Different beings are fighting from different lands, they are fighting for their lives. What I can make from the description is that the Gods (or maybe just Pharaoh) are forcing them to fight as gladiator-like entertainment.

This map looks and sounds eerily familiar.

Though having a necromancer makes up for it. Can't wait to see this beauty, it's lookin awesome.

That AI back story is pretty damn sexy.

Also the reason I left the current storyline so open-ended is because the players are the ones who call the heroes and force them to fight. The Pharaoh was one example of a back story. The Creature of Mist killed a pharaoh that summoned him to earth from the Astral plane. Because Creature of Mist is a material form of the god Horus, he killed the pharaoh out of rage, but unknowingly to him - that made him a hero in the eyes of the many people that were being used & abused by him.

Flashbeer, they are not fighting for their lives because all the heroes are technically dead. They are playing for their freedom to be able to rest in peace and no longer have to re-live the horrors of battle and the burden of glory (or defeat). Remember that the only reason the heroes are in the map is because the fact that they were a hero in their life is forcing them to pay a price.

Since they will be remembered forever respectively in their own worlds, they pay for that with bearing the pain of unrest for eternity as well.



Thank you though, for the back stories so far everyone. They are coming along nicely so far, and with a little revision could probably be adopted into the game. Of course, all Heroes are still up for grabs if you want to write their back story unless otherwise noted in the first post.



Ahhh, yes the necromancer is really cool, you'll love him. The way that Cecil wrote about him fits his playstyle very well because he isn't very STRONG exactly, but his control of skeleton minions and other UNDEAD summons too including some useful buildings and passive spells makes him a pretty strong and unique character in that sense.

Oh, I thought they were just pulled randomly from their space to fight each other. Then at the beginning of a new battle, they were just revived again— struggling to make it back to their worlds.
Would be cool to add some other-worldly effects to make it seem of a different realm, like it's a floating island or stars/meteors cross the skies (cloaked scourages with a trail of explosions)

Idea for random item location placement, two units circle the outside of the arena (not seen, and can vary in speed) with locations on them. The meteors as describe above, shoot from one of the locations to the other. The meteors could explode at a random time and drop an item, or if you didn't want them to land, they would just drop the location to spawn an item later.

For umm concepts here one character idea...

Valkyrie

Everyone, keep ideas for this coming... Maybe it could take place at an intersection of the 4 planes?


Too unreliable with the amount of things that can block the spawn point for the item.





Pretty hot, but I've seen better.

Oh, you meant as a hero... Uhm... I don't really have any female units left that I could use for her.



P.S. Cecil, I am sending you a PM with your story, except I edited it. Tell me what you think about it and if you are satisfied with my edit job.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Sep 29 2009, 11:50 pm by Norm.

I read up on all that I could about the character and tried to incorporate that into the backstory. The main difference between spells//story is the mist, which is supposed to be like his fade spell -ok looks like there is no fade.. Must have read that on another character.

Heh, Necromancer does have a passive fade spell he can learn; however, it is a spell that effects his Gravedancer summons ONLY. That is where you might be getting confused.

Also, thank you for your efforts. I have attached the story in a collapse box in the first post. You can look it over to make sure it's exactly to your liking if you want, PM me if anything needs changing.

To everyone else, 11 more stories are up for grabs.

Okay, I updated the story to make the general overview of spells a little more interesting to read for the AI.

What are the four planes? Sounds good though.

Since this is a supernatural realm where seemingly anything could happen at any point (to an extent of course) Maybe you could make items randomly disappear if not picked up, possibly causing heroes frustration as they try to hunt down items only to disappear. Resource patches may get smaller or larger at random, causing less resources for those that use them. Tornadoes (by recalls and maybe an obs), while rare, may roam the fields (not in any bases) and damage units with direct scarab dmg. A mana pool may randomly appear throughout the field for short periods (as represented by recalls or hallu deaths). Earthquakes (maybe called something else) may shake every ground unit for a short while. Scorching suns may cause heroes to gain mana slower, lose mana, cause damage, or slow movement. Heavy winds could slow down heroes. Some mysterious event, like an eclipse, planetary alignment, or full moon, may cause units to not spawn , or everyone's spells to turn off, or work less effectively. Nightfall, daily, or periodically, the terrain may change, such are paths being blocked by roots/trees or rocks (spires, or rynadon) or secret paths under a bunch of tree sprites/rock sprites are unlocked by removing a unit under it. Pools of acid or lava can be made by critter deaths or explosions, and in the center of the pool could be a bunker of marines, with the bunker moved to a different location (the invisible marines stay in place and the bunkers is gone) a hero may even lose mana or be slowed in the pool, however, the pool make help to flank or escape from an enemy despite the pain.

I'll probably make some stories after I try out the beta and get to know the characters better.

lol Valkyrie doesn't necessary have to be female, (did you use infest kerri?)

it can be a ghost, a rine, or anything that looks slightly human...

No, it has to be a girl.I can stretch my imagination for SC only so much.

The four planes are: Dark Plane (think shadows, darkness, imprisonment, exiles), Astral Plane (think gods, cosmic entities and heavenly structures), Arcane Plane (think anything and everything magic related), and the plane that Earth resides in. The last plane is unnamed, but it would look very similar to how our Earth or other similar planets could look at whatever point of time.


The ones I highlight in blue are ideas that I think could definitely fit well with my maps setting. Ideas that I struck out or omitted are either redundant of current planned features, or I feel they just wouldn't work. This is great input, and once I finish shaping up my main systems, I could definitely include at least 1-2 of these features to spice the game up a bit.


I'm looking forward to it =).


Agreed. Besides, I'll have to see what units I have left over before I start contemplating what my secret hero will be.

I think every plane could be representative of a feature in the game— Arcane plane for spells, items, powers, etc. Astral plane for weather conditions, revival, spirits, etc. Dark plane would consume the land at night, and the one of Earth will control the day. Dusk would probably be more of an earth than dark plane.

During the night, cloaked air units could fly across the sky to create a creepy effect, it may also make heroes more paranoid about cloaked heroes. Spawns may be more vicious at night, or a special type of spawn roams around (not attacking bases) like a powerful ultralisk (perhaps could drop good items).
For another terrain changing effect, the plyon aura could be placed to represent water. During the day, a waterfall, or stream could pass through this (bunch of hallu deaths) and units won't be able to enter these harsh waters, at dusk, the hallu deaths lessen, and maybe a use cloaked units or disabled floor traps cause some flow, you may cross the water, but you are pushes in the direction of the flow, and struggle to make it across, but at night, the water clams down and you may cross with no problem, there may even be a secret path or item under where the waterfall was. When you enter or exit the water a hallu death 'splash' shows. If you are pushed to the side of the water, or are in it when it turns day, you are flushed onto land.

So far, the only tie-ins with the planes is that the Astral Plane is described to be what controls the passing of day/dusk/night. Also, characters from the Dark Plane (Crimson Wolf and Serpent) both have a slight influence over darkness/light for the players. (See Crimson Wolf's eclipse spell, Serpent's Infrared). Humans do not have any MAGIC, rather they have techniques and skills. This is because the Human's plane does not permit magic to exist. The Arcane characters rely almost SOLELY on MAGIC because that is all they know. As for Creature of Mist, he is said to be a Demi-God which is attributed to his home being the Astral plane. Also, Crimson wolf gets bonuses at night time because Darkness = Dark plane = power when dark. I am considering adding a special effect for Serpent at night as well.


I LOVE this idea.


As soon as I read this, i scanned my entire map for a place where I could add such a thing without disrupting the balance of things. I was thinking of having it so that perhaps instead of a waterfall (my terrain doesn't permit it), I could have low areas where it would FLOOD during a certain time of the day. Perhaps this flood would cut off escape routes, or access to a resource patch in that area. I also like your idea of having them pushed into the water, but instead of holding them in there for an extended period, I could make it so that after a few seconds they would wash up at another point of the map, maybe have 2 or 3 randomized spots where they could wash up.

You are full of excellent ideas man, I can't even map fast enough to keep up with them all =)

I just felt that a waterfall causes the most volatile waters, however, a water geyser may be a result of flooding and disruption. I didn't mean for the heroes to be pushed INTO the water, but more pushed while they were trying to cross it, if heroes were not strong enough to make it past the current, then they would wash up at the end of the water. Having randomized washed-up locations would help make thing interesting for people who would dive into the water looking for an escape.

I would like to help with the terrain, but I wish I didn't have as much things to do, lol...

Ohhh yeah like there could be a water geyser on the side of a cliff that would shoot out and block the path, or just push you into the ocean and you could randomly wash up. It could double both as a hindrance to an item or resource, but also as a last-resort kind of escape route if I randomized wash-up locations. I really am starting to like this idea.


On another note, Ultimo has written up a pretty sweet back story for Artificial Intelligence. We are working out some minor flaws with it right now, and I'll probably put it in the OP later on tonight.

You could call it the:
-Terrestrial Plane
-Physical Plane
-Material Plane
-My Fucking Plane

^ I'm leaving it unnamed. I don't want to be telling players what the plane they live in is like, when they can imagine or witness it themselves =).

In other new, my progress has reached 42/56 check boxes, which is just about 3/4 completion with the map. At this point, I'm still looking for 10 back-stories to go along with heroes. I will try to pump out another check box of progress of two before the end of the night. Thank you everyone for the encouragement so far.

Just played a game of TS as summoner and thought,
For any game with a "summoner" (or necromancer) when you are spamming as many units as you can, and you have a max amount of spawn, your screen should only display the text message once (max number of spawns exceeded). Once you spawn another summon, the text will be able to appear again once attempt to go over the summon limit. This way your screen doesn't flood with text, just a minor, cleaner, suggestion.