Minigame Catch them All

[AceHart]

So, yes, a minigame...

Couldn't be any simpler really.
You're in control of a Circle of Power.

It can be moved to anywhere on the map by a simple right-click on the ground.

There's a bunch of jumping balls on the map.
If they pass over your circle, you score some points.
The smaller the ball, the more points (<- read that again).

That's it already.

Repeat for 5 minutes.
Highest score wins.


Yours,
AceHart


Changelog:

v1.0:
- initial release
- playable proof of concept

v1.1:
- less balls overall
- new ability: Shrink
- catching to a brand new dimension: you actually have to catch them... (you asked for it, don't blame me )
- the rarer the ball type, the more points you get

v1.2:
- new terrain

v1.3:
- new ability: Confusion
- fixed a feature with messages showing for all players


Questions and answers:

Q: I didn't get the rules
A: iQuit

Q: There's not enough balls!
A: Well... maybe. No idea. Post a replay

Q: Anywhere on the map seems to have some limit
A: Yep, snow.

Q: Are you really sure BNet was waiting for this map?
A: Absolutely

Q: Power Catch(tm) has no hotkey
A: I know


The map:

 

[Sirroelivan]

Inspired by Lumos, Acehart?

 

[PureOwnage]

Nice job with the game. Very nice time waster.

OFFTOPIC: You have the best Q and A's.

 

[Bloodcount]

Well done, Ace!

 

[Cloak_Master]

What's up with catching balls midair? Do a unit height check or something. Not bad otherwise for a couple minutes of fun, but seems too easy because the ball doesn't even have to be near the ground to get points.

 

[AceHart]

"No plan ever survives first contact"

This started as a demo to see how many "jumping things" a map could handle.
Passed 200 easily...

Since I didn't want to just throw away a perfectly good mass-jumping "system"...
Well, the original was to click on the balls.
A nightmare.

Then came the catching.

With a unit and an ability.
Way too slow and difficult.

So the ability was removed, and the unit did it directly.

Unit was too slow when moving, hence the instant teleport.
Along with a recode of the Rally ability... rather interesting.

And, finally, caching them when going down only, or, worse, only when close to the ground?
Too difficult to use.

You're busy enough as it is.
Especially with more players.

Keep it simple.
Always.

 

[Accname]

very nice idea but i found some bugs:
-the power catch is somehow a little bit bugged because some balls werent catched by me even if they were in range. (balls which were more further away were catched but close ones aint)
-some balls do just stay still on the ground Oo
-you do also catch flying balls. (not on the ground)
-when you use power catch after the winner has been choosen you will spawn penguins!

and here some suggestions:
-Remove the selection circle around your circle of power
-maybe make your circle of power a little bit smaller, the game is kinda easy right now
-you could add some "special" balls which do bonuses like:
->for the next seconds you get double points
->all other players lose some of their points
->you absorb some of the closest enemys points
->you lose some of your points (a bad ball xD)
->you flash the screen of your enemys black for some seconds
->something else...

good luck, keep the good work

 

[UndeadDragon]

I just hosted on Battle.net to get you one of your much loved replays, but no one apart from me could move. I forgot to get a replay though Although there was not much to replay beings that only I could move.

Also, I think you should add a message in-game to tell people how to move.

 

[2-P]

-some balls do just stay still on the ground Oo
-you do also catch flying balls. (not on the ground)

yap. yap.

-when you use power catch after the winner has been choosen you will spawn penguins!

Really? Awesome. Maybe I should have played it to the end lol.


It's nice as a system and all... but personally I find the map to be boring right now. Really boring.
Well, it would be better if you could only catch them if they hit the ground, but still...
And maybe it's more fun in multiplayer, but I doubt so. Banish is *yawn*.

You're tyring to show how many balls fly around lag free, that's cool I guess. But A LOT less balls and some decent abilities to piss of your opponents... a fight for every ball, that would actually be fun.

And you need a pokeball model! That'd be epic. xD

 

[AceHart]

Rome wasn't built in seven days either


Should be multi-player now.

 

[Sooda]

Downloading new version, it's impressive that balls jump and don't lag Nice one, Ace!

 

[Don]

As usual, Ace made one of the best game on the net, it is beating Dota whitout a doubt, other people just dont admit it :O

Yeah nice job, just think about a way to rem0ove midair ball catching, it's not like if circle could jump



EDIT: Consider changing name to ''Catch'em All'', makes more pokemonish

 

[Sooda]

Two replays from Europe server, went good, I won both games (I think). Sometimes thought they didn't knew what to do and dunno did they used Penguin ability to catch more balls.

I sometimes aimed to blink near them so I could use my disable ability, I didn't noticed they did same, though they used that ability.

 

[AceHart]

Just when you think you've seen it all, along comes someone with maps\TheHelperNet\Try Them Out 2\...
Every heard of maps\Download?

Replays require
- the very same map
- that map in the very same folder it was when the replay game was played!


Other than that, yes...
It's clear, for now, that this game is either way too difficult, or way too easy

 

[Exide]

I didn't bother reading all the posts in this thread.

Here's my opinion on Catch Them All:
+I liked it, it is a nice "party game". :thup:
+The jumps/bounces looked good. =)
+The models for the "balls" are great.

-Everything I right-clicked my unit made an annoying sound. (Like when placing a rally point, sort of), that sucked.
-The terrain could've been slightly more interessting.
-The balls all look the same, except for size. They could easily get random color and look a lot more fun!
-I seemed to catch anything that was directly over my circle. I was expecting the balls to land in my circle, before catching it.
--I clicked one of the balls and its name was 'Albatross'. (I don't want to be able to click them at all -Locust. | If I accidentally click them, I want them to be named something suiting.. like 'Bouncy Ball'.)

Nevertheless, good job! :thup:
+rep <3 (can't rep you again.. Haxx some +rep to yourself, from me!)

 

[UndeadDragon]

Got you a replay Ace.

 

[Demi666]

Could you post some screenshots?

 

[AceHart]

v1.1 up.

Lordaeron winter is not very interesting terrain wise...
The clicking noise that sounds like Rally comes from the fact that it actually is Rally.

 

[Exide]

V1.1 is a lot better than v1.0 :thup:

*However, that annoying rally-point-sound remains.
(Maybe attack-ground could be a substitute?)
*The balls should be able to bounce in any direction, imo. (At least the "normal" ones, they look like they could be able to bounce in a different direction.)
*Terrain is still not interessting.
-Maybe you could add blockers that randomly pop-up and annoy the heck out of people? (Like trees and rocks, etc. That goes away after a few seconds.)
*It would be easier if the camera was more zoomed out, I believe. (Maybe that's your intentions, though?)

We're not keeping it simple anymore, huh?

 

[AceHart]

> The balls should be able to bounce in any direction

They already are not jumping in straight lines... more of that would make catching them too random.

> if the camera was more zoomed out

Any more and it starts to get really dark at the borders...

Changelog 1.2:

- New terrain! Didn't like the old one either

v1.3:

- new ability: Confusion
- features with text messages...