Version 0.6 of my team PvP map for Warcraft 3 is finished and I have finally submitted the map to a few modding sites.
In case you wonder what happened to version 0.5 - I was going to release it last week, but after some battle.net tests, I wanted to fix the bugs we had found and implement some features that were on my to-do list from the very beginning of the project. By the time those bugs were fixed and the features (such as spawning the BIG npc) were implemented, I felt it was time for a new version number 
Continue reading ‘Southfury Banks v0.6 released’
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]
Before i move to Sweden, I wanted to release v0.4 of Southfury Banks. All classes have been overworked and got new abilities. Especially the Earth classes should be more interesting now!
Continue reading ‘Southfury Banks v0.4′
The new version of Southfury Banks brings some rather huge changes: I added some new features (see list below), rebuilt parts of the map to improve balance between factions and rewrote a lot of triggers/scripts.
New Features:
- Upgradable faction guards: Players of a faction can now purchase upgrade token from special npcs in the faction’s main base. Once they have bought enough upgrade token, the guards are upgraded to the next rank - increasing their damage, armour and hit points. Currently, there are three upgrade ranks.
- New peasant ability: Peasants now have a new special ability - Butcher. They can butcher sheep, pigs and other critters and sell thier meat in order to get some gold. This ability is only available to peasants, so now they will play a major role in collecting gold for thier faction (either to buy Tomes or upgrade token). I also added more respawning critters (sheep, pigs, rabbits, etc.) to the map.
- Respawning Creeps: The goblin lumber camp (Horde side) and the spooky forrest (Alliance side) now each have a miniboss and patrolling, respawning creeps. The bosses will drop a random Tome upon death.
- Custom minimap: I added a custom minimap that indicates the position of each flag and the faction’s main base (position of the faction leader).
Changes / Fixes:
- Unit speed: I changed each unit’s movement speed. Peasants move faster now, the other unit’s movement speed was decreased according to thier rank (the highter the rank, the slower they move). Thus peasants have a good chance to flee from stronger oponents.
- Ressource gain: The gold reward for captured flags was fruther increased. Holding flags now grants a steady income and is a major factor to victory.
- Map changes: I have rebuild the Horde’s main base in order to fix some balance issues. The base entry and the guard towers have been moved. It is now possible for the Alliance to savely capture the Spirit Rise flag. I have also moved the Stormfist Outpost’s flag out of the tower’s firing range.
- Librarian/Sage: The Alliance Librarian and the Horde Sage now have a mana and hit point regeneration aura. Nearby friendly units will generate mana and hit points faster. When capturing the River Bank flag, a Librarian/Sage will spawn together with the guards. This is the only Tome selling unit, that will respawn on death.
- Flag capturing triggers: I changed the way the flag assaulting ability and triggers work in order to fix a issue with the special effects that occured in some rare occasions.
- If killed by another player, the text message indicating a palyer character’s death now tells the killing player’s name and type of unit.
You can download the newest version from the Project Page!
