MMG_God

Well I wasn't quite sure where to post this thread, but I thought this was the best place. Just want to give a lil info on a new project myself and Super_pole are workin on...

don't know if there are many LOTR lovers amongst yall but this is for those of you that are

The premise of the map is a creation of Tolkein's world in its second age where the players control factions to gain control of Middle Earth. This map, at its core, is your standard rw/wotj/tsa/wotta style map...but it is inspired by variations of gameplay to the likes of city-builder and civilization. We plan to offer the player new ways of commanding their team in order to enhance experience and bring new life to the communities' lotr based strategies.

Heres a few random screenies..nothing you see is imported.

Minas Ithil

[img width=700 height=437]http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b230/Miles506/ithil2.jpg[/img]

Isengard

[img width=700 height=525]http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b230/Miles506/that.jpg[/img]

Osgiliath

[img width=700 height=525]http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b230/Miles506/UpdatedOsg1.jpg[/img]

Lindon

[img width=700 height=470]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y109/FMJZac/LindonOverview1.jpg[/img]

The terrain is done except maybe for some restylin here and there, but the doodad count is at approx. 8k for the whole map, which is x-large sized. Yet to be any lag in any test for any body so don't worry, we know how to trigger

If i've got your attention, heres a lengthy description of the gameplay:

--SPAWN SYSTEM--

The system of construction in this game is based around build points, but also has options for free build which I will get into later. Build points will be for the construction of unit representative buildings I will refer to as 'ForceBoosts' from now on. When you select the build point, you will have various options as to what to construct and others will be made available later in the game. To begin, the player will have 2 main options on their build point - to construct a Melee ForceBoost or to construct a Ranged ForceBoost. Each will cost money to train, and the player will be able to afford a total of 3 or so ForceBoosts to begin with. When you train a ForceBoosts, it in turn adds units to your time based spawn.

EX: The game has just begun, as Gondor I choose to construct 2 melee ForceBoosts and one ranged ForceBoost, my I now will spawn an addition 2 footmen and 1 archer each turn.

Each ForceBoost will have various upgradeable levels that will in turn improve the number and strength of units the building adds to your spawn.

EX: After collecting enough resources, I can now afford to upgrade one of my Melee ForceBoost to the next level. I do so, and the building upgrades to level 2. Now, instead of providing a bonus of only one footman to my spawn each turn, I now spawn an additional footman and a ranger each turn.

Keep in mind that the units I am using are just examples, a level 2 forceboost might increase the footmen spawned to 2, add a better unit to the spawn, or do both. And as the level of the ForceBoost increases, more benefits will be provided and weaker units will be replaced by stronger units.

EX: At level one of gondor, you simply spawn soldiers of gondor, by level 3 the basic soldier of gondor may be replaced by lets say a knight of gondor (an improved melee fighter) as the spawns basic unit. Soldiers of gondor will likely never disappear completely, however, as you will have the option to have multiple Melee ForceBoosts, and it would take some time and money to upgrade them all to higher levels.

The amount of upgradeable levels will depend on the type of ForceBooster and how many units are tied in with that specific building. The base ForceBoosts of Melee and Ranged will likely have more levels than the more unique ones.

Also, as you increase the levels of your ForceBoosts, other options will be made available on the build points. There will be at least 7 basic ForceBoost options for each race when all is said and done, and variation will be key to victory. Also, the type of ForceBoost reaching the required level (likely level 3 or so) will effect the new type of ForceBoost made available. These new ForceBoost options will provide different and powerful units designed for later game play, but also will have less upgradeable levels and options.

EX: Let us say the game has progressed, and I am now ready to upgrade the level 2 ForceBoost I already have to level 3. I do so, and my spawn is upgraded accordingly with more and better units as it should. But now, another benefit is awarded. My unused build plots now have a new option of ForceBoost available for construction. Since it is my Melee ForceBoost that was upgraded, the new available option is a Calvary ForceBoost. Training this ForceBoost will result in the addition of calvary units to each new spawn. Likewise, if it had been my ranged ForceBoost that had been upgraded, a siege ForceBoost would have become available.

Aside from every teams 7 different forceboost options (melee, ranged, support, calvary, siege, spellcaster, air) there will be unique ways to obtain men. At certain bases you will be able to train 'unique' units once you have a fully upgraded building of each type. These unique units will be extremely powerful in the game and gaining control of them will be a sought after goal for each race.

EX: As Gondor I can now train the Captain of Gondor unit at Minas Tirith. This is Minas Tirith's unique unit and that is the only location where they can be found.

--BASE FUNCTIONS--

And so that is the basics of the spawn system, but now it is time to discuss the functions of bases. Not every base will be a base designed with build points and the protection of those build points in mind. In fact the majority of bases will not have build points at all.

As I mentioned earlier, with this spawn system in place, it would be very tedious and unnecessary to have units spawn where their ForceBoost is located. Instead, each race will have all of their units spawn at only one location. This location will initially be located at the player’s main spawn, but the player will have the option to move the place of unit spawn to different bases that he/she controls. This will make our system much easier to use, and will also offer great depth and strategy to the game. There should be no limit as to how many times you can move the spawn location, but a cool down is an option although I see no problem with the player being able to move his spawn region at a whim.

EX: As Gondor, my units will initially spawn within the walls of minas, but, depending on my strategy I will be able to change my spawn location accordingly.

Lets say as Gondor, I decide my most immediate concern is the men of erech spawn located to the left of pelargir behind my borders. To deal with them promptly I select the main building at pelargir and choose an ability that says it will move my spawn location to pelargir. I select it and my spawn region has been moved to inside pelargir. I now can commence my campaign agaisnt the erech base from a more forward position.

In the midsts of my fighting, however, lets say a large evil force has moved in on Osgiliath. I see it is falling and to prevent this I can choose to move my spawn region to Osgiliath in the same fashion I did pelargir.

--CONSTRUCTION--

In RoS, there are two types of building construction: Defined and Free.

Defined building is building through the use of build points, and will include all the ForceBoost options mentioned earlier as well as an option to construct something like a upgrade building where you can purchase attack , armor, etc.. upgrades for your army.

Free building, however, is, as the name implies, unrestricted (almost). To free build, a worker will be required, and a few will be provided at the games start with additional ones being available to buy at a players main. A worker will be able to construct defensive buildings such as towers, walls, and other buildings picked out for the race. These buildings will take up proper amounts of room, but the actual space required to construct them may seem abnormal to prevent the blocking of small passages throughout the map. It is also worth mentioning that these defensive buildings will be upgradeable once constructed.

Workers will also be able to construct more buildpoints for a large sum.

--RESOURCES--

Resources obviously play a large role in the map as they are the key to upgrading your army and eventual victory.

There will be 2 types of resources, gold and wood. Wood will be provided periodically and will be required for constructing various things such as ships and the free build structures.

Gold, however, will be required for all upgrades including forceboost upgrades. In order to obtain gold, you will need to build resource collection buildings that will increase the amount of gold you spawn on a periodic basis for every one you have.

EX: I own 1 farm, I spawn 25 gold per turn. I construct 2 more farms, I now spawn 75 gold per turn.

Farms will be upgradeable as well for a large sum but once they upgrade is complete they will be further fortified and will also provide a significan'tly larger amount of gold.

--TEAMS--

GOOD=>
Gondor
Lesser Gondor
West Elves
Arnor
East Elves

EVIL=>
Southern Tribes
Western Tribes
Northern Tribes
Eastern Evil
Mordor

As you may have noticed, the dwarves have not been included as one of the playable races in the game. They will, however, be a large part of it. There will be various dwarven settlements located around the map in both obvious in hidden locations where the player will be able to interact with the dwarves when appropriate. Dwarves will provide quests for bonuses such as units and items as well as new heros and such. Both teams will have access to the dwarven neutral team in their own way.

I won't go into great detail on the dwarves, but yes they will be there, and in a cool way

--HEROS--

There are none.

Yep, in preparation for SC2 we have decided to honor the style of SC1 and remove the leveling heros from the game entirely. We instead will have strong demi heros with a couple spells each, but that will still be a large factor in the game. For instance, as one of the benefits they contribute to the battlefield, demi's will be able to issue AoE commands to send orders to all units around them, similar to how a commander would lead troops into battle. So they will be there, and will have some effective sway in the game, but units are the main focus.

We want the focal point of the map to be unit control and teching, you will have to choose certain tech paths to get desired units and build a strategic army in order to effectively destroy your enemies. Certain unit types will counter others, and you will have to be careful to manage what you tech for wisely or otherwise risk being out matched by a unit types counter. This is the essence of the game and we hope you will enjoy it!




And thats our map! I may have missed a few things in this gameplay description as it is definitely a little outdated, so feel free to ask any questions!

MrOrange

Sounds cool. And that place you want to post in is the member's project section. It's a sub-board on the WE help section so don't blame you for missing it.

DarkBlade

I didn't really read much but from the screenshots and skimming through a small amount of the description, it looks/sounds pretty good so far. Sounds like the spawn system should be pretty cool too.

King Stubby

i like it! but as a warning.... make Minas Ithil the SAME size as Minas Anor (tirith). most mapmakers don't realize they were built exactly the same way, and everyone makes minas anor big, and ithil REALLY small. just my two cents.

King_Leopold

sounds fun.

osgiliath seems like it would be a pain in the ass to more your army around in and defend

about moving spawnpoints....it is an interesting idea, but might it create problems, for example if I am seiging a base, and wearing it down, and suddenly the player shifts his spawn there, and now he has all reinforcements popping up in a city under siege - it just seems unrealistic

i never liked the concept of build points, i just find them to be unnatural and I don't like not having control over where I can and can not build, they just seem limiting


regarding heroes...personally levelable heroes was the thing I hated most about Wc3, the only reason I use them in maps is because the average bnet player will be like "omg no heroes, wah wah wah wah" though personally I support you not using them

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King Stubby

The dwarves aren't neutral! they hate sauron because he controls a lot of orcs and goblins, and those are the main enemies of dwarves! they would be against sauron, not trade with him.

MMG_God

They won't be interacting with evil the same way. Evil will more so have opportunities to do evil stuff (mwahaha) to them for benefits. Like instead of trading, ransacking.

As for osgiliath, its easier than it looks and we've restricted some building in it to make it so pathing can't be blocked.

As for the moving spawn points, I think it actually would lessen the problem of unrealistic reinforcements when compared to other maps because in other maps you can either construct units within the walls anyhow or they spawn there anyway. This way you have to move it which costs building mana, in other words when u move it your not allowed to move it again for a period of like 2 minutes or so.

With the build points I see your issue, and in the early stages of the map they appeared necessary. Now I am not so sure, so I will look into making everything freebuild. Right now I would say their main purpose would be it adds another fee before you can build another building for more men.

King Stubby

MMG_God

Definitely. Its not going to be a freebie. At least not all the settlements will be pushovers, there may be some small scattered ones for a little bonus of gold or something. The whole concept of the dwarves and how they will be implemented exactly is far from being decided though as we are still just now finishing our spells up. So the dwarves will need to be decided on soon, but we havent quite made any final decisions on their role in the game quite yet. These are all really just ideas, but we will try to make their usefulness be the same for both teams only in different ways.

King_Leopold

also how do you get into minis ithil? i dont see an entrance lol

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MMG_God

Its a bad angle but theres one in between those 2 front pillars, similar to the 2 sets of pillars with arches on the second level. Its not as tiny as it looks there, just not the greatest screenie in the world :P

Heres some screenies of a new fornost im workin on, tell me what ya think!

[img width=700 height=525]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y109/FMJZac/Fornostenter1.jpg[/img]
[img width=700 height=525]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y109/FMJZac/Fornostpart1.jpg[/img]
[img width=700 height=525]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y109/FMJZac/FornostMainZoom.jpg[/img]



I forgot to mention that nothing you see in any of the screenies are imports btw.

Mr. Zero

Either you or Super_pole (or both?) got godly hands when it comes to dood placing =X

super_pole

Here's some screenies to show you the entrance to Ithil and show you the Cirith Ungol area:

[img width=700 height=437]http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b230/Miles506/Cirith3.jpg[/img]
[img width=700 height=437]http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b230/Miles506/Cirith2.jpg[/img]

Here's a map overview:

[img width=700 height=437]http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b230/Miles506/overview.jpg[/img]

We'll have to take new screenshots of some of the other places because we don't have too many updated screenshots.

King Stubby

so remember, make sure that minas ithil and minas tirith need to look exactly alike!

King_Leopold

maybe its just the zoom, but hte areas between bases look very barren?

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MMG_God

Yea theres not really a barren area on the whole map. A lot of bases have plenty of room within them though, like the field in the fornost screenshots, but this is so you have room to construct your unit buildings and such.

And making ithil and tirith look exactly alike is kind of a ridiculous request i believe lol. I don't think we have the room, nor is it practical for the gameplay. There should be about 100,000 orcs per army, and minas tirith should have 7 workable levels, but its just not really possible to do. They do share a kind of resemblance in the map though, but i'd be lyin if I said their size was comparable. Minas is prob 4x the size of ithil.

And thanks zero! haha, we split the terraining down the middle pretty much. He did the minas ithil, osgiliath, and orthanc you see, i did the fornost and lindon.

okper0205

for minas ithil, they were sister cities, but not built the same way,

Radagast

aye.. they werent built the same.. just the same meterial used

Acolyte

hmmmm,very cooooooool idea,it will be perfect if you use some custom models for dwarves and other races

`;..;`

Unregistered

Absolutely beautiful. I also love the fact that units have a larger role. It's one of my biggest beefs with the other LotR maps.