Divine In(ter)vention

There are sheer countless numbers of user created custom maps for Blizzard Entertainment’s RTS title Warcraft 3. Among the most popular maps are total conversions that feature player versus player (PvP) gameplay such as Defense of the Ancients (DotA) and various spin offs. While there are some DotA maps of amazing quality, including high-quality custom models, advanced unit abilities, and special effects, the basic gameplay is always the same. Although being the de facto standard of large scale PvP, DotA maps usually have some major flaws which mainly are:

• Too many hero units or unit classes to choose from: In most maps, players have to pick one out of 10 up to 20 or more (99 in the current version of DotA) units to play with for the entire game. In addition to that, the heroes usually are not very distinctive in their abilities and play style and often also not balanced very well.
• Too much player versus environment (PvE): There usually is a constant stream of hostile computer-controlled units attacking, thus the gameplay is more centered on fighting the rather weak AI than fighting other players.
• Too many items: Most DotA type maps feature more or less extensive item systems, where various items can be purchased and combined to become even more powerful. While this might be fun at first (especially for the explorer type of players), this takes a lot of focus from the PvP aspect and adds to the general imbalance. Players have to constantly hunt for better items, in order to stay competitive.
• Too time-consuming: In order to win the game, players usually must destroy a building in the main base of the opposing team. Fighting against a constant stream of hostile npcs and buildings (guard towers), it often takes a few hours before the main base is even reached.

Thus DotA maps in general seem to be imbalanced, not really suited for fair PvP and rather focus on quantity than on quality!

That said, I wanted to do it better. I wanted fair, fast-paced PvP in Warcraft 3. I also wanted to capture the mood from some of the Battle Grounds in World of Warcraft: Arathi Basin and Alterac Valley - just without the equipment and item based imbalance. And so the idea for Southfury Banks was born. The map should have the following core features:

• Less but diverse units with meaningful roles: Instead of having 5 units with almost exactly the same abilities that are just called different, each unit should have a clearly defined role and rely on other classes to unfold their full potential.
• Ability to change units / classes easily during the game: Instead of having to pick one out of numberless unknown units and stay with it for the rest of the game, players should always be able to change classes, according to the situation.
• Fast paced but challenging and interesting unit development: Instead of having to grind trough countless levels, players should always be able to have a choice on how to develop their unit. The units should grow stronger easily, but also die easily. A concept inspired by rather fast paced first person shooters such as Quake; players pick up new weapons very fast, but are killed just as fast.

Apart from these general features, i also wanted to try out a system for unit development, i had on my mind for quite a while. In this system, each player would start with a basic unit and then be able to develop this unit depending on items looted from defeated enemies. For Southfury Banks, these items - called Tomes - come in three versions:

• Tome of Earth: Focus on close combat, many hit points (tank type)
• Tome of Wind: Focus on ranged combat, high damage output (dps type)
• Tome of Light: Focus on healing and protecting other players (healer type)

There are also hybrid classes, that combine abilities of two Tomes, such as a Paladin who combines Earth with Light and thus has many hit points, healing and support abilities, but does not deal that much damage in combat . In the basic concept, players were only able to collect Tomes by killing the unit of other players, but this idea was soon abandoned to allow faster game play and prevent one side from becoming to powerful.

[... to be continued]