Theater of War
So this is a game based around a concept that I had in 2008. The original concept involved a large scale battle among two AI players and human players placing Flag Beacons around the map to designate troop deployments, spells, and various other effects. The issue was that Flag Beacons simply did not work that way and could not be used infinitely. While discussing the idea for the one week contest with Biophysicist, he suggested that I do the map using Nydus Canals instead of Flag Beacons.


DOWNLOAD: http://www.staredit.net/?attachment=8803


Specs, Basic Information, Features
* Two Teams, 3v3.
* Terrain is Ice, 128x128


Income
Income works based on addition to a DC every trigger cycle:
+30 base rate
+5 per Hive
+10 if you have only one teammate
+20 if you have no teammates

When the DC is 600 or more, you gain a mineral and the DC is decreased by 600.

Purchaseables
These are things you can buy with your Nydus Canals. Some notes:
- The "Base of Operations" is a player's cocoon marking where the player's units and spells are typically deployed from, unless otherwise specified.

01. Capture Command Point -- $30
An SCV deploys from your Base of Operations to a Hive your team does not control. If the SCV survives there for roughly 10 seconds, your team captures the Hive. You can then relocate your Base of Operations to this Hive. If the SCV dies, you lose your money.

02. Move Base of Operations -- $5
A Drone deploys from your current Base of Operations to a friendly Hive or your Headquarters. Upon reaching it, your Base of Operations is relocated to the new destination. If the Drone dies en route, you lose your money. If your Base of Operations is captured (or more specifically, the Hive where it is is captured), you lose all of your money and it is distributed among the other team. Be careful to choose where your destroy.

03. Focus Attack -- $5
In a map involving AI battles, many units are bound to get stuck. Using this will set up a patrol route to the destination and AI units on the screen centered at the target.

04. Heal -- $25
This deploys a Scourge from your Base of Operations. If it reaches its desination, units in a 5x5 area centered at the target are healed. It cannot heal Headquarters. As with other spells, if the Scourge is killed before reaching the target, your money is lost.

05. Vaccuum Spell -- $25
This creates a vaccuum instantly in an area 8x8 area centered at the target. Enemy units in that area are sucked towards the center and cannot attack. This can easily turn the tide of a battle if your forces are nearby to attack the helpless enemy units. Once the spell is over, enemy units will not be given new orders unless they are near a Hive.

06. Earthquake Spell -- $25
A Mutalisk spawns at your Base of Operations and flies to the target. If it makes it, lurkers spawn there for a couple of attacks. (a la Mutant L3 from Temple Siege)

07. Soldiers (Marines) x6 -- $15
08. Heavies (Firebats) x4 -- $25
09. Spec Ops (Ghosts) x4 -- $25
Infantry-type reinforcements. A Dropship spawns at your Base of Operations and flies to the target location and deploys the infantry there. (if it survives) A team may only have one Dropship in play at a time. If the target is within an area of the Base of Operations, the infantry deploy automatically there and bypass the Dropship restrictions.
The Marines are the standard infantry that populate the map each spawn.
The Firebats are good for combat against most other infantry.
The Ghosts do good damage against light armored targets. Their high damage lets them deal with units with high armor quite well.

10. Not Implemented (placeholder)
11. Not Implemented (placeholder)

12. Spore Colony -- $25
13. Sunken Colony -- $25
Defensive structure deployments. An Overlord spawns at your Base of Operations and flies to the target location and deploys the building there. (if it survives) A team may only have one Dropship in play at a time.

14. Cannon (Siege Tank) -- $20
A Science Vessel spawns and deploys a Sieged Tank at the location if it makes it there. A team may only have one Science Vessel in play at a time. Tanks do not have a lot of HP, so they work well in conjuction with other units or defensively with Sunken Colonies in front.

15. War Machine (Goliath) -- $35
A Science Vessel spawns and deploys a Goliath at the location if it makes it there. A team may only have one Science Vessel in play at a time. If the deployment location is within a short range of the Base of Operations, the Goliath spawns immediately and bypasses the Science Vessel and its restrictions.
The Goliath has moderate HP but high armor, making it excellent for tanking against Marines. It also damages both air and ground fairly well.

16. Elephant (Ultralisk) -- $35
An Ultralisk spawns at your Base of Operations, regardless of where the target is placed.
Ultralisks do not have very high armor, but they have a lot of HP which makes them good for tanking damage from units that would otherwise pierce armor and kill high armor/low HP units quickly.

17. Reinforcements (Archons) x3 -- $20
A Shuttle spawns and deploys three Archons at the selected target if it makes it there. A team may only have one Shuttle in play at a time. If the target is sufficiently close to the Base of Operations, the Archons deploy there immediately and bypass the Shuttle and its restrictions.
Archons make for a cheap and versatile option. They do sufficient damage to hurt most units through armor. They have a decent amount of shields and after that, some HP with moderate armor.

18. Wraith -- $35
19. Scout -- $55
20. Guardians -- $45
21. Valks -- $45
22. BC -- $80
Air unit spawns that deploy from your Base of Operations regardless of where the target is placed. (This mechanic I will likely change in a future version.)
Wraiths are the basic air unit. They have only 5 armor but do decent damage to both ground and air targets.
Scouts are like the Wraith's big brother. They have 10 armor and do better damage to both ground and air targets.
Guardians are specialized for attacking ground units. Given the mechanics, they are extremely effective since Valks or other air units deployed as counters will not necessarily go where they ar needed.
Valkyries are good anti-air. They do not do a lot of damage against the armor of Battlecruisers, but are still somewhat effective.
Battlecruisers have a good amount of armor and do a good amount of damage to both ground and air targets. They are also slow. Needless to say, they are expensive for good reason.


Comments
- There are still two placeholder Nydus areas. (Of course, I can add more easily)
- I should redo certain mechanics with the AI movement patterns, particularly for air units.
- The major known bug is that if not all slots are filled, one can deploy Nyduses to the console near the Sunken and Spore Colonies to permanently disable those Nyduses. This is stupid and only hurts yourself, so I don't know why you'd want to do it, but in a future version I will prevent it.
- Unfortunately, saving up a ton of cash and doing nothing for awhile to buy a bunch of air units seems to be very effective. Wraiths and Guardians might be too strong and/or too cheap.

Post has been edited 6 time(s), last time on Jul 21 2012, 4:12 pm by Mini Moose 2707.

I played the contest version and sunkens felt weak, even when employed en masse. Guardians are pretty strong, although not an instant game winner, especially if valkyries go the right way. I haven't tried the moving of the base operations but it sounds quite useful.

Overall I quite enjoyed it!

Yeah. From a design standpoint, the explosive damage makes Sunkens difficult to balance because making them more effective against small units means making them doubly as effective against heavily armored units. I can agree that there are some numbers to played around with for sure.

I also agree that guardians are strong, as I noted in the OP commentary.

Moving the Base of Operations is helpful depending on the stage of the game. If it's mid/late-game and you've got your opponent surrounded, of course you want thing to deploy closer to him to get more things out faster. However, if you have teammates, you may want one or two players to stay close to home to deploy more defenses quickly due to the nature of the AI.

Glad you enjoyed it.

I didn't want to give support to your map while the contest was still going, but now that it is over I can give you the props you deserve! This map is very unique, and most importantly, fun. I'd be interested to see what it looks like if you finish it.

Yer this map was very unique and I had fun playing it. It was tough having to choose between the two.

12. Spore Colony -- $25
13. Sunken Colony -- $25
Defensive structure deployments. An Overlord spawns at your Base of Operations and flies to the target location and deploys the building there. (if it survives) A team may only have one Dropship in play at a time.

You may want to fix that... (still reading, but I like this map )

Edit:
Valks do their best in situations where they are outnumbered(ironically) by clumped units. Clumped wraiths and scouts will be their best "friends" while BCs and Guardians will chug along while the valkyrie pokes them...

Do valks freeze much in this map?
And about how many units are moving around the map on average? 300? 400?

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Jul 25 2012, 1:08 pm by 3FFA.

Just tried this and I thought it was great. The Capture (SCV) and Move Base (Drone) concepts are particularly excellent.

You definetely need to work on air balance as you noted yourself Moose. Air units stack, ignore terrain, and therefore must have less HP or damage to compensate.

Occasionally units kinda glitch and dont get orders after successfully dropping from a transport ship, but it doesn't last forever. Anyways great job! I've dreamed of this "AI War" type of thing except in the prototype maps I've made I always had the computer actually mining on a normal melee map. Your map is much better then that. Much more fast paced and fun.

Yeah, I don't see an easy counter to guardians o.o

Well any other air unit is the counter. The main trouble as I see it is that the price of 4 wraiths or scouts is too low given their strength. Archons can counter them decently... Goliath not so much, because of it's Hp-Armor Setup to specialize vs. Infantry.

Download link doesn't work.