I didn't get a whole lot done last weekend due to Valentines day, and I spent a lot of time working on permanent creep (see UMS Theory). Throughout the week I have gotten some done, but not a lot from my task list; more fixing up bugs and ironing the triggers out to be more stable.
Tasks Completed- South section gun trap system complete. There are 12 guns permanently placed, but only 4 are active at a time. One gun de-activates and another activates every 3 seconds, with a data disk being placed next to the active gun so players can see which is active. Gun traps give detection and players have vision with P8, so this makes cloaked units more vulnerable in the south section. Gun traps do 3 damage each (most ground units have at least 2 or 3 armor, so effectively take no damage) and are situated on low-ground, so miss their targets 30% of the time. Might need to do some balancing in this area.
- Added Robotic Thruster Upgrade: when player builds a Hydralisk den (costs 7 gas), they get permanent speed boosts for shuttle and observer. This ties into the permanent creep research I did: the permanent creep only appears in the west maze section when a player has a terrorist (drone) there, so it is a little bit of a 'secret' to find. May need to lower the gas cost here, as the other 'secret' zerg building (skip 1 lap) is more desirable to build and players will probably only get a chance to build only 1 of these buildings (due to rarity of terrorists and creep).
- Added Summon Artillary Spirit: when player builds a bunker (4 ore, 2 gas), it is replaced with a tank in siege mode that does 18 damage. Players can have a max of 3 spirits at any time (additional bunkers will be refunded). Players do not have siege mode researched, so they cannot de-siege the tank.
- Added Guarantee Hero: when player builds a shield battery (3 ore, 3 gas), they guarantee that there next unit spawn will be a hero. Essentially the spawn system is limited to generate a unit that can be upgraded to hero, and then the unit is upgraded for free (as the player already paid 3 ore & gas for the privilege). Building additional shield batteries after the player has already built one and not yet spawned a hero will refund them.
- Fixed units that spawn with powerups: Terrorist starts with Semtex which cannot be stolen by other workers. Crystalline Entity cannot be picked up by other workers. Explosive shit does not displace Constipated unit when it spawns.
- Half way through implementing Mind Control support. This has been more straightforward than initially planned, and will be easily finished tonight. Will look at rebalancing dark archon a little as my conception for how MC would work has changed (previously DA would die immediately after casting MC, now it will stick around).
New Tasks- Finalise sounds for the new buildings above, and sounds for completing lap/section (if any).
- Look at changing the randomisation system to use binary count offs. I initially had this system a long time ago, but couldn't get it to work properly. I think I know what I did wrong, so will revisit this. This will allow me much better control over unit spawns (currently have a value 1-64, but 1-50 would suit my needs much better). The idea would be to make worker units 2x as likely to spawn, and give the players chosen critter hero 2x chance.
- Look at simplifying ore cost to mute unit sounds triggers; can probably achieve this through binary countoffs and counter arithmetic which will be more efficient.
- Will probably move gas assimilator/probe to refinery/scv, as the probe can build 6 buildings while SCV can only build 4, so moving this would even it out, as well as make it better balanced (as probe can build multiple things at once).
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Magic box god; Suck it Corbo
This is like the second time i checked the map production thread and I'm glad i did
. I cant wait for this to be finished.
I <3 BPM
zzz
keeping this to yourself isn't going to help you mate.
Release a beta.
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zzz
keeping this to yourself isn't going to help you mate.
Release a beta.
I agree. A map like this can only really be stress-tested and such with more than one person. In fact, the entire map itself won't really work with fewer.
However, it's still up to your discretion; we'll wait for what's worth waiting for.
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Magic box god; Suck it Corbo
I would gladly test this when I'm not TSing so now you have 3-4 testers available.
I would test this as well, just PM me.
"If a topic that clearly interest noone needs to be closed to underline the "we don't want this here" message, is up to debate."
-NudeRaider
I will probably have a test of the map one night this week, either Tuesday or Wednesday, between the hours of 7-11pm my time. Unfortunately (due to a variety of reasons) I probably won't be able to pin which day terribly far in advance.
I am in New Zealand, and am currently on GMT +13. As I write this post, it is 1:43pm Monday, while it is Sunday 4:43pm PST. So 7pm Tuesday my time works out to 10pm Monday PST. Hopefully that won't be too late for people to assist in testing.
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Magic box god; Suck it Corbo
I will probobly be on, just pm Meh
Any updates on progress in the last five days?
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I did manage to get some testing done with Wing Zero and UU, who provided constructive and vitriolic feedback.
As a result I've substantially re-worked a lot of the underlying systems and rebalanced units. I've got most of the time consuming stuff done, but have a little more left to do, which I'll get finished off tomorrow. At that time I'll post with a more comprehensive update of what I've changed, as well as be able to test the map.
It's Sunday for me tomorrow and I'll likely be testing the map sometime around 2pm or later, which works out to 5 pm or later Saturday PST, so hopefully I should be able to get a few people to test it and give feedback.
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Right, so I've made major overhauls to the map as a result of bad feedback, as mentioned above.
Changes- Limited game to 10 laps from 15. May consider putting in a player selection system.
- Replaced entire 'gas = heroes' mechanic because it was unncessarily complex. This means vepene vent & extractors, gas bonuses and steal gas ability have been removed. The idea was that as you played, you would get more hero upgrades, so I replaced that with...
- Default 30% chance to upgrade to heroes (from 20%) +2% per lap. This means the further ahead you get, the more heroes you get.
- Scrapped individual hero selection system. Now you select from 1 of 2 options for: General Heroes, Speed Heroes, Special Heroes, Critters 1/Critters 2 and Dark Archon/Infested Kerrigan, Arbiter/Queen. Each selection has either 3 or 4 heros in it. Selecting a hero in this manner gives you a 90% upgrade chance (Dark Archon/Kerrigan and Arbiter/Queen give 100% chance).
- Rebalanced several units to make the game more dynamic and random; basic Marine and Firebat got stim back, but only have 15/25 HP so can't use it much. Heroes have more HP and can use it more.
- Reavers automatically build scarabs, with the hero building them every 3 seconds and regular every 7 seconds.
- Removed victims from the defiler, as it was confusing and annoying.
- Removed no-fly zone and replaced with cannons. Lowered HP on temple to 2000 with 60 armor. Single (stronger) CPU Archon attack every 45 seconds.
- Re-did top terrain to look more like 8x Korean version (iso terrain with ramps), moved doodad terrain to south area, removed some doodads and tidied it up.
- Lanes 1-3 narrowed to 8 tiles from 10, lane 4 (maze) still 10 tiles as it requires this width to be properly maze-like.
- Opened up some parts of the maze so buildings can be built to block (pylons, forge).
- Moved the shortcut in the maze to make it more of a shortcut, and added another area to the maze.
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Magic box god; Suck it Corbo
O.o i have a bit of time now can i try it?
Sorry, won't be on again untill probably 8-9pm my time (11-12 PST).
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AOISHFUSDEHFOSUFHSDF
Test on the weekend PLEASE!
(Not during the week, because I am hardly ever on during the week)
"If a topic that clearly interest noone needs to be closed to underline the "we don't want this here" message, is up to debate."
-NudeRaider
I did test on the weekend. I saw you in "op sen" sitting AFK for ages.
None.
I did test on the weekend. I saw you in "op sen" sitting AFK for ages.
Fml.
but damn this is some nice iced tea I am drinking
"If a topic that clearly interest noone needs to be closed to underline the "we don't want this here" message, is up to debate."
-NudeRaider
let's reiterate what I've bashed you with last time
Not for the Weak of Stomach List of Things to Change/Consider
1. First of all... Give ALL the SC Technologies back to the normal units. Holy fucking shit... no one's going to care so much about getting Heroes in such a simple game.. not to mention the Hero getting system is, so far, not very good. But i'll get to that later.
Here are the reasons to put all the techs back
- Ppl who're used to the old BPM (and are going to be the ONLY ones who'll play your map) will say WTF i can't cloak/siege/storm/hallu/lock etc... without paying attention to your hero system.. immediately folding this map into the SUCK folder
- Tech's are there for the LUCk response. If you're LUCKY enough to get a Tank or a Ghost... you can CHOOSE to Siege it or Cloak it or use Lockdown BECAUSE you're lucky enough to get that unit instead of some other shitty, no-tech units.
- It is just Unintuitive to work against what SC has to offer.
- More lulzy games require spells.. Imagine getting a ghost.. and not being able to lockdown anyone... wuts the point?
2. Remove those Floor Traps and bring back Death.
- Never.. and I mean NEVER.. Change something that ISN'T Broken.
- Death was Simple and Effective.
- Floor traps get in the way of building things
3. Fix the God damn 4th lane. No fucking OP Spore, No fucking cannons.
- WHY would there be a Spore in the middle of the 4th lane that just 1 to 2 hit kills all air units? Sure, it can be passed by if you're a small air unit on the side... but NO ONE WILL KNOW THIS
- The spore is fucking impossible to kill unless you have a hero... and even then.. who'd bother? it's just a fucking big annoyance, and does not contribute to the gameplay whatsoever
- There is already NOT enough space to build anyting, and you throw in cannons... Not to mention they're at the END of the lane, so weak units will die.. and have to restart.
- Air units are Air units for a fucking reason... if you're LUCKY enough to GET an Air unit... then you should be able to fucking fly past w/o any problems
- The fourth lane, using doodads/sprites to block... is ugly... and needs to be 2x2 to promote building blocks. Also, the small unit shortcut is not much of a shortcut.. i.e., if there IS a shortcut, then it should be WAY shorter than the long way, not like a fucking second shorter.
- If u wanted to produce that cat and mouse effect where small units can avoid harm (by archon/Ultras).. u can just create another section with that.. where the small units can hide inside an area from big units.. srsly, the shortcut is useless.
- Oh yes.. fix it so that the corner of the 1st lane is visioned. it is NOT part of the 4th lane, and SHOULD be visioned.
4. All units have been downgraded in order to give way to your wimpy heroes.
- the original BPM worked because some units are WAY overpowered than the other units so that people can be a douche if they're lucky enough to get those units... By underpowering every unit, you've essentially ripped apart the core replayable aspect of the game.
- Please.. Guards should kill all ground cause they're slow... reavers should be awesome cause they're slow. sieged tanks should be awesome cause they're static. it FUCKING MAKES SENSE.. This IS NOT FUCKING MELEE. Where's your sense of Humor?
- Seriously, I'm going to ask you this question, and you must reply honestly. Are you remaking this map for others to play and have fun with, or Are you making this map for yourself? If you answered the latter, then fucking give up and just delete this map. BPM is a pubbies' game. Not some RPG, not a puzzle map.. not some arena type map.. and DEFINATELY NOT A SEN MAP (i.e. maps that are only played by SENners.) Many ppl of SEN hates BPM , cause they hate the douchebaggery of the map. If you're not competitive, and not a douche when playing BPM, or actually hate the initial versions of BPM, then just fucking sod off and don't do anything more, because you don't understand the gameplay of this map...
err Of course, that is only if you aren't a douche when playing BPM... if u are.. then this must've just been some bad mistake.
5. Your Hero system
- Sux
- The hero picking is WAYY Too big.. Took me forever to find the BC
- Unintuitive, as people would usually think of Getting the unit first, buying the hero using the civ, then exchanging the unit they have to a hero. This isn't how it works
- Unnecessary, just like a ton of the things you've done to the map.
- Requires an automatic system, where if a player chooses, all his units will become heroes right away.
Now.. some miscellaneous stuff..
- We should all start off as Zlings.
- The temple spawning the Player H8ters is an interesting idea, but it doesn't work very well. I suggested only one archon spawn.. I actually think the frequency can be a liiitle bit faster.. maybe 30 seconds faster. It is still an iffy idea, as no one'd bother killing the Temple, and you have blocked the entire lane from buildings.
- Building spam was part of the douchebaggery.. pylons, cannons, turrets, and what have you should be ALL COMPLETELY FREE. If you still decide to keep their monetary value, make them actually fucking worth it.
- You can't build shit on Lane 1 cause of all the freaking doodads
- You can put the gas onto the side to minimize CC/Nexus building blocks.
- A lot of Spam Text. Please weed out some unrequired ones...
- Unintuitiave Gas gaining mechanism... only completing a lap should award you gas/min ... also, crossing it with a ground unit or an air unit SHOULD NOT DIFFER IN GAS.. because it was BY LUCK that you've gotten those units. so just TUF for them.
Yeah, I can still add to the list...
Don't wry tho.. there are things I liked.. like the broken down Vulture... glitch fixing.. actually having some sort of a system in gaining resources.. yeah.
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I'm not even going to bother responding to your post UU, because it is all out of date. I don't know why you bothered posting it.
To clarify: every single item on your list has been addressed. Which you would know if you actually read my last posts in this thread.
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O .. well I posted it because I wanted to make sure you know.
and U haven't answered my question D:
Yeah, i didn't read your post... I just wrote it up without reading anything...
btw.. you DID respond to my post by saying u won't bother responding..
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