Warcraft Zone Control - 2nd Edition

[Thanatos_820]

So far so good. I wonder when 2.0 or 2.1 will come (whichever it is). Hopefully it finishes next week !

EDIT:
By the way, where can I get those tree doodads? If it's from a site, I would appreciate it if you post the link.

 

[Doomhammer]

So far so good. I wonder when 2.0 or 2.1 will come (whichever it is). Hopefully it finishes next week !

EDIT:
By the way, where can I get those tree doodads? If it's from a site, I would appreciate it if you post the link.

In terms of finishing the map, I can only say: I just began! So far, it's the terrain only, but the map demands alterations to gameplay (research time, constant income instead of upkeep, adjustments to the kill counter, rebalancing of research costs, etc...), new races (at least one!), more heroes (about 11-14 NEW Heroes altogether: 1 additional custom hero per existing race, plus 3 Naga heroes, plus 4 neutral heroes) with cool custom spells (and stunning physix), and ideally additional unit abilities. Then there's the issue with additional models I'll have to make (most probably myself) - this is so far a building model for the rifle range, for the knights quarters, and for the Naga siege unit "Reaver"; should I use forest creeps as sixth race, then it'd also have to create a main building for them as well as suitable production buildings for tier 2,3,4 and 5.
There are many new features planned, and many unplanned features may be welcome as long as they add sth to the map and suit the overall concept.

Speaking of unit models: Thing with trees is that there are many pretty tree-models out and about, but BARELY any one comes with death animations. In my case I just made the trees some sort of giant trees - assuming that a player won't expect a Mountain giant to take that behemoth twice his size as a warclub. So far I only found one appropriate tree model for my map, that can be used as destructable as well.

The trees should be in one of Nasrudin's tree packs, (I think it's the swamp trees - 2nd link):
http://www.wc3campaigns.net/showthread.php?t=84679
http://www.wc3campaigns.net/showthread.php?t=78956

Have fun with them, and don't miss to ask master Nasruding for permission; give credit to him when using the tree models in your map!

 

[R@d14nc3]

Very nice models, and cool map idea indeed

 

[Thanatos_820]

In terms of finishing the map, I can only say: I just began! So far, it's the terrain only, but the map demands alterations to gameplay (research time, constant income instead of upkeep, adjustments to the kill counter, rebalancing of research costs, etc...), new races (at least one!), more heroes (about 11-14 NEW Heroes altogether: 1 additional custom hero per existing race, plus 3 Naga heroes, plus 4 neutral heroes) with cool custom spells (and stunning physix), and ideally additional unit abilities. Then there's the issue with additional models I'll have to make (most probably myself) - this is so far a building model for the rifle range, for the knights quarters, and for the Naga siege unit "Reaver"; should I use forest creeps as sixth race, then it'd also have to create a main building for them as well as suitable production buildings for tier 2,3,4 and 5.
There are many new features planned, and many unplanned features may be welcome as long as they add sth to the map and suit the overall concept.

Speaking of unit models: Thing with trees is that there are many pretty tree-models out and about, but BARELY any one comes with death animations. In my case I just made the trees some sort of giant trees - assuming that a player won't expect a Mountain giant to take that behemoth twice his size as a warclub. So far I only found one appropriate tree model for my map, that can be used as destructable as well.

The trees should be in one of Nasrudin's tree packs, (I think it's the swamp trees - 2nd link):
http://www.wc3campaigns.net/showthread.php?t=84679
http://www.wc3campaigns.net/showthread.php?t=78956

Have fun with them, and don't miss to ask master Nasruding for permission; give credit to him when using the tree models in your map!

I will ask and thanks a lot ! If you need any unit help, item help, or ability help (non-triggered), then you can just ask me!

 

[Prometheus]

He probably just needs ideas, if anything.
Hes a very competent JASSer so hes safe there.

 

[Doomhammer]

Jep, I know my way around jass - yet, I'm not the uber-gosu though (e.g. never bothered using any handle vars, iterative function calls, etc.)

Anyone good with modeling and skinning?

 

[Prometheus]

I can do icons : /

 

[Doomhammer]

I can do icons : /

Excellent! I'll probably need some later in the map making process




I spent quite some time for further improvements on my first zone control release. The new version 1.04 can be downloaded here:
http://world-editor-tutorials.thehelper.net/maps.php?view=353



Some updates on the progress of the second edition map:

terrain - 100%
script - 30%
new heroes - 0%
new spells - 0%
new races - 1%

I found some useful building models for the 6th race, the forest creeps. So I decided to go for it! !!!Yay!!!! Thing is, I'm a bit missing the ideas (once again);
So the 6th race is made up of:
Tier 1: Satyrs
Tier 2: Forest Trolls
Tier 4: Some kind of catapult (model?)
Tier 5: Ogres
Tier 6: either Harpys or Black Dragons

Hero1: Furbolg
Hero2: Centaur Archer
Hero3: Wildkin

What I could need are some cool ideas for passive and active unit abilities, tower abilities, and hero abilities, that underly the character of this race.
EDIT: An idea for a building ability that just popped in my mind: guarding wolves: enemy attackers will immediately alert a pride of wolves to defend the building

 

[Doomhammer]

After some timeout I've continued working on the new version. I got the permissions to use some excellent models, and I've set up a solid race and hero concept now. My aim set for this map is to have purely the crème de la crème in it. Especially the heroes will be a lot of work, as to the large extent they'll be stuffed up with custom spells. Those heroes that stay in some way original (Mountain King, Tauren Chieftain, Dreadload and Demon Hunter), will have their normal abilities, but jass-enhanced. The remaining 16 heroes will be purely made with custom abilities, with exception for auras.
Here are a few screenshots of the race selection screen at the beginning, which already gives some idea of my hero concept.

@kc102: If you're up for it, I could need an icon for the main Naga hero (last screenshot, hero in the middle)

http://home.mnet-online.de/Zone-Control-evo/race_01.jpg
http://home.mnet-online.de/Zone-Control-evo/race_02.jpg
http://home.mnet-online.de/Zone-Control-evo/race_03.jpg
http://home.mnet-online.de/Zone-Control-evo/race_04.jpg
http://home.mnet-online.de/Zone-Control-evo/race_05.jpg
http://home.mnet-online.de/Zone-Control-evo/race_06.jpg

 

[Prometheus]

I'll have an icon up soon
Done
Hope you like it ^^

 

[Thanatos_820]

I wonder when the next update is coming out....

 

[Doomhammer]

...get back, get it on...

It's a shame I had to take a good bunch of months timeout....(grrr )

Here are a few changes on the concept already:

*Production buildings on zones can now set rally points (and it works nicely).

*Heroes You can freely chose 1 of 3 heroes per race. Tier 2: 2 heroes allowed, tier 3: 3 heroes allowed. I already have a very precise idea of their auras and spells, but that's definitely what'll take the most time.

*Every race now has a hero-assisting unit. The Orc, e.g. have the unmanned Kodo beast, which can be ordered to follow heroes. The Kodo beast itself cannot attack, but staying behind battle lines it can be a very useful extra to provide heroes with potions and powerups. Also, the hero-assisting units have an inventory and can thus buy items from the proper shops in the corners of the map.

*I'm definitely going for six races now.

*I left the common tier principle aside, so it's back to upgrading one's Townhall, or researching the tier 2 or tier 3 tech upgrade respectively.

*Instead of imposing taxes for too many zones, I now have gone for an insurance policy (for every race of course). The insurance policy works as follows: It's a research that can be made with the following levels:

Level 1: 1 Zone, 50 units insurance, 1 gold coin repay
Level 2: 2 Zones, 75 units insurance, 2 gold coins repay
Level 3: 3 Zones, 90 units insurance, 2 gold coins repay

E.g. The 1 Zone insurance policy costs 200 gold coins. You get 1 gold coin per second, as long as you have not more than 1 zone and 50 units, i.e. until you're below the limit you receive money!


A first playable version with the basics only (no hero abilities, no AI, no special upgrades) should be out in roughly 3-4 weeks.

 

[Gravedigger]

I haven't been checking this site for a while, and haven't posted but I'll test your new version when your done in a couple weeks. Looks like you've improved it a lot from the screenshots. Let me know if I could help in any way other then just testing and posting bugs.

 

[Doomhammer]

Hey Gravedigger,
I can always need ppl testing and making good suggestions.
Also, I thought that the balancing should be altered drastically, and that's what I need good input for:
so far, tier1 units were all the same in hit points, speed, damage, etc.
The units of all tiers had the same spawn times. That's what I think should change to get more of a variety between races. I thought that for tier 1, a footman with 100 hit points and 10 damage, and a spawn of 1 unit per sec would serve as a standard; Grunts then can have more hitpoints, maybe 160, 16 damage, but only spawn 0.6 units per second. Then I'd like the outlaw Satyrs to have the same feel as Starcraft Protoss Berserkers: fast and tough; maybe even give them a speed-charge ability. Naga Murlocs by contrast can be a lot weaker and slower, but spawn way faster. And Undead skeletons, they'll get a second life upgrade or sth, so they'd have to be killed twice. So balancing-wise, it's already getting a bit more complex from the beginning, which means that you're very welcome if you have a pretty good feeling for unit balancing issues.

 

[Gravedigger]

If you want to balance all the races I would suggest setting up a stat system, each tier would get ten more points then the last. Each number is going to have to represent a different amount of the units used for that stat. If you can give me a list of every tier for every race, I can setup a stat list like this for all your zones.
ex.
Race 1 Race 2 (other 4 races)
Tier 1 Tier 1
Attack-2 1
Defense-1 1
Building Health-3 2
Spawn Speed-2 4
Movement Speed-1 1
Range-1 1
Splash Damage-0 0

Tier 2 Tier 2
Attack-3 3
Defense-3 5
Building Health-2 3
Spawn Speed-4 4
Movement Speed-2 5
Range-4 0
Splash Damage-2 0

(Continue for other tiers)

 

[Parsimony]

This rules so much it makes me sick. Yaaaaaayyyy!!!

Also, I'm glad you added rally points. I can't have fun with the first person hero view when my troops are drinking tea in their happy place.

 

[Prometheus]

I don't remember but if you had this but....
Make some spells and a unit at the spawning point like.
"Move all footmen to target place"
Ect.
Spell Book, 1 is attack walk, other is move to.

 

[Parsimony]

I noticed something...

Priestess of the Moon is imba. You can entangle-lock the enemy, you have an aura that increases about 70% of your army's damage (I spam archers 0_o), and they have
starfall, which can wipe out an army in a mere 3 seconds. I hope you'll fix this... But everything else rocks.

 

[Doomhammer]

@ gravedigger:
sry, but I don't get it. How about we continue talking about balancing once I publish a somewhat minimal but playable version (+ 2 weeks sth)

@Parsimony (1):
*g* (being utterly flattered ) The new version is meant to become cutting-edge...any improvements on your mind? name it, and I'll deal with it!

@kc102:
hmm, I'll think about sth else to make a distinction between move and attack-move to a place. prolly give each spirit spellbook also including sth to have all footmen turn defend on and off

@Parsimony (2):
absolutely! Nightelf are uber-imba; when I play nightelf, I kick enemy's heroes asses, rocking even a bunch of mean insane AIs. With the others it's a lot harder, unless you're real good encircling enemy heroes with footmen.
In zce2 you'll select your first hero, and then get one additional per tier, just like standard game. I had pretty good ideas about the abilities for the heroes of Naga and Savages, and also got some real good suggestions from the forum here. Yet, especially for the nightelf, I'm still too close to what I had so far.

Nightelf Heroes:

- Demon-Hunter (same as before)

- Keeper of the Land (Malfurion)
*Entangling roots (? change)
*Tranquility (? change)
*Trueshot Aura (? change)
*Ulti: Horn of Zenaurius - a spell coming as close as possible to the effect of the final ROC vid, i.e. a huge amount of wisps coming from all directions tearing apart any target, both units and buildings

- Shadow-Walker (Maiev)
*Tri-Blade - shoots a deadly blade that soars through enemies and comes back to the Shadow-Walker
*Ability 2(?)
*Shadow-Aura - an invisiblity aura (it's gonna be hard, but I'm sure this is somewhat jassable)
*Ulti(?)

as you see, this imba combination still exists, but not from the beginning. anyway, I'm still in need of some good ideas to fill in the gaps.

 

[Doomhammer]

rename?

First things first:
I thought about renaming my map from Zone Control evolutions 2 to Warcraft Zone Control

What has been added since the last update:

1) Added a tier 1 passive ability Will of the Undead making undead skeleton warriors come back "to life" after destruction. So each tier 1 skeleton warrior actually has 2, i.e with the 2nd upgrade even 3 "lives"

2) Added a tier 1 active ability Leap to Outlaw Satyrs, so they can quickly blink in and out of combat. Warcraft3 itself wouldn't allow unit groups to cast the same ability at once - with a little trigger, I jassed it to work now.

3) Added a tier 1 passive ability Acid Blood to Naga Mor'guls. Whenever a mor'gul is killed, its blood spills over enemy units in close proximity around, draining hit points over time and reducing armor. Beware! This ability is stacking and hence very powerful in melee battles with large mor'gul armies.

4) Adjusted balancing and spawning issues: Satyrs are the most powerful tier 1 unit, but they spawn very slow - with mor'guls it's the opposite; human footmen, nightelf footmen and skeleton warriors are about equal with 100 hitpoints and minor differences in attack and movement speed; Grunts are even a bit stronger than Satyrs, but quite a bit slower.

5) Improved the holy light to have an area healing side effect

6) Minor stuff like orc burrows that can hold 4 (upgraded: 8) grunts with 'battle stations'; finally and completely re-integrated the mass-move-system; added and adjusted various upgrades; the zone insurance works now; added some hero-spells that could easily be added without scripting, e.g. healing spread for the Naga Warqueen (which is a healing spell based on forked lightning);

I'm about to integrate the injury system made by Hero12341234. In this place, I would like to speak out my respect for creating such a fabulous and useful system, and say 'thank you' for allowing me to use it in my map

The weeks coming I'll get into modeling my buildings, so gameplaywise barely much new stuff will be added.

I made up my decision not to release a "first playable version" yet, as I haven't got the building models, and a lot of stuff needs to be done on the units of tier 2 - 6.