Cave Wars

A from-scratch remake of lil-Inferno's one hour mapping contest entry, Cavern Wars. Features new terrain, better balancing and costs, and an extended tech tree. You fight other players in caves. You don't have vision of your own units, but instead must build fixed lights which provide vision for your team. In addition to that, there are destructible barriers (rubble) on the map which can only be blown up with Spider Mines.


DOWNLOAD:
SEN DLDB
Nibbits (outdated)


Current Terrain

v011 terrain image
v009 terrain image
v008 terrain image

Specs, Basic Information, Features
* Two teams of up to three players.
* Terrain is Badlands, 192 x 192.
* Randomized start locations, 28 possibilities.
* No vision of your own units. Build fixed lights (Supply Depots) for team.
* Each start has three mineral patches that can be mined before destroying walls.
* All potential starts are marked on the minimap.


Some Notes on Tech and Strategy
- You start with one CC and two SCVs. You want to build lights for your starting area and get to three CCs with 6 SCVs mining before beginning to tech.
- Upgrades go to 2/2 and are relatively expensive. They are helpful and provide an option for mid-game or late-game spending.
- All Machine Shop upgrades start researched.
- Supply Depots create fixed lights that your team can see. Build more CCs for supply.
- Vulture Spider Mines function as single use dynamite. They destroy everything in a 5x5 location centered on the mine. Blows up yourself, allies, enemies, lights, rubble, resources, and even the invincible Kakaru. They can be used offensively, too.
- Enemy lights can be killed. Missile Turrets will add detection nearby onto existing vision. Comsat Scans do not add vision, but add detection on top of existing vision. Spider Mines can blow them up.
- If it looks like you can build somewhere but it won't let you, there is probably an enemy light there.
- The Factory unlocks the Science Facility. Covert Ops functions normally.
- Physics Lab spawns a Probe on completion, unlocking the Protoss tech tree. It's good for late-game spending when you control a lot of minerals. (at least 10 CCs, probably more)
- You can tech to and build Nukes. They're good for breaking late game stalls.


Changelog
**** Version 012 -- Jun 27, 2020
- Completely redone terrain for aesthetics and better balance.
- Number of possible starts increased from 27 to 28.
- Internal trigger changes for increased efficiency and faster vision on startup.
- Added a square of revealed fog of war on all start minerals to help ease knowing where to build.
- Fixed rubble that wasn't invincible.
- Bunker armor decreased from 5 to 4.
- Bunker build time increased from 13+1/3 to 16+2/3.
- Goliath armor increased from 1 to 2.
- Siege Tank (Siege Mode) damage increased from 20 + 4 to 21 + 4.
- Armor of Protoss buildings increased from 2 to 3. (Photon Cannon remains 4)
- Photon Cannon damage increased from 20 to 24.


**** Verison 011 -- Jul 28, 2018
- Minor mineral, start placement, terrain, and doodad adjustments.
- Updated briefing objectives with more information.
- Add context sensitive tips for new players.
- Increased Physics Lab build time from 93+1/3 to 100 game seconds.
- Decreased Nuclear Silo build time from 80 to 60 game seconds.
- Decreased Nuclear Missile build time from 70 to 60 game seconds.
- Zealot HP decreased from 175 to 160.
- Dragoon HP decreased from 200 to 180.
- Firebat HP increased from 50 to 65, cost increased from 24 to 32.


**** Verison 010 -- Mar 11, 2017
- Minor mineral, placement, terrain, and doodad adjustments.
- Goliath cost decreased from 240 to 200.
- Goliath HP increased from 115 to 125.
- Ghost cost increased from 32 to 48.
- Ghost damage decreased from 12 + 2 to 11 + 2.
- Stimpack cost increased from 180 to 200.
- Restore cost increased from 160 to 200.
- Caduceus Reactor (Medic energy) cost increased from 120 to 200.


**** Version 009 -- Mar 05, 2017
- Minor terrain adjustments, including additional doodads.
- Minor mineral and placement adjustments.
- Shifted some mineral patch placements.
- Some terrain and placement adjustments.
- Enable Ocular Implants for Ghost for 400 minerals. (Increases Nuclear Strike range.)
- Increased Lockdown cost from 600 to 800 minerals. (Matches Cloaking.)
- Increased Goliath HP from 105 to 115.
- Decreased Goliath cost from 280 to 240.
- Zealot HP decreased from 225 to 175.
- Dragoon HP decreased from 250 to 200.
- Templar HP and shield decreased from 50/50 to 40/40.
- Psionic Storm energy cost increased from 75 to 100.


**** Version 008 -- Sep 16, 2016
- Some terrain and placement adjustments.
- Redid stats of Protoss units, generally slightly weaker with decreased costs.
- Decreased build times of Protoss buildings.
- Increased Siege Tank build time from 8 to 12 game seconds.
- Increased Vulture cost from 24 to 32, increased build time slightly.
- Decreased Ghost upgrade damage increase from +3 to +2.




Post has been edited 18 time(s), last time on Jun 28 2020, 1:24 am by Moose. Reason: Correct number of starts, add clarification to changelog

I remember this map, it was awesome!

Yeah, we played it for a while the other night. It's a really great map.

I'd have to play it more to give better feedback though. There are definitely ways to make it even better.

Released a new version today. Tweaked some unit balancing, made individual players easily identifiable, and fixed some terrain. Unseiged Tanks have just enough damage to always one-shot Vultures, even against armor upgrades. A few starts and some spots still need some work, IMO, but those will have to wait.

**** Version Beta 003 -- Jan 23, 2014
- Changed player colors to warm colors (Red/Yellow/Orange) for one team and cool colors (Blue/Purple/Teal) for the other.
- Vulture HP decreased from 5 to 4.
- Siege Tank (Tank Mode) damage increased from 0 + 0 to 8 + 0.
- Siege Tank (Siege Mode) damage increased from 16 + 4 to 20 + 4.
- Goliath armor increased from 0 to 1.
- Zerglings now have and start with the movement speed upgrade.
- Some terrain, rubble, and mineral placement changes, most notably in the silly seven-entrance start closest to the middle. No start has more than six rubbles leading into it.

Looks good.

So, I have played it yesterday and will probably play it again.
I can only recommend it; give it a shot.

The only thing which I consider to be a problem is that you can not buy a flare on an enemy's flare.
Though I have no idea how to change that.

If you can't build on a certain area then you know there's an enemy flare there. You can either build a turret or scanner sweep the area, then kill the flare. Generally you should always have a couple of comsat stations so you can use scanner sweep on demand to reduce your enemy's lighting.

We had an interesting problem last night where my scans weren't revealing flares for DevoureR's units. I kept scanning for him and I'm asking him why his units weren't shooting them, he couldn't see them. It's also possible that it's always been like that and I just never noticed.

Thanks to the compliments from everyone.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on May 31 2014, 2:20 pm by Mini Moose 2707.

This isn't a problem with the map, it's a problem with Starcraft. Scanner sweep doesn't work for your ally unless they have your vision.

Okay, that's fine. It's always been like that and I've never noticed.

This map is updated to v008. I realized that I never posted vBeta004 or v005 (another Beta designation ended!) on SEN, so I'm including all change logs up to the current version. vBeta004 and v005 were mostly balance changes.

v006 was a major update that was released last night. It was quickly followed by more changes in v007 and v008. The most notable additions are that a lot of terrain has been redone and improved and the Zergling has been removed in favor of an extended Protoss tech tree. The costs and balance may still be a bit off with the addition of Protoss, so there may be more tweaking to do.

Enjoy the map and please provide any good feedback.!

**** Version 008 -- Sep 16, 2016
- Some terrain and placement adjustments.
- Redid stats of Protoss units, generally slightly weaker with decreased costs.
- Decreased build times of Protoss buildings.
- Increased Siege Tank build time from 8 to 12 game seconds.
- Increased Vulture cost from 24 to 32, increased build time slightly.
- Decreased Ghost upgrade damage increase from +3 to +2.


**** Version 007 -- Sep 16, 2016
- Decreased time and cost of Physics lab from 4000 to 3000.
- Increased cost of Ghost from 32 to 40.


**** Version 006 -- Sep 16, 2016
- Nuclear Silo renamed from Nuclear Silo Maybe to Nuclear Silo.
- Lots of terrain and placement changes.
- Increased cost of Comsat Station from 120 to 200.
- Physics Lab now creates a Probe and extended Protoss tech tree, removed Zergling and Zerg upgrade buildings.
- Added note to mission objectives about Physics Lab conversion.
- Added tip for how scan works for Comsat Station.


**** Version 005 -- Jul 03, 2015
- Removed Beta designation.
- Bunker HP increased from 135 to 150.


**** Version Beta 004 -- Jul 02, 2015
- Minor terrain and mineral placement changes.
- Nuclear Missile cost reduced from 1200 to 800, build time reduced from 1200 to 1050.
- Zergling HP decreased from 150 to 140.
- Goliath HP increased from 100 to 105.
- Goliath damage increased from 20 + 3 to 21 + 3.
- Firebat damage increased from 8 (x2=16) to 9 (x2=18)

Question, did you name your versions with two 0's on purpose, so that the 7th version would be 007?

I use leading zeros to help computers sort the names properly. (otherwise 1 and 10 would both be before 2, etc.) I figure I'd never need more than 999 versions of anything, and so far I haven't even used the third digit yet.

v009 was released on Sunday and includes the following changes:

**** Version 009 -- Mar 05, 2017
- Minor terrain adjustments, including additional doodads.
- Minor mineral and placement adjustments.
- Shifted some mineral patch placements.
- Some terrain and placement adjustments.
- Enable Ocular Implants for Ghost for 400 minerals. (Increases Nuclear Strike range.)
- Increased Lockdown cost from 600 to 800 minerals. (Matches Cloaking.)
- Increased Goliath HP from 105 to 115.
- Decreased Goliath cost from 280 to 240.
- Zealot HP decreased from 225 to 175.
- Dragoon HP decreased from 250 to 200.
- Templar HP and shield decreased from 50/50 to 40/40.
- Psionic Storm energy cost increased from 75 to 100.

The balance is improved with respect to Protoss but the Goliath improvements did not go far enough. v010 is most likely not far away, pending some areas of the terrain that I want to rework.

I wanna try this once

We'd like to have you!

Last week, v010 was finished and released, though I didn't get around to posting it then:

**** Verison 010 -- Mar 11, 2017
- Minor mineral, placement, terrain, and doodad adjustments.
- Goliath cost decreased from 240 to 200.
- Goliath HP increased from 115 to 125.
- Ghost cost increased from 32 to 48.
- Ghost damage decreased from 12 + 2 to 11 + 2.
- Stimpack cost increased from 180 to 200.
- Restore cost increased from 160 to 200.
- Caduceus Reactor (Medic energy) cost increased from 120 to 200.

Goliath is much closer to where I think it should be. Ghost is much more balanced with the cost increase and the damage decrease. The damage decrease was chosen specifically to make Ghosts need 4 shots to kill a Marine, even at 2/2.

Version 011 was released yesterday with the following changes:

**** Verison 011 -- Jul 28, 2018
- Minor mineral, start placement, terrain, and doodad adjustments.
- Updated briefing objectives with more information.
- Add context sensitive tips for new players.
- Increased Physics Lab build time from 93+1/3 to 100 game seconds.
- Decreased Nuclear Silo build time from 80 to 60 game seconds.
- Decreased Nuclear Missile build time from 70 to 60 game seconds.
- Zealot HP decreased from 175 to 160.
- Dragoon HP decreased from 200 to 180.
- Firebat HP increased from 50 to 65, cost increased from 24 to 32.

Nukes haven't seen any balance changes since Beta 004, before the addition of Protoss. They aren't meant to be a comparable alternative but they would fill their niche better with the faster build times.

A couple of the starts have been adjusted to make it more intuitive how to get all three minerals with three lights (the starting light plus two additional lights). Some of the starts towards the middle which were unnecessarily difficult to build in or were excessively cluttered have been made easier. The starts that were "too easy" because two lights could reveal all three mineral patches should be fixed. This includes the worst offender, the start near top left which really only needed two lights and two CCs to operate at full efficiency. The starts aren't perfect, but they're better.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Jul 29 2018, 1:37 pm by Mini Moose 2707.

Version 012 was released today with the following changes:

**** Version 012 -- Jun 27, 2020
- Completely redone terrain for aesthetics and better balance.
- Number of possible starts increased from 27 to 28.
- Internal trigger changes for increased efficiency and faster vision on startup.
- Added a square of revealed fog of war on all start minerals to help ease knowing where to build.
- Fixed rubble that wasn't invincible.
- Bunker armor decreased from 5 to 4.
- Bunker build time increased from 13+1/3 to 16+2/3.
- Goliath armor increased from 1 to 2.
- Siege Tank (Siege Mode) damage increased from 20 + 4 to 21 + 4.
- Armor of Protoss buildings increased from 2 to 3. (Photon Cannon remains 4)
- Photon Cannon damage increased from 20 to 24.

The biggest and most obvious change is the new terrain, which was based on the old the terrain but very extensively reworked every part of the map. (feel free to compare to the old terrain.) This new terrain represents about two months of on-and-off work and finally gives the game a long overdue aesthetic overhaul.

The terrain improvements are functional as well as aesthetic. The starts are better balanced than before, things are much more well thought out in general. There's no isolated start with no neighbors. There's no starts with three neighbors. The starts are better sized (no more of that cramped mess near center towards bottom right, more room to build in the top left start) and easier to navigate (won't miss the awkward shape of the top center start). No starts can light both their starting minerals with a single light. (If you find a way for any, please let me know, but I did test and tweak for a good couple of hours.) No expansions have double minerals. That mess of a corridor near the bottom left is no more. Mineral and CC placement is less frustrating, many CCs are easier to place out of the way. The "peeks" over and through the walls are better designed.

On to the balance changes: Bunkers were a bit too strong and really hard to break with Marines, so the armor decrease should help. Bunkers also no longer have more armor than Cannons. Protoss Buildings no longer have less armor than Terran buildings. (not that armor on buildings comes up often, anyway) Cannon damage was pretty weak in general and will now always two-shot Marines regardless of armor upgrades. The Goliath armor increase hopefully improves balance of Goliath vs Marine, and the increase in Tank damage keeps Goliath vs Tank the same.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Jun 28 2020, 1:29 am by Moose.

good map imo

When I first heard the moose was loose, I couldn't believe it. Now that the time has come, all I can do is sit back and drink tea as the hooves and antlers of this mighty northern beast can once again prow untamed and unmatched only by the biggest and mightiest of brown bears.

What was once only known as a mere ground mammal actually has adept aquatic and swimming abilities. The water only serves to relinquish the weight of their giant bodies upon their mighty legs, where they can walk effortlessly and feed upon the plants below whilst preserving precious calories and traveling greater distances.

One might go as far to say your almost as likely to see a moose treading the rivers of the north as you are to see hippos swimming in the south. These towering hulks of nature just might surprise you.