Hey! As some of the observant and bored players around here might have noticed...Im making an assault/RpG! One of the cool things i plan on implementing is a Perk system. After so many types of units are killed special abilities will be available. But theyre not just like..spells. This is how they work.

Options will open up to allow players to invest a Points(Im thinking Reavers without scarabs, explanation coming...) Into slots of abilities like...

Bio shield: Every so often the Player will gain invulnerability During combat for a short period of time. The more points you have in this increase the rate at which you trigger it! I think ill make it so 5 Zerglings spawn and die around you while its going on so you get the visual representation of a sheild of Blood. Display Text and were good. maybe make it last 3 seconds so its not too disruptive to gameplay.
Now, notice The reavers without scarabs..If a player has unlocked say...5 perks and has 3 reavers to distribute..he cant just run them quickly back and forth from perk to perk cheating the effects. Thus it takes time to unlearn and relearn some new moves. Heres another:

???: Spawn an cloaked Wraith for 5 seconds above the player that is triggered when 10 or more enemies are near, and despawns when there are less than 5 enemies near the player. that way the cloaked wraith doesnt just fly off or decloak.

So anyway..yes, you got it- Im here for ideas! Any suggestions? Anything to add to make this more streamlined?
something to look forward to when im bored of editting :3

EDIT: Im not posting too much, am I?

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Apr 6 2009, 1:00 am by Xesh.

no such thing as too much posting my friend!

Ok well a good idea for the reaver is just use a fast unit (so the player can quickly choose his specialization) and then lock him out using player change or death count for a "cooldown" so he can't change perks instantly.

also I wuld ditch the display txt idea: in the heat of battle players are often spamming their spellz up and so it wuld flood their screen, best bet just remove it entirely, the visual represenation of the spell shuld be enuf to trigger the players brain into realise he is casting a particular type of spell. Make each spell have a unique visual represenation (eg. wall of blood) so they know what is what.

now for sum spell ideas well:

Plasma Shield: teleport prevoiusly created observer back and forth from players location - delay the teleport to eliminate the slowdown effect. what you would do to make this spell work is flicker the invulns. so use death counters, on the 5th death count flicker the invuln on, on the 45th flick it off, on the 50th restart the death count, and add another seperate death count. so the trigger keeps looping until the seperate death count gets added to X amount, which removes the plasma shield (can then use THIRD death count for cooldown)

Plasma Blast - using a complex set of triggers which i cbf explaining u make a scarab shoot out from ur players body and hit the closest target doing gd dmg.

Critical Hits - use unit flickers or watever for this to do the ocasional mega dmg, cloaked units look better. certain perks culd increase crit hit chance.

Luck - with this perk you gain double EXP/gold from kills. or have a chance to gain double EXP gold from kills.

Decoy - create hallucinations. remember triggers detect hallucinates so they culd fuck ur triggers up, best bet to eliminate this nasty little bug is to use different units. for eg. jim raynor is ur char, use marine hallucinates.

Haste - can swap your char for a faster unit, then swap it back after X amount of time, you could also create a scourge and have ur unit consntantly teleporting to the scourge, u then move the scourge to move ur character at an increased pace.

That's all I got right now, good luck with it.

What does the observer do? Explain please.

Have computer reavers which are unallied with your enemies attack something all the time.
When the spell is cast, move a scarab to the player, apply an AI (see below) wait a short time (~200ms maybe) then give the reavers (not the scarabs!) to the player to prevent splashing yourself.
Possible AIs:
- Junkyard dog
- Set random/strategic suicide mission
- Set generic command target to (where your enemy is) AND THEN Make these units patrol at (where your hero is)

Be exact please. In conditions you can NOT detect hallucinations, but in some actions such as remove unit, center location on unit, (but NOT give unit,) you can affect hallucinations.

If you always move your hero he also becomes invincible and can't shoot due to the constant teleport.
Either teleport him intervals of like 5-20 trigger loops or only teleport him when you detect the scourge is moving.

Thanks for the additions NudeRaider

@NudeRaider
The observers is just an effect to show the shield is active.

Well in RPGs there are almost always centre locations on heroes, meaning hallucinating the hero f***s things up.

Hmn...Great, ill come back to this topic if i need help making something.

@nuderaider: what..are you a god around here? i see you in all my topics. (<3 anyway)

He's the god of UMS Assistance, aka moderator. He really knows his stuff, listen to him.

@Pigy_G: Ohhh! That makes sense. (Just a bit of humor )

Alright, Im thinking about maybe having:

Perk: Mid-combat Heal
Perk: Opening Threat
Perk: Cleave
Perk: Bide time(Great Hold) something...


Mid-combat Heal, The only way to heal without using set %'s is to, ofcourse, medics.
2 medics on the first level, 6 on the last. invincible of course. This only activates if there are 10 or more foes near the player location. when enemies leave, the heal leaves too. Controlled by computer.

Opening Threat: I was going to have a mass small unit set % HP 75% every 2 minutes...But then i thought about a stun. level 1, 90%, 3,70%. used as an opening Threat to advance in combat.

cleave: simple, when Current player kills 1 zergling at location, kill 1 more zergling at location. award exp/mins for it since it wont count towards the actual... level 1, 1, level 3, 5. Im guessing it will only work on small units. Maybe 2 zerglings, 1 hydra, then 3 zerglings 2 hydras and 1 Ultra. Maybe over powering but it will spark later and later the more power you put in it.

Mass hold: I got this idea rather randomly. Imagine the scenario first: You grab onto your opponent and hold back all his attacks, however unable to attack yourself. this could be used to hold back an army, wait for the mid-combat heal perk to hit and help heal you while it happens or stall for time. level 1, 5 units, level 3, 20 small units. Something of this nature.

This is what ive come up with sofar..:3

Well you can only be healed by one medic at a time. So having 6 medics is just as effective as having 2. What you could do is change the amount of energy it starts with.


What do you mean by 90% and 70%?

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Apr 7 2009, 2:40 am by ForTheSwarm.

Hmn, is there a better way to heal majorly?
And those are percentages of HP that units get set with when they come in contact with the hero first

What if a unit that has been previously damaged (let's say to 20% HP) comes near the hero? Then it would be healed to 90% HP.

Bind - Surrounds an enemy hero with a bunch of units (whatever you have available), preventing them from moving. They have to kill the units to get out. The spell strength can be increased by increasing the amount of life the units have.

Well, THAT is why im here! I knew something like that was going to happen but i was over looking it until now.

WELL, It would only trigger for small units(marines, Lings, hydras and ghosts) And not e/affect heroes or bosses...or Bigger units(goliaths, tanks, ultralisks,archons) therefor it is only a minor risk that a few 1% lings get healed only to die momentarily again later when a player arrives on the scene. the only ones complaining is the CPU and the Computer is pretty silent. However i am open to changes and i would like to avoid Set HP percentages and make something that wont just expedi-ate death. Instead im looking for tactical uses.

EDIT:
@stickynote: I was thinking about having a group of enemies turn invincable with the player and move to the players location constantly so they cant attack for 5 seconds and neither can the player.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Apr 7 2009, 1:13 pm by NudeRaider. Reason: merged posts

Keep the max hps low - no units with 1000 hp.

you can control healing percentages, but you have to give your character lvl caps.

So at lvl 1 they can have a maximum of 5% HP
lvl 2 10%
lvl 3 30%
lvl 4 70%
lvl 5 100%

then u modify the heals to increase as ur char increase, that way healing culd never lower ur HP further then it is.

As for enemies, don't use set HP to change their health, use spidermines or scarabs or watever to remove their health.

Percentage HP Bugs the hell outa me 'cuz I get tricked into thinking my HP is too low to fight too often, (I know its used in alot of other rpg's but I want to avoid that.) Besides, Im having Heros with 3 Stages(Broodling,Ling,Hydra) you understand(?) And Low HP/low Attack games bug me too because it doesnt seem like enough power!


. . .Crap, im shooting down everyones ideas x.x sorry! i want to make a badass Game. . Hmnnn. OK, i know what ill do.
Thanks guys- IT was fun XD When I come to the part where im stumped on what to do..you know what will happen