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| Thread: New map: Maelstrom | |
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Warmonger
Promising
Legendary Hero
fallen artist
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posted July 08, 2009 12:33 PM |
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New map: Maelstrom
Basic info
Players : 2, both human or computer
Size: Medium (136x136) with underground
Win condition: capture enemy main castle
Estimated game time: 6-8 weeks
Author: Warmonger
Download version: 1.0
 
The most unusual aspect of Maelstrom is massive network of towns (called nodes from now on) which need to be captured in certain order. There are 25 nodes in total forming a 5x5 grid. Twelve of them are linked to each of players, the last and middle one is neutral Fortress with Tear of Asha building and massive fortifications to help during the siege.
Every zone has a few scripted teleporters leading towards blue or red base. Most of them is initially disabled, to activate them you need to take control of corresponding node placed in a middle of zone. However once you do it, portals leading to your base become inactive so that you can move only forward. At the same time you need to capture all nodes to form a path to enemy base.
This design forces players to choose only one of many possible paths at time and pushes them towards the enemy. You may want to develop multiple heroes to take control of the entire map, however creeping against huge stacks in the middle is real hardcore.
All the towns can be fully developed, allowing to form a huge army. However, there are actually not enough resources to raise them all simultaneously. Once again, you need to choose your priorities and be aware that your best town is left far behind the frontline.
By capturing the town, player automatically gains control of all linked dwellings and mines - even though they can be still blocked by neutrals.
Connections of the zones:
Random stacks system
Most of neutral stacks are placed via custom script. This script chooses random combination from among predefined ones and calculates its size depending on power rating of specific creature. There are more than 15 presets for each tier, some of the power ratings were altered related to subjective difficulty of a player creeping against neutral stack. This provides maximum diversity while preserving game balance.
Unfortunatelly Lua script performing hundreds of iterations appears to be noticeably slow, it may take a longer while till all the stacks are placed. On the other hand, the map itself loads very fast.
Balance
This map is full of treasures to get, there is virtually no limit of how powerful your army will become. However, you will not be able to use them all beause of limited resources, time and powerful guards.
Obviously Angel Wings and Instant Travel are banned. The same is true for Town Portal. Shackles of War and Pendant of Necromancy are fixed, one for each player. Also, no random Scrolls or Wands may appear on the map. There is a number of them however, including some really odd ones, such as Avatar of Death or Counterspell.
Most of campaign heroes are enabled. Wyngaal is replaced with weaker Findan.
AI boost for singleplayer
In singleplayer mode you may choose additional option to give AI more units. Their type is set to less dangerous or neutral creatures like Zombies or Fire Elementals to make AI still beatable. Reinforcements will be deployed weekly at opponent's main town and their number grows with the square of time passed. Quite simply you will have a hard time dealing with hundreds of them if don't win quickly.
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Salamandre
Admirable
Omnipresent Hero
Wog refugee
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posted July 08, 2009 02:36 PM |
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Nice
I see you became Jinxer best friend. Shackles of War on a 20+ towns map just spoil the fun. Basically without shackles it would be really tricky to catch the opponent. If it wasn't about shackles I would say you posted in the wrong forums, as this map seems to require thinking.
Good work.
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Era II mods and utilities
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Vangelis21
Supreme Hero
Manchild
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posted July 08, 2009 07:58 PM |
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1. new, different, tricky, lots of units ++++++++++++
2. tiring, long, weird, lots of units -------------
overall i think you spent time on it but my guess is that it will not be accepted by many. in any case i wish you best of luck
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Heroes VI is here and Necropolis is serious trouble!
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Warmonger
Promising
Legendary Hero
fallen artist
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posted July 09, 2009 08:35 AM |
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Luck is always welcome, but I'd like to hear some advice as well Why you find it long or units too many? Yesterday I broke in week 6 and won at week 7, playing at heroic difficulty. And the amount of units can't compare with Twilight World, I actually expected you to ask for more 
Tiring... well, I didn't want all pickups laying just on the ground. Of course I can change it if you are more specific.
Quote:
Basically without shackles it would be really tricky to catch the opponent.
This map just asks for multiple heroes and kamikaze tactics. There are heavily guarded shackles to stop it if needed.
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Elit
Famous Hero
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posted July 09, 2009 09:00 AM |
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I just chek map in editor. From what i see its very "simple". Alot zero places. Low resurces....i'm not sure you ever can build proper main town. You cant build mini arts with academy. So many teleports....so ppl will be realy confused and need alot time for study map. You need to put more units/places for figh and get xp. Like lvl 2-3 units close to main area and next 2. Make map to look more nice too.
BTW your idea is new and look interest but for many ppl maps with over 2 towns are so "hard"....and you put 25 
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Elvin
Admirable
Omnipresent Hero
Endless Revival
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posted July 09, 2009 09:30 AM |
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Looks more like a campaign, mainstream tohers prefer a casual game without considering what unlocks what, where or order of teleporters. Perhaps it is a lot simpler than it sounds but initial impressions matter a lot. Btw good idea about the neutrals Wish ubi had thought about the power ratings in the first place.
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H5 is still alive and kicking, join us in the Duel Map discord server!
Map also hosted on Moddb
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Warmonger
Promising
Legendary Hero
fallen artist
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posted July 10, 2009 12:35 PM |
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Version 1.0 is going to maps4heroes:
-Added more resources and banks
-Added more details and vegetation, especially aimed at breaking symmetry of zones
-Fixed minor bugs with unlinked dwellings
-Updated PDF with the graph
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