So I was looking at that other thread: "Need spaceship ideas and, like, stuff"
And I thought: Why not doing an AoS with only one hero, that the players can upgrade to their liking to finally get something diffrent?
This would be like that: Every player starts with a single hero that they will upgrade with the same system there is in TS, with the only diffrence that they start with a set ammount of points. There may also be more advanced choices (at each level up, you can choose to go towards several classes, like warrior, tank, caster, support, w/e) you could also go further with those choices and have a warrior/tank class, being a bit less of a tank but still able to do good damage to the enemies. Spells would also be customisable, with some sort of limit (caster has access to most powerful spells and tank would be very limited, at the same time, the caster would not be able to chose berserk spells and the like).

This is just some random idea that poped out of my mind... use it or not, it is probably going to be the next map I do once that long D&D map I am making is over.

That's a little like custom hero wars, maybe check that out.

TZ and I were discussing a map like this. Each player has a single Marine, called a "Reality Hacker", as his/her hero. Each Reality Hacker has four (or possibly more) spells Each spell is created using an opcode-based programming language. I would make sure that all typical AoS spells are possible, and also that the system is flexible enough that atypical spells can also be created. There are also passive abilities, which are created using a similar system.

Another possibility I thought of without TZ's input is a rune-based system. Each rune represents a mathematical symbol (a number, one of the four basic operations, an open parenthesis, or a close parenthesis). The runes are added/subtracted/multiplied/divided to produce a number, which determines some characteristics about the spell. Other characteristics are determined by the relative numbers of each rune type. I'm not quite sure how this would work (and it would probably be better suited to an RPG, anyway), but it's something I'm definitely not going to forget.

And if anyone uses one of those ideas without my permission, I'll be rather irritated.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Apr 20 2010, 12:50 am by An Engineering Bay.

I started making a map like this where you chose from 3 or 4 base units with a specific strength. Like speed, strength, range or defense. And you could purchase spells with experience. The spells were, for the most part, the same for each hero but had small differences based on which unit you were.

Sounds kind of like WoW's Talent system. Any of the ten classes can specialize in any of that class's three talent trees, and the talent trees vary enormously in some cases.

Imo it's best if you have several different stats and allow players to allocate points for each stat. Then spells are awarded based on stat ratios automatically, instead of each player having to buy spells mid-game. Simply allocating points for a stat seems easier than having to read descriptions of spells and making decisions when your character's life may depend upon it and you may have a very short period of time in which to make your decision.

Not exactly AoS, but map I made a year or two back called Hunted where all players had the same hero, but their spells, stats, and passives completely customizable to make for a lot of combination.

You know. There was a guy on USWest named Celtic_Rain making a map like this.