Other Rabbits vs Sheep - Winterspring Wargames

[Baltazhar]

Latest version release November 10th 2009.
Direct download link: Rabbits vs Sheep WsW 0.83b BETA.w3x
Full changelog: Rabbits vs Sheep WsW 0.83 BETA Changelog (Links to a forum topic on our site)
Website: http://winterspring-wargames.com

Hello everyone!

My friend and I are currently developing what we believe to be an "upgrade" of the original Rabbits vs Sheep.
We did not copy any content from the original, but armed ourselves with inspiration and began from scratch.

Team:
Shadowplay - Ideas, terrain and website.
aBys.Baltazhar - Mapmaking, ideas and website.
Buckie - Website

Map explanation:
Winterspring Wargames is a map for Warcraft3 The Frozen Throne, inspired by the popular Rabbits vs Sheep by Gate[C]aster. The concept is that each player has a hero with unique advantages and skills he can use in this gruesome killing competition. Every time you kill a creep your enemy must face 2 additional creeps. Once one team has 150, 200, 250 or 300 creeps, depending on the Game Duration, on their side of the map the round stops and team with the fewest number of creeps wins the round.

To help your creeps (kobolds or gnolls) live longer, there are several different possibilities in the big red exclamation mark in the center of each playing field; you can pay to summon a Commander that gives your creeps a number advantages, you can upgrade their hit points and damage or your can summon other special creeps with special abilities like more hp, range and heavy damage to make life harder for your opponents. Additionally you can pay to activate a number of special abilities available to both teams. These range from a global stun to all enemy heroes, silence, damage spells and so forth.

Certain heroes also have access to "Player vs Player spells", or in short "PVP" spells. These PVP spells are global in range and allow you to harm enemy heroes and combined with the many unique items purchable for your hero, this makes for a game experience like you have never experienced before.

Video
Promo video for version 0.81. It's located on YouTube.

Spoiler

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Screenshots

Spoiler

Note that the screenshots are from a previous version, we are still working on getting new ones.
The screenshots are also full scale on our website, if you wish to see them in a larger format.

Map Overview

Spoiler

We are trying to develop it as professional and bug-free as possible, and so far we've gotten pretty good response. If you have suggestions, bugs, comments, anything really, feel free to leave a message.

Using our website you can register at our forum and help us develop it further, send in bug reports, see more screenshots and a complete list of heroes including abilities, icons and stats.
For the nervous people our there, our website contains no spyware, virus or malware of any sort.

Thanks for reading.

Regards,
Baltazhar <3

 

[Joker(Div)]

Meh, you could have added some originality to the map layout, but I have no room to criticize... At least it looks more polished than the other.

 

[Zack1996]

OMG! ITS RABBITS VS SHEEP!
This game is totally awesome, last time I play it. I believe it would be totally pwnage now, when I saw all the screenies, it amazes me. There seems to be a large amounts of custom heroes and abilities now compared to, say, two years ago.
I will test it and reply, I know it would be awesome~!

 

[iPeez]

Looks neat =) I will be waiting!

 

[thewrongvine]

I want to play...
As Joker(Div) said, looks more polished, :thup:

~Hai-Bye-Vine~

 

[Renendaru]

Just played it and I have to say, nice skill sets on the heroes. Each hero had a certain role, as well as a chance of survival depending on how they filled it. Added a new meaning to co-op.

 

[Baltazhar]

@Joker(Div): The terrain is about the same, as well as the "2 kill spawns 2 allies" rule. The rest is very different. If you base your oppinion on the map-area alone, you are missing a lot.

@Zack1996: It's the concept of Rabbits vs Sheep, but not associated with the original RvS by Gate[C]aster. We got inspired his map and made, what we hope is, a better version of the map.
We have done a lot of work with items, heroes and the looks and feel of the map.

@iPeez: Why wait, download it and give it a test run! The feedback we have had on B.net has been great, and people seem eager for rehost whenever a game has ended.

@thewrongvine: Just click the link and zoom zoom awaaaaaay!

@Remendaru: I must say that's some of the most observing and descriptive feedback we have had. We have done a great deal out of giving each hero (and item for that matter) his/her very own feeling, skill-synergy and role in the fight.

If you have suggestions for improvements, bugs, basically anything on topic, feel free to post it.
Looking forward to hearing from you, and thanks everyone.

Baltazhar

 

[thewrongvine]

No, I meant I wanted to play but can't because of no wc3,

But I did play it, and it's pretty cool.
This game really does need at least 2v2, because in 1v1, there are some heroes that are only good late game as support and stuff.
The genie Legend hero was really cool, but his "awe" spell captured my enemy when he came over, . I don't think you should be able to capture enemy heroes.
Also, there should be a time limit.
But anyways, it was awesome, :thup:

~Hai-Bye-Vine~

 

[Baltazhar]

The genie Legend hero was really cool, but his "awe" spell captured my enemy when he came over, . I don't think you should be able to capture enemy heroes.
Also, there should be a time limit.

It can Awe enemy heroes?! better get that looked at
What name do you wish to be credited as?

The idea was that the Game Duration (Amount of creeps to win the round) and the Rounds to Win options would manage how long a game you wanted. You can do a 150 limit, 2 rounds to win, if you want a short game.

EDIT
Btw, thanks for trying the map - We appreciate any help with testing, ideas, suggestions and so forth. TheHelper has always been a great place for Wc3 Mapmaking

 

[Baltazhar]

Hello everyone.

We've been working a lot for the next 0.81 BETA release of our map.
It should be released within a week.

Updated topic
I've updated the first topic with the following changes:
- Put screenshots in Spoiler-tags to reduce the loadtime of the page.
- Linked a Promo Video on YouTube, worth watching imo.

Is there anyway to embed YT videos on a forumpage? Couldn't find any, so I just linked it.

 

[Zack1996]

Woah, the video is really good 0_o
Just input the embedded URL in the Youtube tags:
[.youtube][/youtube]

Remove the period in the first tag.

 

[Baltazhar]

Glad you liked the video Zack, and thanks for the YouTube help

Rabbits vs Sheep WsW 0.81 BETA has been released. Updated the first topic.

0.81 BETA Changelog

Spoiler

This version was released 14/8/2009

===Bug Fixes===
Blood Elementals now die when the Hemomancer dies.
Fixed a bug which could make wolves summoned by Ancestral Recall stay after it's duration.
Ancestral Recall now properly display it's 25 second duration in the tooltip.
Fixed a bug which allowed Fame to work on enemy heroes. (Thanks to thewrongvine from TheHelper.net)
Made minor cosmetic changes to the multiboard.
Fixed a bug that messed up the multiboard if a player disconnected before game mode was picked.
Fixed a bug that prevented Fair Play from running.
Fixed a bug that disabled Prayer and Dark Seance when Mirror Guard was used.
Fixed a bug with the Main Menu enabling/disabling itself after using the -mm command.
Fixed a bug with Curse of Hellfire having no pvp floating text or sound.
Removed a leak from the Dragon Leap ability.
Fixed a bug with Genie's text appearing in the middle of the map.
Tornado now has the correct duration.
Cauldron of Blood no longer slows the target, and deals damage as it should.
Corrected Theft of Vitae's tooltip to rightfully display it has no effect on supercreeps.
Made some cosmetic improvements on the Death Lingers' disabled Turn Off icon.
Spheres of Death no longer work on supercreeps and heroes.
Fix a bug with Repick sometimes not working.
Fixed MUI inconsitencies with Ancestral Recall and Dragon Leap.
Fixed a bug which allowed player controlled creeps to be affected by Dark Soul.

===Balance and Modifications===
Reduced the regeneration effect of Unholy Aura from 2/4/6 to 1/2/3 hit points per second.
Immortal Soul now leaves a spirit that can walk for 10 seconds. When it fades, The Immortal revives at that point.
When learning Prayer/Dark Seance, the summon now maintain it's position rather than moving to the position of Priest of Hasinar.
The Blademaster has been renamed to the Apostle, and has the abilities Hybris, Aether Strike, Echo, Aether Matrix.
Doubled the cost and item bonuses from The One Ring, Heart of Fire and Buckler.
Doubled the cost of Necronomicon and increased it's summoned skeletons' hit points from 250 to 270, their base damage from 13 to 17 and decreased the mana cost per skeleton from 25 to 15.
Soul Steal, Mana Blade and Harvester only affects the unit wielding it, and no longer benefits from summons.
Blood Ties has been remade, it now boosts maximum life as well as healing on spellcast.
Blood Elementals now deal 75% damage of damage taken, on all levels.
Reduced the AoE of Warstomp from 250/300/350 to 250 on all levels.
Changed the cooldown on Hammer of Retribution from 20/30/40 to 25/30/35 seconds.
Reduced the cooldown on Crown of Undeath from 30 to 25 on all levels.
Reduced the Pitlord's Cleaving Strike from 12/24/36% to 20/25/30%.
Reduced the damage for Rain of Fire from 20/35/45 to 20/28/35 damage per wave, and increased it's manacost from 95 to 110.
Changed Howl of Terror to a PvP ability, that reduces all enemy units and heroes damage by 100% for 2/3/4 seconds.
Changed Undead Bond into a PvE ability that makes 10 enemy units take 200% damage from attacks for 10 seconds.
Increased the chance of Crown of Undeath activating from 3/6/9% to 6/12/18%.
Added a 3 second cooldown on Upgrade and Emergency Upgrade.
Increased the duration of The Old Spirits from 5 to 15 seconds, and the cooldown from 8 to 12 seconds.
Remade Vanhel's Dance Macabre to remove the lag it caused.
Changed the damage of Choking Vines from 15 to 30 per second, reduced it's duration from 8/12/16 to 4/6/8 seconds and reduced it's cooldown from 20 to 16 seconds.
Prophet of Hopi now gains 1 x Focus Power every 15 seconds, in addition to the 5 per kill after learning Shadow Serpents.
Banshee now gains 1 x Focus Power every 15 seconds, in addition to the 1/2/3 everytime she casts Crown of Undeath.
Reduced the duration of Death March from 4 x Focus Power to 3 x Focus Power.
Increased the initial damage from Pain Surge from 50/65/80 to 50/70/90.
Reduced the mana cost of Death Lingers from 25/30/35 to 20 mana per second on all levels.
Decreased the range of Death Lingers from 300 on all levels to 100/200/300, and changed the damage to average on all levels.
Changed the animation of Death Lingers.
Changed the Wight's starting stats from 23 agi, 16 int, 18 str to 19 agi, 16 int, 22 str.
Replace the Wight's Undead Bond with Deadly Bonds, which damages nearby enemy units.
Remade Soul Drain into an active ability that regenerates life and mana for each unit that dies near The Baron while it's active.
Added new icons to Soul Drain, Wraithform and Raise Dead.

===New Content===
Added cooldowns in all hero ability tooltips.
Grouped some Main Menu buttons up in an Options submenu
Added a mode for lower graphic quality, by using rabbits and sheep as creep models. This can be enabled and disabled at the beginning, and during the game using either the -nolag command or the Main Menu on ESC. Only the player chosing modes can do this.

Would gladly hear feedback on basically anything

 

[Viikuna]

Some of those spells in that video looked pretty neat. ( That Jaina Proudmoore -model girl casting some ice spell thignies. )


Id like to test this map.

 

[13lade619]

looks like there;s a lot of effort put into this map.
it shows on the presentation..

 

[Ghostwind]

See I know that this is based off the old map Rabbits vs. Sheep, but since this has nothing to do with rabbits or sheep, you should remove it from the game title and instead credit the original map in the loadscreen or something.

 

[Zack1996]

See I know that this is based off the old map Rabbits vs. Sheep, but since this has nothing to do with rabbits or sheep, you should remove it from the game title and instead credit the original map in the loadscreen or something.

You need to disable high-quality graphics to have a Rabbit vs Sheep game
Essentially, the game is based off Rabbit vs Sheep, which kinda became a new genre on its own IMO.

Also, I played for a fair while yesterday. No idea how I lost ~8/9 of the rounds -_- And that was against AI. The AI is rather fun to play with, especially since its Cleave is epic 0_o

Wonderful job with some of the heroes! Others could have more custom spells though

Perhaps you could try making Pandaren Frenzy (or whatever Pandaren's ultimate is called) transform into one of the three pandarens, instead of just Storm.

 

[Viikuna]

I played it and it was pretty cool. The problem is that when there is lot of units in the map, orders start to bug. I guess you just need to do this all with as little units as possible, but still keep the feeling of huge horde of bunnies.

And maps name should be just WinterSpring Wargames, because Rabit vs. Sheep is a map, not a genre, like that one guy said. It has not become a genre, although it might look like it, because all the noobs keep copying that name.

Good luck with the map, and keep working it better.

 

[Baltazhar]

Thanks a lot for all your replies, nothing beats getting constructive feedback.

Let's see if we can answer a few questions...

@Viikuna: We have done a lot to give the spells and heroes "that feeling", and not only make them look impressive, but be usable and have a good skill synergy.

@13lade619: We did put a lot of work into this map. This is our first "pro" map as such, and honestly I was amazed by the effort needed to get this map. You have to consider balance, originality, user interface. Half the time spent is sparring ideas of modes, heroes, items and such.
Luckily, it seems we made it afterall
The video in itself only took 2 days to make, and was my first video ever. Was fun though ^^

@Ghostwind: As Zack1996 says, we feel that Rabbits vs Sheep is no longer a map, but a genre. For people playing it for the first time, they know overall what to expect and what the game is about. It increases the intuitivity a lot.
We did, ofcourse, credit Gate[C]aster, and have talked to him on several occasions, although he now is a competitor
A new feature in the 0.81 BETA is Graphics. You can enable or disable graphics to show creeps as Gnolls/Kobolds or Rabbits/Sheep. This was mainly to avoid lag issues as Warcraft isn't built for rendering so many highpoly units. But it also gives another reference to Rabbits vs Sheep.

@Zack: When you lose a round it displays in a message. If your hero didn't die, you must have hit the creeplimit.
The bot is very simple, and doesn't have a lot of sneaky AI behind it. At random it chooses either PvP or PvE skills, and it does upgrade and buy supercreeps if the modes are enabled.
It mainly has passive abilities, as this was easier to make. It's not supposed to be the main attraction in singleplayer map, it's just for kicks and hoots.
I do, however, find the bot fun to play against, and great for testing stuff as item builds, strats, or just trying the map to yourself.
We are very proud of a lot of heroes, but not all. The next couple of updates will probably not feature new heroes, but will make the boring old ones, more interesting. If you take Blademaster as an example, we changed him completely. Before he was the generic Blademaster that Blizzard invented, now he is slighty different. In the 0.81 BETA, he is our masterpiece
Concerning Pandaren Brewmaster, I am not sure we will change him. The idea was that he assumed the role of Storm in the Pandaren Fury, alongside Earth and Fire. This may seem a lot like the original skill Primal Split, but now he can gain exp, pick abilities, use and buy items. Basically, you have all the advantages, and none of the disadvantages of Primal Split.

@Viikuna (again): Glad you liked it.
We feel that Rabbits vs Sheep is very saying, and helps new players with what to expect.
The orders can't avoid bugging a bit up, when ordering many units around. We don't feel this is a problem though, because the playing area isn't very large, so they will get 'aggro' from the bigger part of the area. What I am implying is that it's not only the trigger moving them, but also when they are in range of another creep that is attacked. This creates a pretty good image of the creeps running randomly around at all times. I have not experienced anything I would label as disturbing

The final thought:
Again, thanks for all your feedback, we really appreciate it. If it's not too much to ask, we would like to keep it coming.
If you have bug reports or hero suggestions, feel free to post them at our forums at www.winterspring-wargames.com/forum/

- Baltazhar

 

[Ivach]

Just tested it a few times with a bot. Got to say that I'm really impressed. I always loved playing rabbit vs sheep games, and this is definitely one of the best that I have played.

Most of the heroes were great, and were really fun to play. Even on a 1v1 with the bot, it was already pretty intense. Playing this full house will be totally epic. I thought that the addition of PVP only spells was a nice touch, and it really added to the gameplay of the map. Overall the map was very polished as well.

Hope to see more additional features in the following releases. :thup:

 

[Viikuna]

Well, its not only those lil creeps, but my heroes orders bugged too, when I tried to navigate through them.

This only happened with shadow hunter, though. There was shitloads of serpend wards in the map too, which might have had something to do with it.