that was just thrown together in the triggers. there should be buffs and/or effects on most of the abilities, or at least some target/caster art. no units should just suddenly lose health for no apparent reason just because i clicked on an icon. do the sounds it has make sense? a fire spell shouldnt have chain lighting sound.
efficiency: look through the code, if you notice unnecessary variables being used or if someone uses 4 triggers do something that could easily be done with 1 trigger that'd be bad too.
i put visuals before efficiency because i want it to look good. i wouldnt put something in my map that looks like crap just because it works good. if it looks like crap i'd do it a different way.
heres a starting list:
Abilities
If anyone has any ideas, just post them and I will add them to the list. If i get anything wrong just let me know and I'll correct it. If there are any questions about any abilities just ask and I will clearify them. And do not talk about how to make these abilities because then everyone will know and this whole thing would just be pointless.
Twister- Summons a tornado with slow aura, when the tornado dies it spawns 2 smaller tornadoes with a weaker slow aura.
Whirling Winds- The casters ends out a tornado in a straight line, it throws all enemy units around it in the air for a few seconds, when they land they are stunned and some damage.
Smoke Bomb- Blink that creates a cloud of smoke where the caster was standing before being blinked. The cloud of smoke slows down movement and attack speed to all units in the area under the smoke (lowered reaction time inside the smoke) and all units in the smoke have a 40% chance to dodge attacks (not really "dodging" because they have lowered reaction time, but it's harder to aim at a unit inside a cloud of smoke, making them harder to hit.)
Ball of eletricity- Creates a globe of heavy electricity, and the globe will slowly move towards a unit/point (the target of the spell) on its own, it should not be controlable. It throws (some projectile, probably some type of lightning based projectile) at nearby enemies which will damage and stun the target. After a little time (or when it reaches the target) the globe vanishes.
Blood Vial- Kills target non-hero enemy unit, and creates a Vial of Blood for the casting hero. If the hero already has a vial of blood it should be added to the "stack". every time the spell is cast the charges should increase instead of adding more 1 charge items to it. If the caster's inventory is full and it has no Vial of Blood items, it should not create any items. when the Vial of Blood is used, the caster is healed for some HP and gets a 30% increased attack speed for some time.
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ok i guess Im_On_56k is changing this so just read his post
