Minigame Spirit Wars

[Bloodcount]

Spirit What?
Well.... 5 thousand years ago, there was an arena. In this arena mages used to face-off and see who is more powerful. Eventually, the tournament turned into a strife. Even as ghosts the mages insisted to fight... for all eternity...

Gameplay Ok, let's get down to business. You know the story. It is nothing special, yes, and that is just the idea. This is a map that takes the pressure off your shoulders. You are a ghost. You begin the game with 150 gold. Go to the center of the map. There is a shop and buy your first spell. The spells are point targeted. Some of them have stacking effects, others change their effects under certain circumstances.


However The most important thing in the map is your stats. When you walk arround, you are going to see qute little louvable souls. Go near them to devour them and get their bonus. Your spell's dmg is mainly based on spirit power. Your hit points are based on your strenght. You can buy a spell called shield. It uses your third atrribute- shield, to protect you from atacks when you activate it.


When you kill an enemy hero you steal some of his stats. When you die you loose some of your stats. So, be carefull!



!!!!!!!!Your hero possesses a double inventory. This means that you can carry up to TEN items at a time!!!!!!

The Shops! Well... there are 2 types of shops in the map.

-Item Shop​

This is the common shop. There is one of these in each corner of the map. You can buy attribute points from there as well as potions.

-Spell shop​

There are 5 of these shops scattered arround the map. You can buy your spells from there, but be careful - you might not be the only one that wants to buy spells.


Spells Spells As I said above, the spells are point targeted, and are stat based. Now, each one of them has a special effect. Some of them stack, and, this is the new type of spells - Their effects depend on the hit points of your oponent. To make things easy to remember, the spells have 2 effects - if the targeted unit's hit points are above 50% or below 50% Every spell has different effects, but here is an example:

Modes! Currently the map has only a couple of modes... we are going to add more in the next versions. For now these are the modes:

Note: If the host waits, the modes are mode is going to be -dmn 10


AI The map has AI! The AI players are smart, and are a chalenge!




Comments and Feedback are welcomed and the posters might get some rep. Flaming is not.
Don't forget to rate with the stars!
Note: the second post is also with information.
You can find the changelog attached in a txt document at the end of the second post.
Game guide: Second post.

 

[Tyrande_ma3x]

> Reserved for some stuff.

Game Guide:
First of all, there are some things in this map that would need to be remembered/memorized one way or another:
- Gold is basically... gold. You buy either powerups or potions with it.
- Lumber is called "Blood Crystals" - this is your main source for buying abilities.
- Agility is "Spirit Power". Spirit Power is your primary attribute - your spells' power almost fully depend on it (there are a few exceptions). However, there is a limit of 100 Spirit Power and you can never pass it (so don't try).
- Strength is still Strength - gives you hit points. Cannot go over 100 (previous version(s) allowed that but sometimes things went out of control, like a Ghost with 1,000 health - totally unkillable).
- Intelligence is "Shield". Shield is usually used for an ability available at the spell shops - Mana Shield. It depends on it so it is vital to gain Shield points as well because it can save you a lot.

At the beginning you are spawned with a Ghost - you have 1 all stats and nothing except a normal Spell Swap item. This item allows you to swap between 2 inventory pages. This item is bound to you and cannot be dropped which means that you can have 5 spells (first inventory) and 5 more spells (2nd inventory). All gained abilities from items are stored (as well as their position in case you wanted to rearrange something) when you swap your inventories - you cannot lose them in any way. Remember to never drop your items or they will get permanently removed. Rearranging items in your inventory is allowed - this is in case you want some spell to be at another slot, making it easier for you to access it.
Your first objectile is to buy a spell with your Blood Crystals (lumber; reference to this from now on). Each ability costs exactly 150 Blood Crystals so in the beginning you have that many. If you cannot locate the Spell Shops look at the minimap! There are blue and orange notifications that show you where they are. You can also distinguish them from the Goblin Merchant - the Spell Shops are round yellow gold dots (usually Gold Mines are these). Choose a spell and search for enemies to fight. When the game starts you are invulnerable for 30 seconds - enough time to acquire the shops and buy items (abilities).
When the game starts (Invulnerability gets removed) your next goal depends mostly on the game modes - you kill enemies, you try to kill a monster or try to get a flag and hold it as much as you can. Just do what you are supposed to do and kill, kill, kill!
Game Modes:
-otm X (X is a number; Own The Monster): A monster (Abomination model) is spawned and starts moving around the map. The point is to run away from it because it can kill you with 2 or more hits and damage it as much as you can. However, you must know that the player who lands the FINAL blow gets the monster for HIMSELF. This conversion grants the specific player 1 point until X (depending on what number the host has chosen) points for him are gained. Then he wins.
-htf X (X is a number; Hold The Flag): A flag is spawned randomly around the map - you must quickly find it and get it! Once you acquire it (it doesn't require a slot and indicates that you have it by standing on your back) you must avoid all your enemies because every 7 seconds you gain 1 point. Losing the flag does not reset your point counter; the flag gets dropped right upon your dead "body" (it's a Ghost, hehe). The game ends when one of the players reaches X (decided by host) points.
-dmn X (X is a number; Death Match with Kill Limit): Simple objectile - kill Ghosts until X kills are reached.
-dmt X (X is a number; Death Match with Time Limit): You must kill Ghosts, again, as much as possible. The player with most kills when X (decided by host) minutes expire wins.
-tm 2 or -tm 3 (Team Mode): Turns all players into 2 or 3 teams - either 6 vs 6 or 4 vs 4 vs 4. However, if another mode is selected the goal does not become a "team goal". This is just a simple mode to give you allies and not make this game FFA.
-addb: Adds a computer player on the first unused slot. For example, if Player 1, 2 and 3 are playing, typing -addb will add a computer on Player 4's slot. Doing it once again will add on Player 5's slot and etc. Added bots do not stay after a rematch. It is recommended to add them right after (or before) entering main game modes so they aren't left behind with kills/gold/crystals/whatever.

Remember, when a game is finished the host can choose a rematch. This saves time from hosting/creating a new game each time you end.

Game modes limits (this is added to prevent abuses like setting a kill limit of 32036028036 (or some number):
-htf X: X can be number only between 10 and 40.
-otm X: X can be number only between 3 and 20.
-dmn X: X can be number only between 3 and 60.
-dmt X: X can be number only between 3 and 10.

There are other miscellaneous in-game commands that can add a new refreshing look to the game:
- terrain snow/desert/default
- weather rain/wind/moonlight/light/snow

The terrain commands -terrain desert and -terrain snow can be used only once because spamming them can lead into ugly terrain deformations and screwing the whole view. There are no limitations for -terrain default and all -weather commands.

Strategies!
Well, I'm not going to tell every strategy that you can accomplish - after all even I don't know all of them! People have different thoughts and strategies so I'm going to point a few basic ones:
- Try to "last hit" Ghosts - this means to land the final damaging blow. If you see a low hit points enemy just try to kill it with some of your spells but be sure you know he is going to die by you.
- Move as much as possible! This way there is a higher chance to dodge some AoE spells, right?
- Play mind tricks! Enemies see you at low hit points? They are ready to spam you like never before? Turn on some spell like Mana Shield or Time Warp and laugh (optional ... xD) at them as you survive. Or Blink away from danger just before the projectiles hit you! Well, Blinking isn't a good idea if an Impetus is flying towards you because things can get really bad if you don't know which direction you are going...
- Get stats... Yeah, wander around the map and collect Souls - your primary support for attributes. Or if you are really owning just buy some from the Goblin Merchant.
- Think of your own strategies. =)

For final words I'd like to note that the AI does not have support for all spells - only for 80% of them. I tried to make it a little bit weaker so everybody can have a chance against them but note that if they get more than 4-5 abilities they get REALLY tough.
If you experience some big fps drops then it is either from the lots of effects (maybe you are playing with more than 8 players?) or by my fault. Just state what the problem was and I'll try to look through the codes.

In-depth mechanics:
So, basically, almost everything in this map is triggered - message display, text tags, spells and their effects, multiboard, etc. If you've played it you would have noticed that from the first sign - attribute based spells.
The spell swap works by storing your previous acquired items and giving you 5 more slots for 5 more spells. Activating it once again will do the same but will not give you 5 slots - will return your first 5 ones. Spells are gained when items are acquired so it is basically a rather simple thing. Spells are INSIDE the items, which means you have to use the NumPad (recommended) or just the mouse. This also allows you to rearrange your spells in the inventory in any way you would want but you should remember to NOT drop your items (else you lose them forever).
The AI is quite short but made to own you in any kind and defend itself in any way. It will easily find the most appropriate way to damage you and will not skip it. To avoid the AIs just stay away from 650 AoE around them. And they have support for all spells so... Know that if the AI has more spells it will kill you faster and easier.

Things you should know!
- You start with 150 Blood Crystals (lumber). First rule is - BUY A SPELL.
- If you have not been damaged in the past 10 seconds your Shield (Mana) points will regenerate. If you had a Mana Shield active during that time the shield's hit points will also be refreshed to full (tip: get out of battle for 10 seconds and your Mana Shield gets regenerated, then get in again).
- If the host does not set a game mode within 20 seconds, game will automatically be set to 10 kills (-dmn 10).
- You can combine -dmn/-dmt with -tm (Death Match Kills/Death Match Time with Team Mode). -htf (Hold The Flag) or -otm (Own The Monster) cannot be combined with other modes.
- You cannot have more than 100 Spirit Power and more than 100 Strength - obviously for balance reasons.
- When you die you lose 25% of your all stats. The killing unit receives 25% of your stats - just kill as much as you can so you can become more powerful (which gives you higher chance to stay alive).
- Cast as much as you can! Some spells have stacking damage, other spells deal damage based on different factors (i.e. the targets' hit points).
- First kill gives you 20 gold and 30 blood crystals (lumber), second gives you with 15 more (which means 35 gold/45 blood crystals), third kill - 50 gold/60 blood crystals and so on. When you die you start gaining gold/blood crystals from 20/30 and plus 15 for every kill. You do NOT lose gold/blood crystals when you die.
- Souls are spawned every 20 seconds if the players are less than 4, every 11 seconds if there are 4-8 players or every 7 seconds if there are over 8 players.
- Souls move every 5 seconds to a random point in the map. Totally random.

- Most important thing: At the beginning buy damaging spells, not escaping ones, since there is no other way to get blood crystals unless killing Ghosts. If you are good enough you will be able to dodge some abilities and with a bit of well timed and placed spells you will get 150 blood crystals quite soon. So if you get Blink or Mana Shield from where are you going to receive 150 crystals?

Replay:
At the bottom of the post. Shows me and Bloodcount toying around with the AI and testing the game modes. It is a 0.14 replay.

Credits:
I would really like to thank all those people who created some wonderful resources because without them this map wouldn't have been started in the first place (or maybe it would but not without me as a scripter...):
- Cohadar, Captain Griffen, Vexorian, kenny!, Romek
- Evading Self - Blizzard model
- Death: models for the Souls
- iPeez: for the terrain which was supposed to be for another map but that project got abandoned and it fit perfectly for this one

I would also like to thank a few people that gave interesting and very good ideas on how to fix/improve the map:
- Zack1996, wraithseeker, Cohadar (again)

If I've forgotten something I'll add it. Comments and criticism are welcomed.
I've attached changelogs if someone is interested on what was changed...

 

[Siretu]

It got an AI!?! I got to test this. I hope it's as good you say.

 

[Bloodcount]

It is far better then I say

 

[Romek]

IIRC, the ClanMapz contest was only one member per submission.
So by posting this, and revealing that you made it with someone else, you could've just disqualified yourself.

I also removed all the giant text from the first post. I thought I accidentally zoomed in for a second. ¬_¬

 

[Bloodcount]

Well, first of all stop touching my posts. Second Tyrande made the AI and the new features. The contest submition was entirely mine.

 

[Tyrande_ma3x]

True, I improved his scripting and such and added a lot more features after his submission.

> It got an AI!?! I got to test this. I hope it's as good you say.
Not that good but still good enough to rape Bloodcount. I'll try to make it much more brutal than it is at its current state, even more powerful so it can even beat me...

 

[thewrongvine]

Looks cool, I'll try it out when I can.

~Hai-Bye-Vine~

 

[Bloodcount]

Looks cool, I'll try it out when I can.

~Hai-Bye-Vine~

Well I hope you enjoy it.



BUMP

 

[Zack1996]

A quick comment:
The meteor thing is too powerful... The AI killed me in 1 hit when he had about 90+ spirit power.
Another quick comment:
Make more skills have different power depending on your current spirit power.
Two more quick comments:
Immolation is too weak, it barely does damage and it drains my mana/Shield.
Whats Shield suppose to be for other than for that spell? Its kinda a waste...

 

[Tyrande_ma3x]

> The meteor thing is too powerful...
True, will have to reduce damage since it becomes a one-shot after 50 Spirit Power. Gonna talk with Blood.

> Make more skills have different power depending on your current spirit power.
What do you mean? Examples are welcome.

> Immolation is too weak
Will have to recode the whole concept since it was copied from another spell... And I hate editing other people's work because most of the time it isn't organized. Expect something new yet similar in the new version (if Blood doesn't decide he wants to replace it).

> Its kinda a waste...
Well, I suppose Blood's still thinking what uses he could have with it. As for now, it's good as a shield but I agree it should have a place in other parts.

Thanks for testing.

 

[Bloodcount]

Thanks for testing +rep

Now I just got a bit carryed away with the immolation. I have other plans for it. The shield is not going to be shield anymore in the next version. I have a what so ever good idea for what we can use it, since you HAVE to buy shield. In the very first release you started with shield.


About the stats, evry spell is stat based. Eaven Blink (it is true btw)


And about the metor, the tactic to kill a unit with this spell is ti atack it with something that disturbs the actuall spell(the diffrent hooks, blade toss, immolation)

 

[wraithseeker]

The first time I played this , I set a random amount of computer easy to hard . When the game started , every AI starting firing meteors at me and I got the soul bind spell I think. I had no time to even look at the spell shop as everybody was just shooting me. About 2 or 3 AI. Some AI is bugged , when I block their path they just patrol around and give me free kills. Soul bind seems really useless . 25 constant damage sucks!. I don't know why meteors are bought first with every AI followed by blizzard then blink. Maybe add in some randomness . For the powerup, make it so that u need to be closer to it zomg! I didn't even know the powerup went to me as before I went to them , it seemed that the projectile disappeared. For the + 20 life thing put it to 20 life healed. I thought every powerup gave me + 20 hp I see the -2 stat button projectile everywhere normally.

Also , were there import credits? I saw some custom models. For god's sake add them . The 10 skill system seems abit relucant as changing spells in the item has CD which is very annoying in a fast paced game. Remove that handle counter will ya? Hide it , people who don't program wouldn't understand that and would wonder " omg what the haxxor bugg?? whaty is a handddleee?"

Other then that it is good although you still need to work on terrain abit and with more modes <3

 

[Bloodcount]

wraithseeker, tnx for the comment. +rep

Now, first of all, there was only 1 custom model. Well the AI doesn't have difficulties yet, and it is made like that. Soulbind is a spell that is often used to chase oponents. The reason that the AI buys Fire Storm, Blizzard and then blink is:

Fire storm and Blizzard have stacking dmg and eaven if u suck a lot, the dmg is good. Blink is used to doudge spells. The AI use blink a bit too good. To be honest I didn't run into the problem with the free kills for now :O . The AI is gonna be goso in the next versions .

Well my mean idea for the next version is well, a coupple of souly different modes. To add a lot more spells, and change the effects of the current ones.
About the handles... I like to see them when I am playing to see if something gets out of hand, but it will be removed
The terrein is my weak spot hovewer. I placed a bunch of random runes and ruined towers arround the map.
Maybe a random terrein ?

 

[wraithseeker]

Random Terrain as a mode and make terrain affect gameplay would be nice. I mean having all AI with fire storm and blizzard seems pretty ... boring isn't it. In blizzard ladder games , even the AI heros skills get randomed out. Also, don't forget to let players read spell tooltip or whatever because basically when I set the mode , everything went on by itself. You need to have more spell combinations. Well , AI don't have to be gosu , make 3 type of AI , easy , normal and hard. Don't forget about the projectile stuff! I also don't see why antonidas ghost model was used for everybody in this map.

 

[Bloodcount]

Because it is the closes thnig that blizzard gave us that looks like a mage and a ghost at the same time
Dude, the combos you make with the spells actually depend on the hp of the targeted unit. I think that there are only 2 spells that don't have an effect if the target's hp is more or less then 50% hp.

 

[wraithseeker]

I see , anyway the map is pretty much fine but I have another good suggestion , since this is a minigame , this should have a auto rematch toggle mode.

 

[Bloodcount]

It will be added

 

[Siretu]

I'd add some way to alter the level of the AI. This should not be high priority though, just think of it.

 

[Bloodcount]

Siretu, these are our goals for now:
1 Add more modes.
2 Make the game play a bit slower from the begining. The way it is now, you don't have a spare second to take your hands off the keyboard and mouse.
3 Add more spells and balance the old ones.
4 Rework the items. the way the map is now, you really don't have the place or use for the items witch are currently in the map. I am going to change that.