The Pitch
Alright, so apparently there is some interest in making this into an SC2 project to get a hands-on feel for the features. I am not aiming to make this a public-hit, it is more so a test for our own ends to further the project. For quite some time, this is going to be an SEN-only map and your friends can play, but I don't want to release it until it is in a beta-type status. That is far in the future though... So let's just toss that aside. Anyone who doesn't know what a MOBA is, the term was coined by Guinsoo who created the ideas for recipes and runes in Defense of the Ancients, but is now working for League of Legends. It stands for Multiplayer Online Battle Arena, which defines what Defense of the Ancients(DotA), Aeon of Strife(AoS), Heroes of Newerth(HoN) and League of Legends(LoL) all are.
So to start off, we are going to need people to design the terrain. Seeing as a jungle with the standard river and everything has been done over n over... Let's do a destroyed/burning/ruined city theme for the map. We can make the river polluted and everything to give it a unique feel. I would like to have multiple people working the terrain, to get multiple perspectives on it. These people should not mind having to edit the terrain once it is 'finished' over and over, to fix points of interest and bugs that may appear: Such as being able to fit through gaps they shouldn't be going through or sight imperfections.
For the other half, we will need coders. People who can hard-code hero stats, items, unit stats and menus. I am planning to make a whole "unit selection" screen that replaces the actual game with a picture and puts up more pictures/dialog for picking heroes before the gameplay actually starts. To include a shop as well with more dialog boxes that are clean and easy to use. I am not too familiar with the coding side of the house, but I am told that everything that can be triggered, can be coded better. So my assumption lies that they have the same features available.
Once a team is assembled (lol, assembled) I will make a SC2 project topic with the entire outline of the map. This is not at all a rush project like I have been doing for the past few years, this map will entirely be somewhat of a... Game Pitch. Maybe we can use it to get hired by a game company, eh? Now I know that SEN has a MOBA-like project already, popularly known Temple Siege by UnholyUrine. I am willing to collaborate together in the endeavor to make an enjoyable experience, but for those who like the way Temple Siege is designed compared to what we have here, feel free to venture towards it instead. This game has it's own elements while TS has it's, even with the welcoming of ideas that it has to be assimilated into this monster of a MOBA.
Project Name Ideas:
Fable of Souls
Spellcaster Arena
Feel free to submit more! I have never been good with this, so definitely come up with your own ideas for what it should be named.
Heroes/Stats:
Stamina - Increases Health and Health Regeneration
Strength - Increases Physical Damage and Reduces incoming Physical Damage
Agility - Increases Ranged Damage and Reduces incoming Ranged Damage
Intelligence - Increases Energy and Energy Regeneration
Constitution - Increases Critical Chance for Auto-Attacks
Heroes will have four spells/abilities, three with a maximum level of 7 and an ultimate with the maximum level of 3. Their maximum hero level will be 20, meaning they only get a total of 20 points allocated. This will require them to choose what spells they want to be higher in level, since they would need 24 points to get the maximum of each. They can max out two and their ultimate, but have one skill barely leveled or distribute the points evenly.
An additional route to go is to have each ability with two alternatives, meaning a total of 8 different skills, but once you take one, the other option of it becomes unavailable forever. This would add further customization into the game and determine the outcome. If this turns out to be too imbalanced, it can just be made into a special set of heroes, as I am sure we will have. Something like how the invoker was in DotA as his skills were different from all of the others.
Items/Inventory:
In this game, there is an inventory max of seven total items. Two of these seven, are special inventory slots: One of them must contain movement enhancements (Boots) and the other, a Spell Book. As in both DotA and LoL (HoN is basically DotA...), everyone always had a pair of boots at some point in the game unless you weren't taking it seriously. Why not just make a slot entirely devoted to boots? You won't ever miss the slot, because the game will revolve around having it there and won't be "1 less inventory for other items."
The other half of these special slots, is your Spell Book. In every MOBA, every hero has had a "core item" or something that was rushed, to define how you played the rest of the game. I am including LoL's Summoner Spells into this category, because they fill the same niche. Taking another idea from LoL, is their "stacking" items or the individual hero abilities. By combining all these ideas, you have the Spell Books, which enhance your hero and/or give it special abilities on top of what they already possess. Your Spell Book's effects are buffed as you get more kills or assists, but overall depending on the SB (getting tired of typing Spell Book) itself, will determine it's leveling requirements. When you meet one of it's cons however, most likely this will be death, it will lose experience/power and the effects it holds will decrease.
For the entirety of items, I plan to start off small with items that increase the core 5 statistics, a few pairs of boots and a handful of Spell Books. This is to include what "ingredients" will be in those items, depending on the end prouct's effects. What items we add after that will be to fill imbalances between the heroes that are not them being overpowered, simply counters. I think that this is the best method we have for a game we plan to design entirely from scratch with as little stealing as possible.
Neutrals, Runes and Buffs:
I know that this a huge part of gameplay, which will be carefully approached. I don't entirely like the idea of Roshan/Kongor or Baron, so this will be something to really think about. I like the approach LoL had on the subject by making a lesser form that provides only gold though, so something to this extent will be explored. As for Neutral camps, again, I don't want to copy anything entirely. We need individuality, but the need for Neutrals is no doubt, neccesary.
Runes in DotA/HoN are something that I really loved. They add the need for players to have more map awareness than just "oh hey everyone is missing, they must be at Baron." One hero going missing, grabbing a rune and making a ruckus really added to the teamwork factor of the game. Something to this extent would make a big impact on the gameplay. Red/Blue buffs don't really count, when a hero goes missing for X amount of time and your kind of like, "What the hell?" ...They were probrably farming a buff. It's no different than having an additional item that you worked for, not that big of a deal. I admit though, for heroes like junglers or ones that need that small achievement without having to do much work, can really make/break. All of these aspects are up for discussion.
Towers, Creeps and Barracks:
LoL had it right with Creeps and Barracks, the fact they spawn at the main structure and how many there are. The respawning barracks was also a huge success, because taking the opponent's barracks away really crippled them and required them to defend that lane much heavier than before because the creeps would naturally push on their own. By defending that lane until the barracks respawns, you could then proceed on to pushing without worrying to defend but still be wary of a push from the lane.
Now they fucked up the Turrets/Towers in LoL, they just... Suck. Too commonly was a hero able to enter it's range, kill you and walk out with relative ease. In HoN/DotA, unless they at least did a 2v1, this wasn't possible. Even if they did 2v1, if that tower targetted them and they took more than 2 hits, chances are they had little health or were dead from both you and the tower hitting them. I plan to give the towers that additional edge from HoN and tell the LoL pricks that they were once feared obelisks of might.
As for your actual creeps, each lane will spawn three Physical units, three ranged untis and a third 'ballistic' unit that deals additional damage to turrets but recieves additional damage from them as well, but the towers target the creeps in that order: Physical, Ranged, Ballistic, Hero-Controlled, Hero. Physical units will have more health than ranged, ballistic will have high health but deal low damage to everything but towers. Their all-around stats are still to be determined through testing though.
Terrain:
Now, I m made a really random 3 minute outline as to how I feel the map should be like. Discredit me for taking the idea off of HoN's Watchtower map, but it is highly under-rated. It has amazing new ideas as far as gank areas, pushing differences and really, really, REALLY nice idea for a complete layout. Here is the basic idea:
Itit has no real layouts or definition, but for a general idea. The reason there are so many curves, is that it makes you weary of ganks from the cliffs or forest by your tower, also adding in the element that your tower can help in certain situations beyond lane control, enhancing the caution your enemies and allies will employ dependent on where that tower is located.
Now I have a different idea to enhance ganking a little more to give aid to the side lanes. The area with grass, lets cut that down and make it closer to the center. So the bottom left and top right are now going to curve in more like a circle. The image isnt entirely accurate because I could feel that they could get closer, but this is all to be determined with actual design and testing.
The legend for this is that the brown would be 'raised' terrain and the stronger neutrals would roam. Anyone who has played a MOBA/AoS style map before, knows what I am talking about. The green represents the weak area where the weaker neutrals and good juke-ing spots would be. The blue represents the well-established river that has been in every MOBA, which we can tweak however we want, but it is the lowest terrain and presents a risk of running down it, as everyone above it can see you and you cannot see them. This is something that was removed from LoL that never should have been. The black lines are the creep paths, the dots represent towers/barracks/main-structures, color-coded for teams.
Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Nov 28 2010, 7:19 am by LoveLess.
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