Status update?

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).
  

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.

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.

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.

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.

I will probobly be on, just pm Meh

Any updates on progress in the last five days?

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.

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.
  

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).

AOISHFUSDEHFOSUFHSDF

Test on the weekend PLEASE!

(Not during the week, because I am hardly ever on during the week)

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

let's reiterate what I've bashed you with last time



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.

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.

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..