Compound 13 : Outbreak

[MurderMode]

*ALERT*

*INCOMING DISTRESS SIGNAL*
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..
...

*COMPOUND 13, BIOLOGICAL RESEARCH SECTOR*

*42ND FLOOR BELOW GROUND*

*UNKNOWN LIFEFORM HAS ESCAPED CONTAINMENT. THREAT LEVEL..*
.
..
...

*CODE RED*

*MARINES HAVE BEEN DISPATCHED FOR CONTAINMENT*

*SECTOR HAS BEEN SEALED UNTIL THREAT IS NUETRALISED*

*ESTIMATED CHANCE FOR SUCESS AT 7%*
.
..
...

*GOD HELP US ALL*

*END TRANSMISSION*

Introducing....

COMPOUND 13 : OUTBREAK

An original 5v5 concept for Warcraft 3, inspired by the popular Half-Life modification NATURAL SELECTION.

THE GAME.

Compound 13 : Outbreak is an original 5v5 map design with an emphasis on teamwork and strategy rarely seen in a custom game. The game pits two unique teams, the human Marines and the alien Metadrones, in a battle for survival and domination of the 42nd subfloor of Compound 13.

THE OBJECTIVE.

Both teams start at opposite ends of the subfloor, with a 'base' room containing the the opposite team's main objective. In the Alien's base is the Hive Mind, the lifesource of the Metadrones. Each team has to work across the map in an effort to destroy the enemies base. Located in the Marine's base is the control chair, which is used by the Marine's Commander to control the flow the battle. In the Alien's base is the Hive Mind, the lifesource of the Metadrones. Each team has to work across the map in an effort to destroy the enemies base.

Entry to the base, however, is not as easy as reaching the opposite end of the map. Both bases are contained by indestructable gates, a blast door for the Marines and the Hive Mind's carapace for the Metadrones.

In order to destroy the Hive Mind's hardened carapace, the marines must acquire and activate all 5 power generators located around the subfloor. In contrary to this, the Metadrones must destroy all 5 power generators to disable the blast door and gain entry to the control room.

The game is won when the Marines destroy the Hive Mind, or the Metadrones destroy the Command Chair.

THE TERRAIN.

Playable Area : 148X148

The terrain has been designed using custom doodads to resemble the underground corridors of a highly classified research facility, and to provide a key component to the strategical element of the map. The map contains 2 main bases, 5 generator rooms and a mass of corridors to link them together. The corridors are very tight and drastically limit the player's vision, aiming to increase the intensity of the atmosphere and to allow multiple routes for various strategies. The size of all the units have also been decreased.

THE TEAMS.

The teams and their differences are what set this map apart from other War3 custom games.

THE MARINES:

The Human team will each control 1 Marine, a basic unit. Marines will not upgrade or level like heroes, their stats will remain static. To keep up with gameplay the marines will be able to acquire various items including new weapons and armour, which will increase base stats and give special abilities to the unit. The game camera will follow the Marine around closely through the game, allowing the Marine player to only see their direct surroundings.

The Marines will have a major benefit over the aliens however, in the form of a Commander. Any one of the 5 Marines may enter the Control Chair, located in the Marines main base. The Commander will have a complete overview of the map. Once in the control chair the Commander will be able to manage upgrades, build weapons and worker droids, give ammo and meds to marines in the field amongst other things. The Commander is there to order the overall strategies of the game and to assist the Marine players in what ever way possible.

THE METADRONES:

The Metadrones are creatures all controlled by the Hive Mind. They are not viewed as independant life forms, as their genetic makeup depends on the will and favour of the Hive Mind itself.

All alien players will start with a basic Metadrone Meat Hound, a weak attacking unit. As the unit kills the opposing team, the Metadrone player will accumulate Evolution Points, and be able to evolve from its basic form to others including a worker, stealth and tank Hero. Every evolution of the Metadrone comes with its own levels and abilities, however if killed in an evolved state the Metadrone will de-evolve back to its basic form and have to work its way back up the ladder. The leading player on the Metadrone team will be favoured by the Hive Mind, and be provided with extra abilities and upgrades to assist them throughout the game.

Each individual player on the Metadrone will be responsible for their own upgrades and defences, but will need to work together to conquer the opposing team using strategies evolved from combining the different players classes and abilities.

THE RESOURCE SYSTEM.

GOLD - COMBAT POINTS (human) / GENETIC MATERIAL (alien)

Combat Points : Combat points will be used by the Marines in the purchase of new weapons and armour aswell as other items to assist them in battle.

Genetic Material : Aliens will be able to collect genetic material with each kill, and this will be used to purchase upgrades for the alien and to build various biological structures.

LUMBER - COMMANDER POINTS (human) / EVOLUTION POINTS (alien)

Commander Points : These points will be acquired over time via the control of power generators. The more power generators controlled, the more points the commander will recieve. These points will be used by the commander to build units, items, upgrades and defenses.

Evolution Points - Again, with each kill an alien will acquire evolution points. These points will be used to evolve the creature to different forms.

SUMMARY.

This is just a basic overview of the game, to give an idea of what I'm developing and to hopefully get some feedback from the World Editing community. I am working on this map solo but plan to have an alpha version released as early as next week. Thanks for taking the time to read my thread

UPDATE:

This is the official map layout of Compound 13's alpha. (lol it looks like a Zelda Dungeon from this pic )

Here are some screen shots of a practice map using my new doodads to create an underground map. This is not the official map but it will give you an idea of how it will look ingame.

Spoiler

Room Test

Corridor Test (Marine Game View)

Terrain Test

 

[linamus]

hell that too interesting for me to look at it, *wwaanna plaay*

 

[crystalguard]

*walks up to MurderMode Limping like egor, moaing, picks up MurderMode by the shirt and screams GIVE ME TEH MAP!,*
Murder: " But I just started it, it isan't done yet!"
Crystalguard: " o ok then....
I'LL BE BACK"
----------------------------------------------------------------
I cant wait for this, sounds like parasite 2, only better.

 

[MurderMode]

wow thanks guys, support already! lol that puts a smile on my face

Just for that I'll reveal a bit more information about the commander to get you even more excited....

Although the commander can view the marines progress all over the map, at times he will be too busy managing upgrades and building units to check on the individual players. To compensate for this there are holograms of each Marine player positioned around the command chair which will automatically use floating text to alert the commander of their current condition. Examples of this include the room the marine has just entered, the hp status of a marine and generator rooms the marine has captured.

*SCREENSHOTS WILL BE AVAILABLE SOON*

*END TRANSMISSION*

 

[SerraAvenger]

This really seems interesting, I hope to see it online soon.

Marine operational

 

[thewrongvine]

The Song I Wrote For This:
I-want-to-play! dundundun dun dun! Me-wants-to-play! X3

 

[MurderMode]

haha wow thanks for more positive support guys, it has me really moving on this project now

This really seems interesting, I hope to see it online soon.

Marine operational

Yeah like I said in the main thread, I'm looking at having a playable alpha ready as soon as next week... this will be mostly for online balancing purposes, so once it is ready I will need testers and this will be the place to get it!

PROGRESS.

I'm focusing mainly on the terrain today, and just fidgeting with different methods of giving the map a real 'indoors' feel. The terrain is currently 1/3 complete, but I plan to have it fully functional by tonite.

QUESTION?

Multiplayer games like this really suffer from leavers. I've thought of a possible way to combat this, and I'm wondering if it would increase the popularity of the game or really turn people off..

The idea is to create an automatic save/load system to record each individual players wins and loses. If a player wins the game, they recieve 1 win and if a player loses the game, they recieve 1 loss. If a player leaves the game before it is over however, they will recieve 2 losses for not sticking it out to the end. The reason they only recieve 2 and not more is because sometimes everyone needs to leave a game early, or the host may crash, so 1 extra loss isnt going to seriously hurt anyones reputation.

When any player types -stats ingame it will come up with each players record.. this i think will make it easier for clans to identify good players, aswell as cull out people willing to leave a game because it doesn't happen to be going in their favour... what do you think?

Edit: added some screens of an early terrain test, however the terraining of the actual map isn't far from completion.

 

[SerraAvenger]

*Reveiving transmission*
Greetings Commander,
I want to test, but I'm not sure if it fits well, mostly concerning the time : /
I can still test it with a few other Marines from my training camp.

Apart from that: There is a big saveload code problem for your map: Leavers A) don't need to use the new save load code and B ) They won't get it anyway, as they have just left when they get it : /
A better way to balance out leavers would be: a) kicking out a player of the opposing team with a similiar skill; Not neat, but at least it would be quite balanced; b ) kicking out a player from the opposing team with a vote or c) Giving the left team a small bonus with something ( Be it hp , resources or w/e )

I still like the Idea of save/load codes : ), but namespoofing could ruin it a bit.

Hell I love your corridors, I'm really looking forward to this!
Might it be that there will even be a random terran "generator", that closes / opens some of the corridors randomly so each match will be truly unique?
Davey
*End Transmission*

 

[MurderMode]

*Reveiving transmission*

Apart from that: There is a big saveload code problem for your map: Leavers A) don't need to use the new save load code and B ) They won't get it anyway, as they have just left when they get it : /
A better way to balance out leavers would be: a) kicking out a player of the opposing team with a similiar skill; Not neat, but at least it would be quite balanced; b ) kicking out a player from the opposing team with a vote or c) Giving the left team a small bonus with something ( Be it hp , resources or w/e )]

LOL kicking out a player with the same skill?? could you imagine if that was you? haha no I don't want to do anything that affects the players more then they are already, and I've found that even bonuses can change the game in a way that makes more people leave.

I've thought out the save/load process, don't you worry about that. A short time into the game the save/load would automatically save your current score to +2 losses. If you leave the game anytime from that point, your score will retain those 2 loses. However if you win the save will kick in again, and you will gain +1 win and -2 losses (and If you lose you will gain 0 wins and -1 losses).

Hell I love your corridors, I'm really looking forward to this!
Might it be that there will even be a random terran "generator", that closes / opens some of the corridors randomly so each match will be truly unique?
Davey
*End Transmission*

heh, you are kind of on track there. The game wont contain a terrain generator as such, but the players will be able to alter the flow of play by blocking off specific routes. As the Marines acquire generators they will be able to control more doors closer to the alien base and chose to divert the alien attack by closing them. On the Metadrones side you have the builder evolution (yet to be named). The builder will be able to place a set amount of organic walls around the map in an effort to block off lanes and divert the flow. These will have HP but it will be high enough to possibly force the Marines to reopen their closed lanes.

Another slither of information on the builder evolution - I'm currently designing a building for the builder called the Micro Hive. The Micro Hive will be a structure the unit will able to build that will act as a creep spawn, where mobs will spawn at an interval for the player to command. The cool thing about this will be the way you create/choose your creeps! read on...

The builder will be able to collect 3 types of genetic material from around the map. These will be :

Organic Matter - Collected from the artificial Biodome in the centre of the map

Biological Tissue - Collected from the Human Marines

Bacteria - Collected from the water in the sewer system

The Micro Hive will have 3 inventory slots, and depending on your combination of genetic material you will have a choice of up to 9 different creeps

 

[SerraAvenger]

LOL kicking out a player with the same skill?? could you imagine if that was you? haha no I don't want to do anything that affects the players more then they are already, and I've found that even bonuses can change the game in a way that makes more people leave.

Yes I know that it's not neat, but it would be balanced best. The teams would still be somewhat arround equal, and from other maps I know there were players kicked in matches just to balance leavers in the opposing team. Thus the idea is not that cruel, it is just - well, not nice.

I've thought out the save/load process, don't you worry about that. A short time into the game the save/load would automatically save your current score to +2 losses. If you leave the game anytime from that point, your score will retain those 2 loses. However if you win the save will kick in again, and you will gain +1 win and -2 losses (and If you lose you will gain 0 wins and -1 losses).

You mean that you have save load codes like in -load

, or that you rather want to save it externally ( in a way like BT does )?
Becouse else you can simply use an older save load code. Same for losses.
Like:
A player X has won 20 times and lost 3 times.
Now he plays, and gets the code with 20 - 5
After he leaves the game, the code would be 20 - 5. Bould now he simply uses the 20-3 code he had before, not updating the code.

Also I think that win/loss depends highly on your allies and enemies, so this system might not be that good - I'ld rather try to distribute points for different things, like activating a generator : 5 points ( that will be distributed evenly among the heroes in near ) and 2 points for the Commander. Perhaps even depending on your enemy's points, so that a high pointed enemy team will give more points than a weak one.

Hth in any way, Davey

 

[Varine]

Is the red transmission thing necessary?

I like the idea. Will you be using a projectile system for the combat?

 

[Legacyspy]

To use a save code to stop leavers you need to be saving 2 attributes:

1. Something that increases from winning and decreases with losing.
2. Something that increases from just playing.

This way people are rewarded for sticking around.

 

[MurderMode]

hello, time for an update. I've decided to leave the win/loss code out of it for the moment, and I'm just concentrating on getting the map completed. Terraining is 99.9% complete (ill probably add a few more doodads to spruce it up by completion) and I have begun work on the Marines and the Commander.

I have the Commander's Command Point system in place, so if at any stage the commander jumps out of the chair and someone else gets in then they will aquire the accumulated command points. The command points are generated over time depending on how many and which generators the Marines currently have active. The generators accumulate energy which can be converted to useable command points.

The generators also have different effects on gameplay. They are as follows :

1. Backup Generator - The most basic of supplies, this generator has the smallest energy output and can really be considered the marines last resort at keeping the Blast Door sealed.

2. General Power Generator - this generator supplies the same power as the Backup Gen, but is also responsible for keeping the lights on. Once deactivated the Marines vision is greatly reduced.

3. Biodome Generator - This generator is responsible for running the equipment to keep balance in the Artificial Biodome, a room that was designed to study disease in a controllable environment. When deactivated the system will be unstable the Metadrones will be able to regenerate lost hp in the biodome. This generator has twice the output of the General Power Gen.

4. Life Support Generator - This generator controls the air, water and waste services on the subfloor. Even though the Marines are self contained in their biohazard armour, they will not be able to use the medical facilities around the subfloor with it's deactivated. This Gen also has twice the output of the G.P. Gen.

5. Lab Generator - This generator is responsible for powering the energy thirsty lab equipment located in the compound. It's output is 3 times that of the G.P. Gen.

Ok so thats about it for now, I hope you are all still interested as I should have the alpha complete after this weekend. I've added a screenshot of the Map's Overview aswell. bye

BTW - the 'red transimission thing' is just an alternate way of posting a background story... and projectile system? I'm not quite sure what you mean, if you mean some sort of physics system then no, I'm not sure how to do that and I don't really think it would add gameplay value to the system I'm designing... so I think I will just stick to what I know with this project. Thx for your comments guys

 

[GooS]

That was probably the best intro for a project I've ever read, I got starcraft tingling from down my toes

Hope you do great progress with this map and that it ends up as great as the intro.

 

[Varine]

I meant more of a dodge-able system, where the 'bullets' will go in a line rather than just hit you like a lot of these games do. Either way I'm sure it will be relatively fun, but it's more of the 'realism' aspect of it. I'm not very good with them either, which is why someone's helping me immensly on my map with it.

 

[MurderMode]

ahhh I see what you mean, and yes there will be a few weapons that will work like that, but the basic ones will just auto attack. The reason for this is because of the corridor system and marines light/dark visibility in most cases you wont see the enemy until he is upon you, which would leave the marine in a bad position if he had to aim every shot. I will tweak the combat system once the Metadrones have been completed and I have done some of the most basic of balancing.

OK, a further update on the game for those who are interested...

COMMANDER UNIT CLONING!

All marines in the game are clones created for combat. They don't level or gain xp in the way a normal Hero would, as once cloned they stay within their genetic capability. The Marines can increase stats however, through the commander manipulating the base genetics of the clone prototype in the CLONE LAB.

The clone lab will consist of the Prototype and 3 lanes of genetic modification. It's important to know at this point that the stats have been changed to -

Strength >>> Endurance
Agility >>> Accuracy
Inteligence >>> Energy

The 3 lanes of modification will be -

Lane 1. Endurance - The prototype suffers constant assault and healing which over time increases its endurance stat.

Lane 2. Accuracy - The prototype is put into intense combat training where it must hone its ability to aim and fire by destroying targets. Every target that is destroyed will increase the Accuracy stat.

Lane 3. Energy - The clone prototype is forced to run back and forth between markers to increase its energy levels over time.

The prototype can only use one lane at a time.

When a new clone is created for the player, its stats will be based off that of the prototype. This means if a marine dies in combat under a good commander, when his new clone has been created for battle it will be of a superior model.

I hope you are all enjoying the thought of all the new aspects of gameplay I am introducing to War3, and please dont worry that it might end up being too overwhelming... what I am trying to do is set up the system to be as user friendly as possible, but at the same time create enough diversity to allow for the player to find a new aspect to enjoy with each play.

peace yo

 

[crystalguard]

This is turning out to be one of the coolest sounding games I ever heard of. I'd be glad to help test , Also....

The reason for this is because of the corridor system and marines light/dark visibility in most cases you wont see the enemy until he is upon you

Is this what the GPG controls? If so, is there going to be a natural occourance of where it naturaly shuts off and on? Like instead of something manualy turning it off, are going to have like natural occourances of like the generator running out of fuel, causeing the generator to stay off untill a player puts fuel in it?

 

[MurderMode]

No, the lighting just goes out when the Metadrones have disabled it. The generators are basically flag capture points, with resources and effects tied into them. There isn't going to be any world events in the alpha version, everything is going to happen based on a player caused event. It is a competitive map by design so at this stage I don't want things to happen that the players dont have control over.

Progress is coming along well with the map atm, as I am only 5 days into it and have all the hard work out the way. I've been struggling a bit with syncronising the commanders actions with the development of the marines, but now that I have that finally sorted it is going to be smooth running from here. I seriously think people are going to be wowed the first time they step into the command chair, its such a fresh break from the amount of AoS's war3 pumps out these days... actually I'm so happy with how the commander role is coming along I feel like the rest of the marine players are being left out of the fun lol. I'm going to have to stack up a massive amount of items for them to tinker with, just to make it fair

thx for your support man, when the alpha is done I'd like to give it a quick run through just to check for any obvious bugs in the triggering, and then it will be free for anyone to download and host as they please

 

[baka-ranger]

The clone lab will consist of the Prototype and 3 lanes of genetic modification. It's important to know at this point that the stats have been changed to -

Strength >>> Endurance
Agility >>> Accuracy
Inteligence >>> Energy

The 3 lanes of modification will be -

Lane 1. Endurance - The prototype suffers constant assault and healing which over time increases its endurance stat.

Lane 2. Accuracy - The prototype is put into intense combat training where it must hone its ability to aim and fire by destroying targets. Every target that is destroyed will increase the Accuracy stat.

Lane 3. Energy - The clone prototype is forced to run back and forth between markers to increase its energy levels over time.

With the descriptions that you've given on how to improve a stat, I think that you should change endurance aka strength to fortitude, and energy to endurance.

Just a thought, as you describe to increase energy they just run back and forth..

 

[MurderMode]

yeah I agree it sounds odd, but at the time of writing I couldn't think of what to call intelligence... being that mana is replaced with energy so I just dubbed it energy for the time being. I've changed it to stamina now, and here is a couple of dictionary meanings to make it sound right -

Strength >>> Endurance :

1. the fact or power of enduring or bearing pain, hardships, etc. .... this reflects the fact that strength increases HP, the ability to withstand damage.

and

Intelligence >>> Stamina :

1. Strength of physical constitution; power to endure disease, fatigue, privation, etc. ... This reflects the energy (mana) component of the game.

I like fortitude, however because I can't change the stat's names on both teams it would look rather bizarre having an alien with a fortitude stat. So that's why I'm trying to keep it sounding pretty generic.

Does it sound better now with int as Stamina?