So basically i'm currently thinking about making an AoS type map. Fact is, im deciding on which building i should use to cast the spells. I figured the voice of the REAL AoS map makers and community can give their opinion on which is best.Heres my opinion on each:

Gateway: The easy casting building. Used in Temple Siege and Hero Sanctuary.
Pros: ZDTK gives a straight-forward way of casting spells using left to right order.
Cons: Comboing is just a teeny awkward (ZTDZ) and constant spamming may lead to (Unit unplaceable), depending on area.

Stargate: The Combo casting building. Used in korean maps such as Jim Raynor Project II and JHZ Heroes.
Pros:SCA being close together can enable quick combos, like SCCACS. More space for units to be placed. More space in casting area.
Cons: The sudden O in the build can only be used for an single or once in a while spell, unless you're trying to pull off a hard combo.

Barracks The average casting building: Used on Arena maps such as We Are Friend or Custom Hero Wars.
Pros: MFGC provides decent comboing, though not as strong as the Stargate. C is closer than O is.
Cons: The MFGC build isnt bad, but on rare occasion your fingers can slip and press a different key while comboing, due to some awkward keying.



Strictly opinionated. I'm leaning towards Stargate at the moment for its combos. I'm listing only these three because they're the only one's ive actually seen on a map.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Mar 2 2010, 6:41 am by LoTu)S.

Definately stargaye. That goddamn barracks in waf messes me up all the time.

I think Starport is best: WDVB,Y
It's in order, it's mostly in a line, and you get 5 spells.

Next would be Gateway, since it feels more standard to me.

Force players to up APM by using multiple casting buildings that combo with simultaneous production?

In terms of timing that may cause some trigger timing issues. also, people are used to having 1 building hotkeyed, so they can just go 2z or 2s.

Damn, Beat me to it. Starport is the best option.

I quote my self :



Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Mar 2 2010, 7:24 am by fat_flying_pigs.

Reaver has 2 abilities: r for build scarab and right click for move. If you put a delay on the spell (ie, num of scarabs last trigger run=num of scarabs this trigger run), you can build multiple scarabs for up to 10 spells, but that's not really feasible. Many people I'm sure would end up casting l1 when they wanted to cast l2 or something. You can also make the right click the "cast". That would let you "pre cast" abilities, especially higher level ones. If you use 2-3 reavers rather than 1, you can custom set 1-2 spells to a "hotkey" and another to a variable. With a hero available, you also have the ability to have two different sets of spells. Unfortunately, right clicking to cast a spell isn't that intuitive.

zdtk is probably the best from a gateway. wdvby only for 5 spells, but if you have that many, it's difficult.

If you want (many) combos, stargate. If you want fairly standard casting, gateway.

Would that allow "binary casting" with multiple reavers?

EDIT> wait, that's stupid.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Mar 2 2010, 11:35 am by doomedrusher.

Yes, theoretically it would, but it would be base 10.
There's a few ways to do it:

If you have 2 reavers, one has 1 scarab, the other has 2, you can select them both and cast spell 3 (1+2). Alternatively, you can cast spell 12. Note that more than 4 spells is kind of stupid.

I haven't played AoS, so no idea if this is relevant to the gameplay or not.

With gateway, you can remove the player's pylon to stop them from casting spells. I'm not sure if you can do similar things to barracks/starport, such as disabling doodad sprite (might crash?).

or maybe just giving to a computer/unused player?

Yeah, that would work, except it kills the hotkey you had on the building if you give it to another player. Also the building colour would change.

With taking the pylon away, the Gateway displays "diabled" in red, which is also a good indication as to why you can't cast a spell, vs simply pressing your hotkey and having nothing happen.

I discussed keyboard spellcasters back here: http://www.staredit.net/topic/9487/

Keep in mind that you can disable all but one spell for the starport simply by removing the addon, and that terran buildings have a "lift-off" option that can also be used for some sort of "nuke", and starport also can unlock 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 spells at once depending on tech buildings possessed.

EDIT> If you are concerned about comboing, WDV comboes quite well on a QWERTY keyboard and yes, it's possible to have only those three enabled.

Possible "enabled" spell combinations, excluding the "L" for liftoff:
W only: starport
WD: starport + tower
WDV: starport + tower + science facility
WDY (awkward): starport + tower + armory
WDVY: starport + tower + science facility + armory
WDVB (index finger can use both V and B): starport + tower + science facility + physics lab
WDVBY: starport + tower + science facility + physics lab + armory

Post has been edited 2 time(s), last time on Mar 6 2010, 2:12 am by doomedrusher.

Has anyone ever thought of using EUD's to do spellcasting in AoS maps?

I mean, make it QWER for all 4 spells. Although i'm not really that familiar with EUD's, couldnt this technically be done?

Keypress isn't shared. Play HoN or DotA.

Unit selection could work, though.
Press 1 to use spell 1, 2 for spell 2, etc?
The only problem is getting people to hotkey at the beginning of the game.

it's slower than resource loss detection.

I believe xYoshix used EUD in his map, fallen memories. Idk much about eud anyways.