-7 Players.
-256x256 jungle terrain, a large island surrounded by a few smaller, 'control pannels' in the corners.
-Choose from 3 unieque races: The wizard, necromancer and the knight. Each one has it's special abilities.
-Choose from 8 different starting locations.
The terrain of the map is a brilliant thing in my oppinion. A made a few interesting stuff with it. Created a maze, an island connected with the main lnad by 3 bridges and others. Each of thoose starting locations I mentioned up has a tactical purpose and at the same time - is highly detailed and therefore - looks good.
II. Gameplay
As mentioned before, you choose a race, starting location. Each player has it's Gold Mine building which produces minerals. So after you get spawned with a few units(depends on the race of course!) you're about to start making up your economy by building the gold mines. After you're finished it's time build up the defense. There is a computer player that won't have mercy after 2 or 3 minutes and will rush you. I had enought of all theese 2v2v2, 3v3 maps and decided to make a ffa thing. So we have 7 players fighting for the Island, and in the meantime the computer player is stabbing everyone's back . I put much effort to make the map a real tactic one, I had enought of all thoose mass maps. In short: your chances to win by massing someone are low. If you're a fan of mass-moving units forget about this one then. One more thing here...units and buildings which are more advanced cost also gas. The only way of getting gas is to kill. You get one gas point and 50 minerals every 2000 points which I think is fair and ballances the map perfectly.
In the corners there are pannels:
-Race and location choosing
-Supply-buying system with a civilian(cause when the scv buys its it transforms into something else - read below)
-Hero recruiting pannel.
III. A short description of the races.
a) The Wizard.
Basicly you can say it's protoss, cause it builds up with a probe, and has protoss buildings. Gold mines are Observatories. The interesting thing I made is that you start with 0 shield, and it doesn't reload untill you build a shield battery. if your shield battery gets destroyed you loose your shield, and must build it over . Of course your units may be powered by many at once which makes it harder for your enemy to shut your defenses down. Because this race has only one worker the player might get assassinated, this works as a disatvantage. Killing the probe does the thing, aye? As an advanted the player has the possibility of buy a hero(one for the 6 available, you can even buy them all). The Wizard has also a powerful defensive structure - The Pilar Of Light. It's however pretty expensive, as it costs gas. Hallucination is the only ability available.
b) The Knight.
Similar to terran, but with many exceptions. The gold mines in this race are Command Centers which changes them self into a cerabrate. When you build a supply depot(called random reinforcements) it randomly creates 3 ground units. It's like a gambling game, cause you can win and lose. The advantage of doing this is that you get 3 units in a second, so when the enemy is about to reach you it's smart to build this to slow them down while you're retreating or so. Another cool thing is that the medic has constantly 4 energy points, which slows down the healing a bit and therefor ballances the game . The knight can also buy heroes as same as it can get assassinated by loosing the SCV. The Knight has also pretty good defensive structures, which are cheap, fortress and lookout tower. EMP,Def.matrix,siege mode, mines are avaialable.
c) The Necromancer.
A zerg-like race. Gold mines = creep collonies. If you transfer them into sunkens or spores, they no longer produce money. This race has powerful ground units but has expensive air. Building a lurker changes the hydralisk into a skeleton archer(Infested Duran). The system of advantages - disatvantages works perfect. The archer is a good unit vs infantary and gets weak when facing a catapult, balista and other larger units. The disatvantage of the zerg is that they cannot buy heroes, while their main advantage is that they can't be assassinated, so you'll have to kill each one of them(it's not actually hard, cause the comp roams on the map, so if a single drone escapes or a ling/overlord the computer will surely get it). They can also parasite the probe/SCV which is in fact a deadly weapon, cause it allows them to see the opponent. Plague is also available. Burrowing makes the thing even better, cause if you burrow at the front of someone's base and see his main force moving out you might wwant to unburrow and make a quick stab while he's away .
IV. Heroes.
The Ancient Island except for the fighting races also has it's own heroes. Check out who they're.
Each hero depending on it's power/abilities cost a certain amount of gold and gas.
-Aksagore is a Cerberi (zergling), runs fast, attacks with incredible strenght and speed.
-Agrill is a swordsman (firebat) deals twice as much dmg as the same non-hero unit, may be stimmed.
-Shanak (infested kerrigan) ensnare, high damage.
-Melicamp is a cavalry unit(Vulture) fast, mobile, good damage, may set up mines.
-Nemeth is the most famed Ancient Swordmaster(Zealot). Does good damage, however has the speed of a running zealot, and is basicly my fauvorite .
-Seyos (archon) is the only Archon available in the game, so it makes it look different. Avarage-good damage and is pretty nice against a necromancers horde, cause of splash damage.
The map is 99% complete. The map is perfectly ballanced. I'm just thinking of a few ways to make the map even better. What do you guys think about this? (If you want to we may play this online anytime, Saox @ Europe)
None.