X-Com Based Map

[Tarivol]

The main idea I have behind this map comes into three main ideas. It's going to be based, loosely (and I mean loosely), on the X-Com: UFO Defense game released by Microprose.

First and foremost, I want the largest aspect of gameplay to be squad based, based around lowish HP heroes, fighting against small groups / singles of high powered enemies. Involved in this, I'm looking to implement an ammo system in inventory; IE, the heroes carry items that determine their attack damage, said items have charges which represent their current ammunition, and extra magazines are another charged item that represents, literally, another stack of mags.

Heroes are also going to be wearing armor that needs to be able to change the unit's armor type to reflect their effectiveness against different varieties of ammunition / attacks, as there are a variety of aliens that kill you in a variety of ways.

There's going to be a set of at least six classes (as many as I've outlined thus far), and each of them is going to have two innates; First, an 'Aimed Shot', dealing a set amount of damage (or, preferably, a varying amount of damage at a varying cast time, based on which weapon they have- If I can learn how to do such a thing) with a stun component, to add a little flexibility to the class choices. The second is going to be a spellbook, containing the 'standard' set of secondary abilities; A force reload, a sprint, a dodge****, a description of what rank* the unit is, what traits** a unit has, and any secondary special abilities I decide to include***.

* Rank- I want to include a rank system that is very, very unintrusive; I want there to be a small bonus to gaining rank, but nothing that could be game breaking; No additional skillpoints, possibly just a small increase in health / attack speed / move speed or a decrease in reload speed, among other things. The main point of the system would be to give the repeat players a small advantage, and an easy way to identify themselves as at least somewhat experienced with the map.

** Traits- I want to include a dual trait system, similar to the one found in SWAT, that would allow players to further customize their character to what they like. Again, such would be small; Larger than a rank increase, but nothing game breaking. Small bonuses like increased mana (stamina) capacity / regen, health capacity / regen, movespeed, reloadspeed, damage, sprint duration / cooldown, dodge distance / cooldown, so forth, so on.

*** Secondary Special Abilities- Thus far, I have two ideas for things that would fit into this category; First would be a generalist passive skill called soldiering, which would be a very low increase in movespeed / reloadspeed / a chance on hit for some bonus damage + short duration slow. Second would be a CPR / Medivac button; Instead of having player characters permanently killed in missions, I would like a Medic to be able to fully revive them, and any average player who can reach them to either allow them to move, to retreat from combat, or give the unit a medivac teleport out of combat.

**** Dodge- I want Dodge to be similar in use to sprint, but with a very different implementation; I want Dodge to slide a unit along the ground over a given distance, stopping at any obstacles it may encounter along the way, making the unit invulnerable (possibly) while it does so; Considering heroes are designed to be fragile, I'd like to give them a way to quickly duck out of enemy fire, in order to give them some kind of reactionary protection.

Gameplay is going to take place on a set of map sections that I setup for small areas of combat / representations of alien ships / bases, etc.

Please leave any ideas / suggestions you have thus far, as I'm going to be posting questions that I have relating to mapmaking later on in the day, when I have more time to type. Any feedback would be appreciated. ^^

 

[Tarivol]

Specific questions I have thus far;

Notably, this list is going to be somewhat expansive. I'm not expecting or even asking any one person to go through and answer them all, or even answer them period; If you have a reference link that you think will be helpful to me, please, by all means, share it.

Notably, for those of you wondering, I am very new to mapmaking; I have no JASS experience, and would appreciate as thorough an explanation as you have the time or patience for.

They're going to be numbered, and as I receive answers, I'll be posting their status's, any updates, and giving credit to the people that help me out; After all, a map project like the one I have in mind isn't something I can accomplish by myself, and I don't plan to pretend like it is.

Also, keep in mind; If there's a tutorial or an explanation for such already posted, and you know where it is, regardless of which form it's in, feel free to link me- Any and all help is appreciated.

1) I want to give one of the six classes, the Platoon Leader, a passive that gives him vision of the other players. I want to disable player shared vision, so that only the Platoon Leader class players will be able to see everyone in the playerbase. What do I need to do to make sure that happens? (Simple question, I know, but I'd like to be sure it's done properly).

Part two; How do I make this aura skill work? What I had in mind was a trigger that spawns a dummy unit that grants the radius of vision that I want the Platoon Leader to have of the others, on the other players; Is there a way to make that single dummy unit follow them (notably, it's a locust unit with no model, so it'll be completely invisible), or do I need to make a trigger that respawns the dummy unit over and over again? What would the format of this trigger be?

2) I want to create a spell for the Designated Marksman class that is channeled, removes vision of their current location, and grants them vision elsewhere. Is there a way to do this? If not, any ideas on replacement abilities?

3) I want to create an ammunition system, as stated in the post above. How do I set how many of a given item stacks / how many charges it stacks to? For example; If I want to make a magazine stack normally hold two charges, and want it to stack to a maximum of six charges, how would I do so?

4) I want to make it so that each use of certain abilities and each attack consumes one charge off of a given item. How do I set up such a trigger?

5) I also want to create a system that causes units to be able to hold only one weapon type; IE, you can only hold one Assault rifle, or one sniper rifle, or one rocket launcher, etc etc etc. How do I do such? Is it defined in item types?

6) In addition to the triggers I've already defined, I'm going to have to create a system that one, causes a reload, and two, can be sped up / slowed down, presumably via a formula that takes into account all the different variables that would affect it. How would I do so?

Once again, thank you in advance for any advice, time, help, or constructive criticism; If you think you have an idea that will work better / easier than what I have in mind, please post it, as I'll be more than happy to consider it.