My first project - D&D heroes, and an alignment system!

[ZeroThirteen]

One thing: Yay!

Heh, with all the help you're giving me, this is gonna be as much your map as mine

That's not really all of it. Well, I do horrible when it comes to triggers. Just to let you know that. I have a basic grasp, and I do some things great, but I overall fail at triggers. Just... fail.

So, allow me to review what little decisions we have made final on:

• The terrain is going to be as described in my minimap image
• The troll is weak against fire
• There will be an alignment system (will (will))
• We're going to include prestige classes as starting characters
• The Loremaster is horrible and worthless. (Did I mention that it is also worthless? And horrible, as well.)
• We're designing an RPG (which includes the alignment system with it)

Did I miss anything?

 

[Sajberhippie]

One thing: Yay!


That's not really all of it. Well, I do horrible when it comes to triggers. Just to let you know that. I have a basic grasp, and I do some things great, but I overall fail at triggers. Just... fail.

So, allow me to review what little decisions we have made final on:

• The terrain is going to be as described in my minimap image
• The troll is weak against fire
• There will be an alignment system (will (will))
• We're going to include prestige classes as starting characters
• The Loremaster is horrible and worthless. (Did I mention that it is also worthless? And horrible, as well.)
• We're designing an RPG (which includes the alignment system with it)

Did I miss anything?

• Yep, but I ask for some minor changes: One northern fortress instead of two towns, a smaller lake, and, where the rest of the lake should have been, a small cavern. Also, the map has to be big. As big as possible, actually, so the players have much room to avoid each other should they want (or rather, should one team want). More space also gives more strategical and tactical depth.
• Yep. We'll also need another troll graphic, and especially animation. The model would work, but they have to move less agile, more... uncontrolled.
• Yes. There will. It was actually very easy to do, until it stopped working.
• I still think they should rather be NPC classes... But we can decide that later on. Right now I'm working on completing 5 heroes for each team, so the work on the map itself can begin (5 classes would be far enough for testing).
• Well, in wc3 it would be hard to make it good, but in regular PnP it's great. Remember it only loses 2 wizard bonus feats and instead gains immense amounts of knowledge-related abilities.
• Yep, and RPG it is. However, the alignment system will be pretty static, either a creature is good, neutral, or evil, and that won't change... At least not at this time. We could of course put in alignment changing, but that would take tons of work, and doesn't seem necessary at this point.

Some more specific ideas on quests:
For the good:
The High Priest tells the PC's that he wants them to escort a very dedicated (not to say fanatical) cleric to the small thorp of Pixie's Well, because of strange magical emanations they have detected. They should avoid combat if possible, and just escort him to the place and back. When they get there, they spot the gathering of a cult that has killed the villagers and raised them as undead. They rest, and let the cleric do his things "A cult? IN MY COUNTRY?!? hrmhrm... well... I gotta do these... divinations...", but when they awake, they are just in time to see the cleric charge into the town screaming a war prayer to his god, and they are in time to see him slaughtered. When they get back to Dinn with news of the cleric's death, the High Priest tells them to go back and see if they can get his remains. He was a fine cleric, though he had his bad sides, and they'd really like to revive him.

The corpse has been given to a small band of goblins that has allied themselves with the cult (they raid the caravans for food for the cult, and the cult pays them with magical aid and protection) for them to eat, but they have a certain stance on paladins, that they should be pickled, and so, the body remains. If they manage (through stealth, persuasion, magic, or force) to get the remains and return, they find out about the summoning of The Eye.

For the evil:
They have been sent to the fortress without knowledge of excactly what they are supposed to do, but when they arrive, they get a simple recognitive mission; scout out the area, and place a certain magic trinket on a certain spot for the devil in charge (a barbazu maybe?) to spy on the area. They encounter a lone ranger, and if taken capture, they torture him to confess that he works as a mercenary hunter and is currently catching pixies and griggs for the Cult of the Eye (they use them as spell components).

When the barbazu learns about the cult of the eye, he sets the heroes in charge of a small force to slay the leader of this gathering (if these units should be controllable is doubtful, but you should be able to give them orders in some way).

 

[ZeroThirteen]

The quests are completely up to you, but I can't do anything yet. When you finish what it is that you want to get done, just upload the map. Until then, I'll be waiting.

 

[Sajberhippie]

The quests are completely up to you, but I can't do anything yet. When you finish what it is that you want to get done, just upload the map. Until then, I'll be waiting.

You could, if you want, do the mapping right now. I'll just import all custom unit/ability/buff data and all triggers

The map size would be like 192x256...

 

[ZeroThirteen]

Well.. I kinda lost the urge to do it right now, so I might pick it up when I see some of the work done. Until then, I'll be thinking up ideas. Good luck!

 

[Sajberhippie]

Okay, thanks

 

[ZeroThirteen]

I'm still waiting on a reply... when are you going to finish this? I'm starting to lose the urge to help.

 

[Sajberhippie]

I'm still waiting on a reply... when are you going to finish this? I'm starting to lose the urge to help.

Oh, sorry >< Thought you had left this. I'm working on it now, but I've changed much. I realized it won't do very good as an RPG, and also, RPG's require a lot of detailed work since there is so few elements. It's easier with more things since every thing doesn't have to be perfect then, so I've decided to make a campaign instead... Check first page for more info.

Thanks anyway

 

[ZeroThirteen]

Ofcourse I still want to help. The map sounds awesome! I might not be able to do as much as I was hoping at first, but just give me a project and I'll see what I can do.

Best of luck!

 

[Sajberhippie]

Ofcourse I still want to help. The map sounds awesome! I might not be able to do as much as I was hoping at first, but just give me a project and I'll see what I can do.

Best of luck!

Wieeeee Thanks a lot... If you could PM me your e-mail, I could send over the map I have now... It's the first mission, and I made the terrain myself so it's really ugly, but it should give you an idea... if you've got MSN or something, maybe I can add you, so we can talk more easy?
Thanks

 

[ZeroThirteen]

EDIT: Whoops! A bit of lag convinced me that my first post hand't worked. Sorry.

 

[ZeroThirteen]

My e-mail address is [email protected].

I have a great idea that I think you should examine:
The campaign sounds great, but what if we incorporated the idea in a multiplayer style? We could have a base map that does the story introduction and allows the player to generate, but not load, their characters. There will also be many more maps that will release as time passes: there will be those that are based on the original and follow the story of the characters, and there will be small to medium sized dungeons that the players can enter to gain treasure and experience. I think that max level 20 isn't enough, unless you make experience go very slowly, but there is a way to balance this. We could either have the generic "3 primary attribute, 2 secondary attribute, 1 unimportant attribute point per level" system, or we could have massive amounts of attribute gain per level and multiple ways (quests or magic) for characters to gain extra attribute points. The options and possibilities are endless, but it's up to you to decide in the long run.

 

[Sajberhippie]

My e-mail address is [email protected].

You've got mail! Thanks again for helping

I have a great idea that I think you should examine:
The campaign sounds great, but what if we incorporated the idea in a multiplayer style? We could have a base map that does the story introduction and allows the player to generate, but not load, their characters. There will also be many more maps that will release as time passes: there will be those that are based on the original and follow the story of the characters, and there will be small to medium sized dungeons that the players can enter to gain treasure and experience. I think that max level 20 isn't enough, unless you make experience go very slowly, but there is a way to balance this. We could either have the generic "3 primary attribute, 2 secondary attribute, 1 unimportant attribute point per level" system, or we could have massive amounts of attribute gain per level and multiple ways (quests or magic) for characters to gain extra attribute points. The options and possibilities are endless, but it's up to you to decide in the long run.

The campaign in itself is mostly as an area to build the system in, as it's the game functions I'm primarily after. I'm quite good at designing storylines and such, so when I'm done with all basic custom units and abilities I can put out maps about as fast as people can help me terrain them. While it is a good idea to have a multiplayer part of it, I think that it will be very hard to do in this very campaign; It's not really about picking characters, it's more like the regular RoC and TFT campaigns in that you get a certain one. This allows for more story-building as you can let the individual characters respond more to the the world and lets you create a better intrigue.
So far, I've tried to keep D&D's system of very LOW attribute bonuses, totaling 1 per level (as opposed to D&D's real number of 1 per four levels and WC's of 6 per level), and higher could really mess the balance up... There should be noticable difference between the HP of a barbarian and a druid, even if they've got the same attributes.

Also, in this campaign one will switch between playing three races; First mission is human, second is goblinoid, third is human, fourth is drow and so on.

But when this campaign is finished, I'm all for making a multiplayer map with this system. I guess MOST map types would be possible, from an RPG through an AoS to the simple Altered Melee.

 

[ZeroThirteen]

It sounds good to me... I suppose I could do some work on the campaign, but I was hoping to do work on the multiplayer. Well, whatever works. Is there anything specific you want me to do? Where do you want the paths, caves, mountains, and all that?

I need some information to actually do it.

It's the first mission, and I made the terrain myself so it's really ugly, but it should give you an idea...

Exactly what idea? I can only assume that what you want is for me to follow the guidelines you've made with the terrain, but I'm not entirely sure about the specifics. I guess I can get to work on revamping it, but give me some feedback on this when you can.

 

[ZeroThirteen]

I noticed your Call Lightning ability has a useless trigger. The "Start" trigger simply plays the animation; why not just set the ability to play the spell animation instead of putting in it triggers?

The terrain looks decent. I'll still wait to hear back from you about that, but I did need to go through and patch up your pathing blocker work. If you need to see where to place more, go to View and select Pathing - Ground. Any of the pink areas are unaccessable to ground units. This helps when placing down pathing blockers.

Keep up the good work!

 

[Sajberhippie]

I noticed your Call Lightning ability has a useless trigger. The "Start" trigger simply plays the animation; why not just set the ability to play the spell animation instead of putting in it triggers?

The terrain looks decent. I'll still wait to hear back from you about that, but I did need to go through and patch up your pathing blocker work. If you need to see where to place more, go to View and select Pathing - Ground. Any of the pink areas are unaccessable to ground units. This helps when placing down pathing blockers.

Keep up the good work!

There are many things that don't do squat... It's because I do different things at different times. I realized a reason I've always quit doing the maps earlier is because I always make up an order to make stuff in, and then I get tired of it... So now, I'm doing a little here and a little there...
Oh, nice tip on pathing... I've missed that completey XD

It sounds good to me... I suppose I could do some work on the campaign, but I was hoping to do work on the multiplayer. Well, whatever works. Is there anything specific you want me to do? Where do you want the paths, caves, mountains, and all that?
I need some information to actually do it.

I'll try to explain the story, and you have free hands to make a map out of it.

Spoiler

In the drow city of Kamozzarenman, the Third house falls from Lolth's favor when a third son isn't sacrificed. Despite later sacrificing him, they won't regain favor and word is spreading. Of course an attack comes, and when it does, the third house actually flees into the tunnels of the Underdark. They attack and gain control over a small Duergar settlement, and find out they're so close to the surface that they can get there should they want.
And of course they want. They raid nearby villages and goblinoid settlements for slaves, loot, and of course, hope of Lolth noticing them again. The small mining Dylfrir was the first village to fall, due to the way between surface and underdark going through their mine, and after the drow had left, a nearby group of goblinoids of the Worg tribe took the town as their own. The few humans that survivied, those that weren't in the town at the moment of the raid, are enslaved by the goblinoids.

In the capital city of the humans, the lack of reports from Dylfrir warrants an investigation. Sent is Belfrir, a noble and knight, and Thin'Taralai, an arcane archer that has become famous within the military as a top-notch scout.

The map begins with a cinematic showing how Thin'Taralai spots the burning village in the distance. The first quest will be to guide her to the town to check for survivors while Belfrir sets up the camp outside. It will be a sneaky mission where combat will be very much unwanted.
After the camp is set up and the player has met up with any survivor (who can tell her also that a few survivors where taken on a slave caravan this very morning), the quest will be partly to meet up and take out the slave caravan (providing for some ambush tactics) and simply retaking the city, without allowing the civilians to die. When the town is retaken and the commoners freed, they will tell the player of the drow that came.
And then, unless you've got some idea on what to fill it with, it's Victory.

Second mission will be with the goblinoids, trying to run away from the humans and returning to their tribe... When they do, they find out the drow are planning to attack. This will be kind of a defense map of some sort, but I haven't decided the details yet.

Third mission will once again be infiltration-style, but with a little more combat. Thin'Taralai and Herbrid and some troops are gonna try to find out what's in the dungeon. You know, an old hack'n'slash type of thing. Could need a twist though.

Fourth mission is in the eyes of the drow, trying to survive down there.

There are some things that are needed in the first map, location isn't that important though.
1. Some kind of water, for fishing purposes.
2. A hill where Thin'Taralai can spot the town.
3. The town itself.
4. A cave (where the drow came from)
5. A quite long road that the slaves are to be taken on.
6. Preferable some terrain that allows for more tactics; maybe streams, wood, and hills...

 

[ZeroThirteen]

As much as I hate to say it, the campaign really isn't working out for me.
I think I want to move on... you're definitely a better mapper than I am. I'm moving on to my own project... hopefully, it won't fail too horribly.

ZeroThirteen

 

[Sajberhippie]

As much as I hate to say it, the campaign really isn't working out for me.
I think I want to move on... you're definitely a better mapper than I am. I'm moving on to my own project... hopefully, it won't fail too horribly.

ZeroThirteen

No problem man... But me being a better mapper? Doubt it. Anyways, what's your project?

 

[ZeroThirteen]

I was going to do a customizable version of a gladiator arena... it's a bit lengthy. But that's not the point. I messed up my last project to a degree of unplayability. I might send you an unprotected edition so you can have a look. Just try not to laugh.

...Anyways, what are you expecting me to do on your map? It looked as though everything that needed to be done was finished (except for the heroes) when I got the map.

 

[Sajberhippie]

I was going to do a customizable version of a gladiator arena... it's a bit lengthy. But that's not the point. I messed up my last project to a degree of unplayability. I might send you an unprotected edition so you can have a look. Just try not to laugh.

...Anyways, what are you expecting me to do on your map? It looked as though everything that needed to be done was finished (except for the heroes) when I got the map.

Basically the terrain. The terrain I did was just something so I could see what would be where, and to give me an arena to test out the new units and skills. I've started to make the real terrain myself now, though. I guess I can handle this Send it over, I'll try hard