WIP Elemental Tournament

[LurkerAspect]

Hover preview: 12 players, 6 elements, 63 abilities, 10+ gamemodes, hours of LAN/Online fun, AI

Foreword
Hi all for the first time in about 4 years, I've finally come up with an idea that I want to stick with through to the end. This thread is like a signed document for me that proves that this map WILL be submitted. I know that Warcraft 3 is slowly dying out now that Starcraft 2 has been released, but I'm hoping to produce one last great LAN game that's fun to play with your friends. This map is partly inspired by Karawasa's Elemental TD (I should take a moment to mention that it is EPIC and worth a play!), and Unreal Tournament to an extent.

I've thrown in a couple of pictures to hold your attention for a bit longer (considering average attention span seems to be going down), but they're all Work-In-Progress pics, so don't judge them yet!

Overview

• Players start in a tiny arena, where a random player is given the ability to choose a game mode.
• Modes range from the typical such as Free-for-All, Capture-the-Flag, and Elimination, to the unorthodox, such as Dash-4-Cash, Catch the pig, and labyrinth.
• Players are given a small creature (DemonicFamilar by Pyramidhe@d at the Hive Workshop) that hops around, and has a melee attack.
• Each player is given a base element at random, which decides their first ability.
• Slaying an enemy causes them to drop their base element (other collected elements are destroyed) for anyone to pick up.
• Picking up a new element gives you a new ability, picking up an element you already have powers up your current ability.
• Bonus items can be picked up to give your character alternate abilities, such as jump, blink, heal, invisibility, double damage etc.
  
  
  
  (current map - will be modified by final release)

Elements
In an attempt to be original, my choice of 6 elements differs slightly from other elemental games (I hope).
My elements are Air, Darkness, Earth, Fire, Light, and Water. Elemental Item model credits go to Frankster from The Hive Workshop.

Abilities
The key feature of this game is the Elemental powered abilities, of which there are exacly 63, and made in JASS. JASS is by no way my strongest point, but I've used my knowledge and whatever useful systems I've come across to generate my own, hand-coded spells. All abilities are designed to be damage-dealing, and as such, some are fairly primitive, while others are quite complex. A few examples: (All pics are WIP)

• Boulder: (Air+Earth) "Rolls a giant boulder toward the target location, crushing anything stupid enough to get in it's way"
• Gravestone: (Darkness+Earth) "Summons a tombstone at the target location, which after a short delay, binds all nearby enemies to it and drains their life to the caster. Bound units cannot move more than 400 units away from the tombstone until the spell has ended."
  
  
• Spell Steal: (Darkness+Light) "Steals the target's elemental spell, silencing them and giving the caster the ability to use that spell for a short duration, or until they cast Spell Steal on another target."
  
  
• Plague: (Air+Darkness+Fire+Water) "Infects the target with a deadly plague, which will deal fatal damage if no healing is done before the duration ends. If other enemies come near a plagued unit, the plague will spread to them.

(more to come in future!)

So as you can see, I'm no genius, but I'm proud of some of the above.
System credits go to Jesus4Lyf, Cohadar, Vexorian, and Flare/thethingy/Tmt.Fudge

AI
I find the biggest problem at small LAN parties and online is that there are never enough players to fill up a game. That's why I'm going out of my way to code a competent AI system for each gamemode, to keep it fun and exciting. They won't be as good as real players, but they'll fill up a game, and keep Free-for-alls from being 1v1v1's It also means you can play this game ON YOUR OWN (you nerd)

Interested in Helping?

Spoiler

I only put this here in the rare case that someone actually wants to help, in which case I will tell them I tend to work alone, however I could use a JASS wiz to de-leakify and optimize my code. I could also use some original ability suggestions, the elements are given above, so if you wanna contribute with your own unique spell, you'll get some mention in the final product.

There are a bunch of elements I'm iffy about, if you can come up with a good substance formed and/or ability for the combination, then by all means share it Below is the list of combinations I'd like to improve, and what I had in mind next to each one.

• Earth, Water (something to do with mud/plants)
• Light, Water (no idea, holy water?)
• Darkness, Earth, Water (corrupt nature/tainted land)
• Air, Fire, Light, Water (Something to do with steam?)
• Darkness, Earth, Fire, Water (definitely something to do with thorns)
• Air, Darkness, Fire, Light, Water (carrion/insects)
• Air, Darkness, Earth, Fire, Water (cursed metal)
• Air, Earth, Fire, Light, Water (something explosive)

Contact
You can reach me by sending me a PM here on The Helper, reply to this thread, or contact me on skype (skype name is edward.ormond) or email at [email protected], but be sure to say who you are (I only want mapping usernames) and what you're contacting me about. If you don't I'll ignore your email/request.

Conclusion
That's about it folks, I'm hoping to strike big with this map, as this will most likely be the last Warcraft map I ever make. From here on I'll probably try to learn the Galaxy editor and hop on the bandwagon. If this map has interested you, then great; if you think it's boring/bad, then thanks for taking the time to read this post and enjoy the rest of your day, and hope this hasn't been a complete waste of your time!

I hav'nt done extensive research, so if there is another map out there like this one, please let me know and I'll reference it properly. I'm not plagiarising anyone's ideas.

 

[KaerfNomekop]

Which elemental combinations do you already have in mind?

 

[LurkerAspect]

I've already come up with all 63, but I'd like to replace some because they're a bit weak. These are:

• Earth, Water (something to do with mud/plants)
• Light, Water (no idea, holy water?)
• Darkness, Earth, Water (corrupt nature/tainted land)
• Air, Fire, Light, Water (Something to do with steam?)
• Darkness, Earth, Fire, Water (definitely something to do with thorns)
• Air, Darkness, Fire, Light, Water (carrion/insects)
• Air, Darkness, Earth, Fire, Water (cursed metal)
• Air, Earth, Fire, Light, Water (something explosive)

Those are the elemental combinations I'm iffy about, and next to each I've put what I had in mind for the generated substance. If you come up with a better/more accurate element, that would be awesome and of course, if you have any good ability ideas, please share them

 

[KaerfNomekop]

Geyser (Earth + Water): Creates a crack in the earth, from which erupts a giant burst of water. Enemies caught in the blast get thrown into the air, taking damage and becoming stunned upon landing.

Mirage (Light + Water): Creates an illusion of every unit within the target area. These illusions deal 20% damage, cannot cast spells, and are invulnerable to all elements except Fire - spells of this type will instantly kill them.

Demon Seed (Darkness + Earth + Water): Plants a demon seed at the target location. If not hit by 5 attacks within 10 seconds of planting, the seed grows into a powerful Demon Plant. The Demon Plant can entangle a target unit with vines, immobilising them and dealing damage over time until it is cast on another unit. The Demon Plant only takes damage from Light and Fire spells; Air and Water spells will heal it, while Earth and Darkness have no effect.

Smokescreen (Air + Fire + Light + Water): Fog spreads over the target area, turning all units within the area invisible and giving them 25% evasion. Affects all units regardless of alliance.

Shadow Thorns (Darkness + Earth + Fire + Water): The target unit and units around it become entangled in swathes of thorns, reducing movement speed and dealing damage over time. If a unit that has the Shadow Thorns buff is attacked, the attacker takes a portion of the damage dealt.

Locust Swarm (Air + Darkness + Fire + Light + Water): Summons a swarm of controllable locusts that fly around the target area. Each locust has 50 HP, 1-5 damage and 100% lifesteal. Lasts for 20 seconds or until destroyed.

Familiar (Air + Darkness + Earth + Fire + Water): Summons a familiar to attack your enemies. The familiar has 200 HP, 25-35 damage and can pass through enemies. The familiar takes only 10% of attack damage and is immune to magic. Each of the familiar's attacks will deal damage over time to the target of the attack. Lasts until destroyed.

Saviour (Air + Earth + Fire + Light + Water): All of the caster's spells except those involving Darkness will heal/damage for an additional 50%. Lasts 10 seconds. Only applies to instant/delayed damage, and does not augment the effects of damage over time.

 

[LurkerAspect]

Hmm... very nice ideas thanks a lot! I like the idea of having elements interact like that, I had thought of it before but I thought it was too difficult to implement, but I could probably just get it right with a damage system.

 

[KaerfNomekop]

Sorry for the bump. Just curious whether this is still ongoing.

 

[LurkerAspect]

Yeah I've kinda been distracted at the moment, but I will resume working ASAP. I've got a two month holiday now so I should be able to get quite a bit done! I can comfortably say it's at about 40% completion, all the abilities have been finished, and I've got a single gamemode almost finished and work has begun on the crucial AI system. Again, thanks for your suggestions they were very helpful!

EDIT: On a side note, I've got approval from Karawasa to have an elemental damage system just like the one he uses in Elemental TD, so that should add an interesting and exciting dynamic to the game.