Hello,

Maybe some of you might recognize my name, I created some very popular RPG maps back when SC first came out, talking like 7 years ago. To my surprise I was still able to find them all through google. Anyways I had a creative itch and decided I wanted to make a new map for fun based on some ideas I had years ago that I never finished.

The game system itself may or may not be original (I have not played no other maps in 7 years, if what I describe has been done then so be it) but it is very smooth and feels like a real online RPG. Each player is given a small area in the top corner of the map consisting of a nexus, and 4 robotics facilities. The nexus is used as "accept button" basically by building a probe. Thus no more running to beacons to activate things. Each rob facility is used to do abilities, as you gain levels you gain more abilities(4 per class atm). There are 6 classes each with distinct traits/abilities that all compliment each other, thus enhancing group play. The experience system further promotes working together by giving increased exp gains and shared exp if you fight near other players. Upgrades are standard stat ups bought with money from killing enemies. There are various other features as well that make it feel like a real online rpg. The triggers are extremely smooth and you can have up to 4 players in an online game. Of course there is a developed story line ect.

So far my battle net feedback has been excellent. On average if 3 join, 1 leaves early and other two remain. Of those that stay they usually remain 2+ hours which to me is success getting anyone to play one map that long. Though for me as the maker and tester its incredibly time consuming doing that.

The map was basically made using the SC-xtra map editor, I didn't even know scmdraft existed and am amazed by the feature it has so am considering revamping using it.

Current status, is as follows.
Trigger system is 100% done for all 4 players
Terrain and storyline 75%
Plenty of little bugs left

Basically the map is fully playable but the story just ends after 3/4 of the way done.

My free time is not much at the moment so finishing it is difficult, I would appreciate any feedback or comments and I hope anyone that plays it enjoys.

MTROUT

Edit: Additional information

Details on the class system. Spells cost a specific amount of gas. You buy gas in town
To cast a spell you build a Shuttle from one of 4 buildings in your inventory area.

Thief (Ghost) - abilities
Lv 1 Steal - % chance to steal minerals from any unit, amount stolen depends on difficulty of unit
Lv 2 Set Trap - Create 2 spider mines
Lv 3 Whirl Wind - Summons 5 cloaked ghosts controlled by allied computer player
Lv 4 Neutrilization - Summon a corsair that casts dweb on the closest enemy unit/building

Paladin (Zealot) - abilities
Lv 1 Provoke - Causes any enemy that is attacking another player to attack you instead
Lv 2 Holy Blade - Extra attacks (summons cloaked DT to do extra damage) lasts 5 seconds
Lv 3 Sacrifice - Drops Paladins hp/shielding very low while completely healing all players in range
Lv 4 Holy Shield - Provides 100% shielding for 10 seconds

Dark Knight (Dark Templar)- abilities
Lv 1 Swarm of Darkness - Creates 4 Broodlings that you control for 15 seconds
Lv 2 Summon Corrupted Soul - Creates 1 Invested Terran to control
Lv 3 Summon Wyvern - Creates a Mutalisk for Allied computer player that autofollows and attacks until death
Lv 4 Soul Reaver - Targets closest unit and drops it health to 25%

Druid (Medic) - abilities
Lv 1 Summon Warder of the Forest - Tiger automatically follows the druid at all times, if an enemy is in range
it transforms into a zergling and attacks, when enemy leaves it reverts
Lv 2 Teleportation Cirlce - Creates a town portal that can be used by any player till the Druid closes it
Lv 3 Form of the Bear - Turns druid into a Bear, while in this form you heal allies 100% lasts 15 sec
Lv 4 Form of the Scorpion - Turns druid in a scorpion, while in this form you can charm certain enemies

Ranger (marine) - abilities
Lv 1 - Track - Locate special enemies that can drop items
Lv 2 - Tame: Fliglosaur - summon a critter that causes all enemies near it to be drawn to it, thus drawing attacks away from the ranger and onto the critter
Lv 3- Call of Thunder - summon 5 cloaked wraiths that attack 8 sec
Lv 4 - Tame: Cragspider - summon a lurker owned by allied cpu player 15 sec

Shadow Mage (Templar)
Lv 1 - Summon Demonic Beast - Summon up to 2 hyrda's to control till death
Lv 2 - Summon Spirit of Darkness - Creates 1 Dark Archon for 10 sec, that can cast 1 maelstrom
Lv 3 - Summon Spirit of Decay - Creates 1 Defilier for 10 sec, that can cast 1 plague
Lv 4 - Enrage - Morph into an Archon for 15 seconds, drains all energy upon ending

*additional lvs exist but consist of each of these with increased potency/duration

Attachments:

Post has been edited 4 time(s), last time on Nov 17 2007, 7:07 pm by MTROUT.

It's a good rpg, but I don't have the attention span for most rpgs. I liked the effects you did like for the town portal thing. You might want to add some colors to the unit names to spice it up a bit and also change the name of Terran Refinery just FYI. Overall it's a good rpg.

For many more comments a few screenies would help greatly.

Something messed up when trying to post more info...

Something messed up when trying to post more info...

What he said. I hope this turns out a good rpg instead of those pointless others that take forever...

I will add screen shots when I have time. I went ahead and added details to the first post to possibly give
a broader view of the class system.

To the previous poster.

You can see how it turned out by playing it, it is basically done for all intensive purposes if I changed some text in the last playable event and put a victory trigger no one would know the difference except for the 25% of the map that you can't access...

MTROUT

You do know very few people actually play the demos unless they are testers?

MTROUT, I indeed do remember you from old days of map making. Back around 1.07 and before as well. Like a great classic of yours " Archonic Revelation II, Chaos Gate vTest, Gamblars Haven " some of them I remember off top my head. I believe I still got half of them. I also think you helped in creating some other maps with friends of yous.

I enjoyed your map and terrain was nice as well. Storyline was awesome as always. Can't wait for more updates MTROUT =)

Its a good map =) So far on single player I'm at the pyromancer's hideout, playing a dark knight... it would be way cooler online I've no doubt about that... The best part is the spellcasting system... it feels clean and intuitive... I like it...Do you still have the rest of the maps moogle is talking about?

but this map is 3/4ths of its way done

Meh, I don't liek to test RPGs.

Good start I think.
But, with the advent of all sorts of new options (i.e. COLOR) you may want to add a few things. Also, maybe it's just me but it seemed to lag a bit. Usually I don't lag unless it's an enormous map, and even if it is enormous there are ways to reduce the lag.
If your systems use a lot of this:

Conditons:
Always
Actions:
Preserve trigger

In conjunction with other actions this creates lag, so try and create more specific conditions if you can, so the trigger doesn't run EVERY single trigger run.
ALSO: spellcheck.
ALSO: grammar check. For example: hear and here are two different words with two different meanings.

I realize that you probably don't feel like doing this now, but if you had used one building (i.e. Protoss Gateway) with four different units built you could've accomplished the same thing with 1 location instead of 4 I bet, and personally I think it's slightly easier to use since you only need to hotkey 1 building. But your way works fine.
I like the <<<BUILD A PROBE>>> to start thing.
Good map so far I think.

Yah about the gateway style menu its alot better since u can just put the units beside the menu as a legend/

Thanks for the feedback.

I am aware of the spelling/grammar errors. Just need the time to really go back through it all and fix it. Color as well.

I agree the gateway would accomplish the same thing. I intended to add more spell effects through
different units on the Robo facility (reaver/obs), thus regardless i would have had to use multiple buildings.
For some reason I liked to fact that units out of the robo facility don't really say anything when they are created.

The real reason for individual buildings though is different abilities require timers that disable your access to that building so having only one building would make this more a difficult task, certainly do able but it wouldn't be as clean.

I have almost all of my old maps, I can upload them later. I don't have the Chaos Gate vTest and I would LOVE to see it if the person still has it cause it is what I based this map off of, I basically rebuilt the beginning based on my memory of it. Figured that map was just lost forever since I never publicly released.

MTROUT

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Nov 20 2007, 6:07 pm by MTROUT.

Dude my thoughts on grammar and spelling is you get it right the first time...that way you don't forget anything.

Does it lag when you play it? It did a bit for me and like I said, I usually don't lag when playing Starcraft.
If it was just a weird fluke, disregard this. But you may want to look into that and try to reduce lag if it's there, because laggy games are annoying and not fun sometimes. And when you have 4 people in the game, it gets worse. It wasn't gut-wrenching lag or anything, just enough to get on my nerves.

Vrael,

It does not lag for me at all. I have played it about 40+ times on BNET and never experience any lag. I typically play with 4 people at a time if I can and there is no difference in lag. I understand your concerns though if I thought that was a problem I would do everything I could to correct it but since I never have it and no one I play with ever seems to (play with random people) then I'd say the prob is on your end some how.

I'll look over the trigs but really there isn't a ton of constantly running triggers on the map. A handful at best.

MTROUT

I compiled a zip of a few of my old maps I was able to recover from various starcraft sites. These were the major RPGs.

Archonic Revelation I + II (1998/99)
Tales of Valor (1998/99)
Dune RPG (last completed one I did, 2000 I think)

http://files-upload.com/files/631717/MTROUTscRPG.zip

MTROUT

Post them into Map Showcase with description please?