WCOM -- Withold Comments, Only Monitor

-have starcraft2 be released so this forum isnt just a way for all us postin bros to chill


but really that seems like the only way we'll get an influx of new people around here. the forum layout works really well imo, and its quick which is great

Personally I think the main strength of this site is that it's so small, I know we're never going to get "big", but the reason I ever come back is because I know most of the posters as regulars. Just thinking out loud here, none of that really has a point...

Umm, yes. Promotion, Starcraft is basically the only up-to-date thing that would bring in lots of new members, but I'm not sure how you'd get us out there without A)changing the site name or B) posting links on the official Starcraft forums, which probably get deleted/permabanned? Diablo 3 also perhaps? Is that even out? I'm so out of touch.

Perhaps in regards to new members experience of the site first time, the default layout should be more traditional? Then you can change it to how it is (for me anyway, all the topics in one big board) in your user settings. I like it like this but I think it took a little adjusting to. Just seems something that might confuse new people as to what our agenda is?

Like I said, just thinking out loud here.

this site has a future as a 'blizzard fansite', paired with a general 'gaming fansite'

we should capitalize on sc2 to get more members and get a sc2 community and clan/custom map groups etc.

i wouldnt mind this being promoted as a blizzard fansite/gaming fansite. i doubt any growth would be uncontrollable, and by that i mean--we can probably flame anyone we dislike until they stop coming back. and if that doesn't work, o nose the ban bug?!

Jaku and I have been talking about creating maps for SC2 when it comes out, maybe we could have a small group of map makers here who will collaborate to create an awesome map or three and make this website the official website of these maps. (Or at least present it as such, in order to get new members, while it will still serve as a forum for our existing community and hopefully some new members as well)

I'm in on the dev for that map making, btw Cat

Nice

One idea we had was to recreate zergling-blood - where each player has its own base with zerglings spawning for each player at a certain rate.
Kills award players money which they can use to recruit special creatures.
We could have bonus features such as global spells (tornado sweeping over the map / random nuclear explosions occuring in the middle of the map / magnet drawing all creatures to the middle / creatures of casting player becoming bigger and stronger) and maybe also mini-spells which will have less dramatic effects, and make these spells cost the same currency used to recruit special creatures.
Also we could have a smart anti-camping mechanism, not a retarded guard tower for each player, which is something that discourages people from attacking each other. Something like making the spawning rate of each player an inverted exponent instead of a line - In other words make it so that players which have little to no units will get a boost to their spawning rate, with players that already have lots of units getting a slow spawning rate. Such a system could actually encourage people to attack and not camp in their base (or their opponent's).
Using similar ideas we could create a fun, fast and crazy map where the balance in power changes constantly and nobody gets bored or left behind. The kills counter goes up and up and eventually a player wins and theres an option for a rematch.
There could be fun features like zerglings "growing" into (very slightly) bigger and tougher zerglings each time they get a kill, or super powerful spells which cost 1 win each. (using the rematch feature, the player who won the previous round could cast such a spell)
Also we could have random events like a swarm of computer-controlled powerful creatures sweeping across the map, or a herd of innocent creatures appearing somewhere (drawing everyone to that position) or an artifact appearing somewhere, giving temporary bonuses or abilities to the player which kills it (gives the final hit) etc....

I think we might as well start brainstorming now, since the beta is weeks away at worst, and the editor supposedly launches along with it.

Edit: also we could give out cheat codes to winning players allowing them to change their zerglings into something else(the change will be visual only) and maybe also allowing them to unlock special units and spells. (nothing op though, just fun stuff)
also another idea for an event could be deathmatch, where the health of everything drops to 1, or the opposite, where health is replenished, or chaos, where each unit's owner is randomly re-selected, or the opposite, where the units in the base of each player become owned by the player...

i really want to make a survival game where you play a team of marines sent in to a town to clear out the zombies, save civilians, destroy radiation generators, kill boss zombies, etc. they had a couple games like this in wc3 but i think it could be amazing with starcraft's setting

I had a collection of ideas for map making, but I'd rather not talk about them until I actually know how to implement them with the editor and see how they come out.

I had an idea to show a couple of videos on how to make a few maps, livesteam making a map for a little while, but I'm not going to go into that until the bricks fall into place. And that will probably be in August when the beta editor comes out.

I'm more in line with Ceo's idea than yours Cat, though I could give you feedback--especially about the anti-camping and trying to motivate others to attack instead of turtle, because I think both of those are problems that detract from the fun of those games.

The zombie idea is fun, and a few games have been made like that for WC3, like you said, but I found that the strengths and weaknesses of all those zombie maps were pretty balanced. As in, they'd do one part really well and just fuck a goat on the other parts.

Part of what made original SC so much fun, I think, was the fast paced action. As in, it only took 8 hits for a zergling to kill a marine, and even fewer for that marine to kill the zergling. WC3 is so slow compared to it. Most RPGs in SC though, would boost hp into the 100 ranges. I think an RPG where your hero, or the units in your squad, start with only 150% or so more hp than a standard unit, would be more challenging and more fun. Especially if it was a squad-oriented zombie-clean-up RPG. Then you can still make mistakes and survive, to a degree.

Anyway, those are my thoughts. It seems like everyone has their own ideas, and meshing them together into a sound map will, of course, be the challenge.

I think I'll start working on that one by myself and ask you for feedback like you suggested then. Hopefully we'll be doing many maps so I'll be able to help you with other ones that you make.
In any case I could also make 3d models for your games if needed or refine existing ones that you find on the web.

Copypasta'd from The Cheshire Cat:I think I'll start working on that one by myself and ask you for feedback like you suggested then. Hopefully we'll be doing many maps so I'll be able to help you with other ones that you make.
In any case I could also make 3d models for your games if needed or refine existing ones that you find on the web.

i think this is the best idea, to work as more of a collective. the obvious problem with working as a team is there is no support for collaboration in the editor. anyway i hate to hype things up or make false predictions but if we have a couple interesting projects going on at once for people to check out then it will surely generate some traffic. and i know i personally will be spending a lot of time here talking about mapping if theres interest

~wcom collective of mappers~

its recursive XD

We could also be among the first to come up with a sexy td, thats a sure way to get traffic.

yup. we need a cool gimmick though that hasnt been thought of yet for tds. any ideas?


i really loved power td in warcraft where you had to generate enough electricity for your towers to work

Copypasta'd from ceo:


i really loved power td in warcraft where you had to generate enough electricity for your towers to work

You need to raise and harvest/kill enough zerglings to power your towers with zergling blood.

Blood tower defense.

I don't mean to sound elitist, but if the crowd we attract is anything like the crowd that always plays Green TD on warcraft3, I will become a serial banner. Most other map crowds, even the footies crowds, have their silver linings... but jesus that Green TD crowd is dumber than bricks.

Even though I can't help out with this map making stuff, I applaud your guys efforts. Maybe you guys can make like a DOTA type game or something.

I was thinking about creating a pretty complex td, not anything like green td where you build 2 towers, spend the first 20~ levels of the game watching them kill units and occasionally hitting the "upgrade" button, and eventually adding 2-3 more towers and repeating the previous step until the end of the game.
I really like Zoator's td games, I think a good td should have lots of cool races to choose from, plus optional minigame features which the player can use to earn money while not upgrading his towers. (Zoator had a creeping mini-game, we could have something similar to that, maybe more like micro wars or something thats more closely related to sc2)

I played Zoatar's TD, with the mini-game hero creeping. As well as the one where every turn you rotate your build lane, so everyone builds in everyone else's lanes. That was a pretty cool one.

Good luck with that. TD's can be fun, for sure. Complexity is welcome, to a point. Those TD wars were a little too complex, so that newbies never survived long enough to actually learn anything. But then again, those were wars.

I will be the first to propose a sc2 version of DOTA. I will personally learn how to make maps and pour all my creative energies into something awesome with the same longevity as wc3 dota.

won't the people who made dota make dota for SC2?

Zulu's right, I don't think we can possibly compete with them on that.
As for my td idea, as much as I like wars, I wouldn't like to make a version where players can affect each other, as in send waves to other players etc.
Anyways its all talk for now, if I'll make a td I'll (obviously) try to make it as fun and possible... We'll see, I won't have that much free time and I wanna start with the blood map anyways.

The only foreseeable avenue for me to participate and contribute is to playtest these maps.

Copypasta'd from hfswjyr:The only foreseeable avenue for me to participate and contribute is to playtest these maps.

thats a great way to contribute, serious playtesting is the most important part (after the map actually being created :p)

Its sad to see what could of happened