I was thinking maing him an ability where he starts off targeting 1 unit, and he'll transform into a shadowand automatically glide to that unit. He can stay on that unit or move to another unit. Now he also would have the ability to slowly drain the unit's hp for his own use and the unit wouldn't be able to do anything about it except die, Then zackwell would remain at the unit's corpse for up to 5 seconds before reverting, or if you target another unit you can stay in the shadows. Now, he can also possess the unit but i want to make it like the unit shows no changes, but zackwell can control it anyways. This way, you cannot really tell where he is if he's on a unit except for a dark shadow than usual. If the unit dies while he's on it, he'll take 200% of the damage taken on the last blow, so it can be relatively weak or extremely powerful against him. Anyways, that's my shadowy idea, dunno if you like it, but i think it could work. Not sure though. Need your insight. Also, I find it better if you don't control the hydra then you need not have to worry too much about it and it simply makes her more boring.
Although I like the possession idea as a concept, it would be overpowered. It would be far too easy to just jump from unit to unit and take almost no damage(200% of the damage dealt to the unit isn't much when the base damage is likely melee damage).
As for the hydra, check WC3campaigns.com. There is a "diablo 2 style summons" script that can be applied to make summons uncontrollable.
For zackwell I think the skillset I proposed fits pretty well together. The strategy in general would probably be an adaptation of the strat generally used for the Dark Ranger in ToB. Shadow dive could be based off Ethereal Form with a different Model for the morphed unit. While etherealized he is very hard to see, mening he can follow along a group of spawns and blend in with their shadows, and use his parasite spell to create a bunch of souls, which can then be used as tanks(since they will have more hp/armor than spawnies, but cant attack), or to deal damage(by possessing other spawnies, they can attack, but lose hp and armor). Or, some can possess, and some can stay as tanks, making a good blend of both. Since they have shadowmeld, he can hide them at a possible hotspot for enemies attacking, then if that spot is attacked h can unhide, possess all their spawnies with his small army, then surround them and use his ult to slow them a ton and prevent them from escaping(as well as deal a hefty amount of damage). Corrosion slice would make this even better since he can drop their armor to make his possessed units deal more damage, and since the explosion from his ult should be based off Kaboom, it would be physical damage and be boosted by corrosion slice as well.
More than any other hero, I think this one has the best synergy between all his skills. He is based primarily around ambushes, siege, and disabling his enemies. However, hes not too great a hero killer alone(again, like the DR from ToB, which is what my skill build was inspired from).
One thing to note, however, is that if based off kaboom, the explosion will damage buildings. However, buildings will have high armor so that should soften it, and corrosion slice wont affect buildings either. This helps support him being a siege hero(one of the best of his team in fact, though he alone has lackluster hp).
By the way, how are the models coming? We still need that edited proudmoore model for Haschel, so try to get that next on the list. We also need a skinner I believe.
I am currently trying to figure out a skillset for Freugel but it's not going too well, and suggestions would be appreciated.
PS, dont expect me to reply more than once a week. My comp is down and I am having to use the ones at the library till I can get a job and make some money to have it fixed. I will keep working at this map though, I don't intend to have two years of work go down the drain(no pun intended).
Actually, I haven't had much of a chance to do anything. I'm sorry but i've been extremely busy and I actually want sumeone else to take over my job (hopefully keep my ideas) at least until christmas. Now i want to send you the file, but i have no safe place i can download it from where it won't leak. I've tried a few things but none seem to work. In the end, it either costs money (which i'm kind of not prepared to pay as with eveyrone else who's just working on a map for a game.) Or some sort of other way around it. I know we could post it up but it could leak too fast if that happened (granted there's not too much to leak but the ideas and such) and the map would kind of lose it's appeal. So yeah, there's one guy who woudln't mind taking over my spot, i just need to get the map to him. If i can.
So yeah, i kinda haven't been able to do too much regarding the map and i've tried to get it to you. Maybe you can help me transfer what i've done so far. Sorry once again, but i've been far too preoccupied.
For file transfers use AIM. I cant use my comp right now so dont worry about sending me the file.
I did figure out a way to use dragoon forms now. Base it off meta(like we originally planned), but have the actual ability you LEARN be a dummy ability.
After they learn lv 1, make them learn the base morph ability, and have the dragoon form units have all their abilities tied to researches. Then, after they learn levels of dragoon form, research them the appropriate level researches to unlock the abilities.
This removes the problem with learning a level of a meta skill while metad already.
Hmmm, perhaps simply hide the ability while in dragoon form as since a while now, a lot of special abilities have become non-deactiavtable. Now they, i think, are going to fix this but i'm not sure, until they do, meta or any morph ability that doesn't allow you to change back is kind of risky.
[edit] well i finished Leenus's ultimate, it basically has where for 7 seconds, 50 tidal waves fire out in all different directions (random too). Each deals 15-30-45-60. At the same time, a total of 280 water spurts will pop up around her over the 7 seconds, dealing 2-3-4-5 damage per successful hit (as iin the explosion damage actually hits the unit, not just a void area). The potential damage is quite high, being [0-3000] + [0-1400]. So the max potential damage before resist is 4400. Now the farther you get, the less chance you'll have to be damaged gravely. This is meant for when she's surrounded to kill everything close enough becuase of the clustering and higher chance of hitting with random angled waves. Still the chances diminish quite a lot as you get farther away from her and the damaage is quite inferior some some instances. Also, the damage from the water spurts is only within 325 of leenus and the chances of getting all 1400 damage is almost none. Everysingle spurt would have to hit, and approx. half-3/4 don't even touch the unit unless you're right up close. As for the waves..same thing. Not all fire in 1 direction and chances are, you won't deal the final blow with this ability from far away (although there is still a tiny chance of that happeneing, but not enough to raise concer [maybe 1-2%]) So i find it to be quite visually appealing and exciting to use for the player, i think it a good choice.
[edit 2] I did finish the hydra summon, but i find the hydra to be quite boring and it's hard to balance out the stats because the problem is that the hydra is either too strong when coupled with leenus, or completely useless. Seeing as leenus is a melee hero, the hydra also being melee kind of removes all of it's usefulness as a tank since Leenus is also melee, and instead of staying back, she'll susually run up into battle, which proves to remove all of the usefulness of the hydra. I dunno, she has 2 actives (3 if you count both chakra throwing moves) and a passive which all seem to work fine, but the serpent's call really doesn't work with her. Perhaps if you can find another ability altogether, or simply help me change the ability a bit so that it seems more in place with all the other abilities. I don't suggest another active since she already has enough to make her effective, but we need a better way to incorporate the hydra so that it isn't as boring. The summoning takes away a bit the way it is now (granted more of that is my fault) but as i have it, it's not very appealing, to say the least. Perhaps you can spruce up the idea i already have in place:
Leenus channels for 6 seconds before summoning a massive Hydra to her command. The hydra has 1000-1150-1300-1450 health and 1-3-5-7 scaled (custom constant) type armor which is good against rag and piercing but bad against spells and magic as well as siege. The thing has an attack of 10-[19-29-39-49] reg. and a fairly fast attack rate.
*Doesn't do much except absorb damage. Maybe you can find a way to make this spell more interesting.*
As for Zackwell, when i thought of his spell ability, i figured he would be some kind of guy who would simply always remain in the shadows and rarely be split outisde of them, otherwise, be extremely weak. The idea of the last blow killing is if you see him dive into a unit, you use the highest damage attack you can think of (one shot damage).
But i really only wanted that because otherwise, it's pretty easy to see him as a shadow as it's very hard to move with a unit's shadow, perhaps i can make his shadow dive like how you want it. But, so that he can hide, i'll make an ability where he can hitch a ride on any unit within a short distance of him for a short period of 4-6-8-10 seconds (ability lasts 20-24-28-32 seconds has 60 second cooldown). I'll make his shadow form speed low so he cannot run away very quickly in the shadows without shadows to leap to. I'll scratch all the other life drain stuff, but he would seriously need this to help him hide properly, otherwise the ability would be a waste. In this form, he will be targetable, but it won't exactly be easy while under a friendly unit. Otherwise he'd still be able to be targeted with evereything and be seen, but at least keep some cover.
Aside from that, his acid strike seems ok, but we shouldn't base if off orb of corruption, seems a little to obvious. I'm going to try to make it a spammable attack which will make sure he can hold his own for a little while. I'd make it like the following
Level 1: Strikes, dealing 30 damage, plus weakening his target's defenses by 2 for 5 seconds. Cooldown 11 seconds.
Level 2: Deals 60 damage, weakens defense by 3 for seconds, cooldown 9 seconds.
Level 3: Deals 90 damage, weakens by 4 for 20 seconds 7 second cooldown.
Level 4: deals 120 dmg, weakens by 5 for 20 seconds. Cooldown 5 seconds.
This will allow him to still be able to deal some damage with his seemingly pitiful attack and improve the effectiveness of others' attacks. It's meant to be active so that you have to be conscious of what you're doing to be effective. This also aalows him to hit maultiple targets too, allowing to weaken a small group as well as power his spell too (less armor=less resistance).
As for his summoning spirits, i figure it has a cooldown of about 35 and works like this.
1: Breathes a wave of decrepit energy which robs all unit's affected of their souls. When they die, their spirits shall remain under Zackwell's control. Lasts 6 seconds. mana 100 wave dist. 500 area, 0-150.
2: lasts 8 seconds, dist 600 0-200 100 mana.
3: 10 seconds, 700 0-250, 100 mana
4: 12 seconds, 800, 0-300, 100 mana.
When unit's die and they have the buff they transform into a tormented spirit, these spirirts if unguided will immediatly seek out a host to control. Also, this ability won't deal damage, but will allow the potential to summon quite a few spirits to aid.
They have 100-400 health and are uncontrollable, but if there are no unit's nearby, then i have an idea where he can simply call the spirits in and harvest them. Whenever he feels like letting them out to take control (only able to hold a max of 5) he could release them and they would go and seek out a host. To balance this out, i would cancel his ability to use the spirit breath while he's holding any tormented spirits.
I'll trigger the taking over to last about 200 seconds before the unit dies to keep him from creating too many possessed units (max would be estimated at 25 possessed unit's at once, 500 mana later providing he was able to gain 5 tormented spirirts per cast and take over unit.
As for his final ability, maybe make it like a mobile ability. As the beast runs towards it's target shadowstrikes emit from it's body (more shadowstrikes with way less damage to allow multiple unit's being effected) and once he reaches his target, or he simply runs into an enemy hero or building, he will explode dealing the damage. The shadow strike will be launched (iwant) about up to 30 times, each time dealing about 10-40 damage, 2-4-6-8 damage per second, and a slowing effect (like you said) of 90% fro 10 seconds. Just imagine this on a fleeing hero. He's running as the beast chases him down, crippling unit's in it's wake and as it get's close, it hits the hero a couple of times before hitting him and guaranteeing a death. You could probably take out a hero with about 1/4 of it's health with this. This is just another idea, also, i figure the area of effect would be something more like 700 and the explosion only 250. BTW this wouldn't be targetable, you'd have to target ahead of a fleeing hero and be relatively close, but the beast itself will run realtively fast so you don't have to worry about the hero escaping if you cast it close enough (with 600 or so) because the shadowstrikes would reach the hero indefinately and slow him down to the point where escape would be futile, not to mention the continuous shadowstrikes bombarding the near-dead hero before the beast rams it and ....KABOOOM! dead hero.
..........Phew that was longwinded, but yeah, they are things i think should work.
I know i haven't posted too much lately, but in the next few weeks, i might have the chance to finish off leenus and get Zackwell started, sorry for the delay.
Good news team, pretty soon, msn will be updtaing the file storage to allow use to store up to 250 mb, and send up to 10 mb, which means i can send the map to you guys. Woot. This way, our map won't leak at all, and you can see all the updates i;ve mae (i could make more, but there's no function to remove point variables so i can't use them) aside from that all works fine.
I've kind of lost the dirve to work on the regular heroes right now, i actually wanted to work on the kewl other ones, and here's an idea i've come up with with some pretty nifty spells.
Ok, so i've really have yet to see a decent rolling panda spell, so i figure i'll start off with my spell idea.
Roll-out: Curling his body up as tighht as possible [insert name] rips through his enemies, rolling over them with much force. As he rolls, he gains momentum as well as force to his attacks, making them greater depending on how long he is rolling for before he runs over his eenmies.
[special ability]
This one is a really cool concept. What happens is you become a mobile unit who moves fatser than normal depending for how long you roll. You roll for 15 seconds. Now depending on where you click to move, you'll role in that direction but there are a few extras required. When you do change direction, you lose a slight amount of momentum, and if you target a fairly wide angle then you'll actually perform a turn of 90 degrees around the target point if you select close enough to your bears position otherwise the bear won't turn like that. That means you have to be good at keeping track of him while he's using this ability. If timed right, you can actually simply spin in circles to charge up you're speed and momentum. Anywyas, now you stop when your momentum is 0. When the 15 seconds is over however, you'll then experience a rapid slowdown before you stop and the spell ends. Now when you hit an enemy, you'll deal damage equal to that of your speed value and every enemy you hit, you lose momentum and power. you can quickly end your spell this way. Max damage/momentum is 400 and units knock off 20 every 1 second you hit them, trees knock off 80. Now you can change directions drastically (as in anything behind you) but you'll slow down to 1 momentum before changing directions to speed up again. This means if you hit something while changing directions, you will stop and the spell will end.
Each level increases the amount of speed you can gain (so level one will take almost the entire 15 seconds to deal 400 damage or not even have enough time in the end.
So that's the first and most intricate spell i'm working on. Now for the rest.
Polar Magic (2 upgarable spells): You can either learn Ice bolt, or Frost Breath which is a special attribute added to this guy.
Ice Bolt: Fires a single targeting Ice bolt that deals (intelligence of Pandaren X level of Frost bolt) damage plus freezes target for (intelligence/20 x level of Ice Bolt)
Freezing Breath: Mana 100 Fires out a come of frost energy that slows enemies by (interlignence-10 X level of frost breath-1 X 0.01 and that becomes %). This only slows them drastically, but allows for large groupe weakenings and can even stop unit's not succeptable to cold. (you cans et this by making some have slowest speed set higher to 0 or set to zero to make them succesptable)
Glacial Barrier: [insert name] produces a wall of think ice, capable of blocking enemies attacks for a short period. Any unit's cuaght within the wall are frozen until the wall dissolves or until that shar is broken. Heroes remain frozen for (level of interligence X level of glacial barrier divided by 30)(around 6 seconds.) All unit's take (level of ability X [intelligence+30) damage. Anyways, it will appear from the middle and move outward, so as heroes try to move around, they will be frozen (if hit by two, just resests cooldown timer for being frozen) Early on, this guy will be weak as hell, and being able to wear no speicalized armor except for polar paws (adds frost to attack also increases damage by 10-ultimate weapon) his attacks remain dependant on his unalterable (almost completely unalterable) intelligence. So when he reaches level 16 and his intel is high, he's extremely powerful then (relatively). As for the last ability...
The Polar Express: Mana 175, cooldown 300.
Baically, he creates a giant shockwave of iced shards that spread out in a cricle and freeze enemies for (intelligence/10 X level of ability).
Also deals (intel X level of Ability) damage and the AoE will be 1500 (that meansd the radian would be 750, which is pretty hard to escape)
So, at max level he'd end up deal 184-200+/- 30 to all enemies effected. Also, he'll freeze his eenmies for 18 seconds (BIG ability) and the freezing will stack. This means this polar guy is pretty damn weak damage wise but can freeze things to such an extent that his little damage will build up and he'll become quite annoying.
I figure this guy will be a random bonus character that you can get. I know his abilities are WAY too strong but when you think about it, it's only the begining. Perhaps there will be items that will lower status effects (like mind blow as an item ability which knocks off 25 intel for 10 seconds.)
[update] I have just overcome an incredible problem by introducing a new control system. It's one that allows you to move your pandaren with the key pads while you're moving him. Now i've had to slow it down tremendously from what i had first anticipated even though he can cover a lot of ground quite fast and is impossible to catch but if you stun him, then he'll stop, but it's hard to hit. Anyways, i;ve actually been owrking on it as i type and it's now almost done (it's been 2 hrs since i wrote the last line) but it really looks good. that's all i've been able to do.
Only issue is this is a themed map, and as such heroes such as that which do not follow the theme are not an option(otherwise it's a good hero, just doesnt fit the map).
I am currently working on the item list, there will be 3 character specific weapons for each character, plus 5 types of each other slot piece, 4 different potions, and a few non consumable clickies.
Doel will have 3 special shields only he can use which arent actually shields, but offhand swords(though they are classed as shields in terms of the slots they go in).
Good trick on the lenus ultimate, sounds very nice and visually cool as well.
For Serpent's Call, boost the serpent hp to something more like
1000-1350-1700-2050.
Its a lot less than it seems due to the spell vulnerability you are giving it.
The damage is fine.
For usefulness, give it a 30 nova damage/lv 0 target damage frost nova with a decent slow. That should give it a bit more versatility at the cost of heightened micro. Make it cost 100 mana, and give the serpent 200 mana per level(a max of 800 at lv 4, or 8 novas). Then give lenus a skill automatically gained when Call is learned that allows her to target a unit, which has no effect except that when she casts it, her hydra casts the frost nova at the unit she targets it at.
Model on the summon should be the usual hydra model.
I'm also working on faust, I have figured out two of his skills, im trying to decide the other two(one will be a passive based on the goblin engineer's engineering upgrade which boosts certain spell effects, the last will be his Fire spell, still need a name and to decide on the full effects).
Are you still in contact with haru? I need to know if you are, and if you are not then I need to know what custom models you currently have.
Qaenyin, what if i made it so some of the big persons on this map each had a special character they could play. They'd select the special character button to allow them to use their special character (each of us gets his/her own according to what he wants).
I also got a guy whos doing the terraining and fixing it up. He'll finish, he said, about 8-9 days from today so it's really good. I told him to add what i rememebr you asking.
Good guys is peaceful old time village, bad guys, ruined castle and blighted terrain, good guys barren terrain.
So i now have 4 evil characters done. Leenus, Lloyd, Melbu Frama, and Emepror Doel.
Aside from that, I'll be fixing up The serpent's call ability and starting Zackwell soon.
That's pretty much all and if you want the map, pm me ur e-amil. I've alreadys ent it to Haru, though i think he hadn't got it yet. But yeah, i think you'll like what you see.
Dont worry about sending the map yet. I don't have enough time to look at it(frustrating, I barely have the time to do what I am, currently seeking a job and that consumes a lot of time).
Just as a teaser, the titles for Faust's spells(faust is the next hero I am working on finishing), will be:
Splitting Sky(Wind) Sirocco(Fire) Deep Freeze(Ice) Glyph of Fury(passive)(Ultimate, 2 levels) Heraldic Devastation(Ultimate, 2 levels)
His first ultimate has required level 4, but you have to be lv 12 to take the second level. The Second Ultimate has required level 8, 16 for lv 2.
Trust me, hes gonna absolutely own.
As for the secret heroes, I was tossing around that idea, but first we need to finish the base map. Once the map itself is finished little doodads like that can be tacked on afterward.
well, I still have yet to do Zackwell, but as soon as i get on christmas holidays right up to dec. 24th, i'll be able to work on him, as well as give Doel a facelift (he's really boring as of right now, besides his ultimate which is nice and flashy) I really can't do too much until i get the terrain design back so i'm going to try and fix the pandaren skill in the meantime, i actually made it completely different than what you'd expect.
When you use the ability that rolls him up, the screen locks on to him while he's rolling and you move him with your keys! You can even slow down to make sharp turns and i'm even working on charging up to make quick turns without slowing down. At the end, you recover as the pandaren to keep fighting. I'm also gonna make it to keep track of XP and give xp when you kill something you run over. And to compare speed, while ad full speed, you're maybe 10-20% faster than meru with her passive. So yes you can hunt down heros and slow em down for up to 4 seconds giving you ample time to gain a head start on them and maybe even hit them again before transforming and casting the freezing ability on them.
Aside form that, there's not really much i can do as progress is hindered, by development of the terrain.[/url]
Ok, well, until then, if you could e-mail me a link to the map I'd appreciate it. I have some time this weekend I can spend to check it out and make suggestions.