1.0a Balance Sheet

Due to popular, mostly imagined, demand I'm posting the latest version of the excel balance sheet for AoR.  If some spare time presents itself I'll do another post describing some of the formulas and guesswork I applied to make it all balance out.

Here is the balance sheet for version 1.0a!

Fin

Version 1.0 has been released! You can find download links of the official AoR links page here: http://www.aerieofruin.com/aor_links.html


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Edit: 1.0a is out! The embarassing A fixes a couple bugs we missed, like the stalling invincible hero bug. Sorry everybody!

Aerie of Ruin .com is Live!

Almost forgot to mention, the site is up:

www.aerieofruin.com

The Road to 1.0

As promised here is the change list to 'final' Aerie of Ruin to version 1.0. There are some exciting changes here, notably the Human hero revisions to make them more active (5 new trigger skills!), and adding more Fate, as well as balancing out the more powerful heroes at the end game.

I'd like to point out that many of these changes came from the great feedback I recieved from the community. Thanks to everyone who played and contributed!

Death penalty shortened for Heroes

All heroes now have air attacks


Black Kingdom Armies

Darkling
- Removed hero target from silence ability

Gate Upgrade cooldown reduced significantly

Death Hand
- Twist fate no longer able to 1-shot heroes Deathhand is much slower now, slowest in game
- Dark rite + artifact balanced
- Remove slow effect from Twist Fate against heroes only

Black King's Subservience was causing confusion to friendly units
- fixed by removing friendly dmg


Free People Armies

Eagles have reduced armor

Human Heroes got some lovin:
Warrior Poet
- War Wind dmg reduced at highest lvl
- New Skill: "Morose Iamb" – Machine gun of energy, ranged attack inflicts silence on area
- Rolled Inspiration benefits into natural stat progression

Duchess of Drake
- New Skill: “Tap Ley Line” - boost stats of nearby towers
- Rolled training aura into brain pipe
- Balanced artifact cost and custom quest with low Fate expectation
- Reduced cost of all tower upgrades
- Siege tower range has been extended

General
- New Skill, 'Enlist" - create a retinue of healed, upgraded spawns
- Merge aura skills
- Disable Gravity of Will until game begins

Blacksmith
- Merge passive upgrades into new skill called Forge Arms
- New Skill: "Ringing of Anvils" - active ranged ground ability that is a line attack explosion ending in an area cyclone
- Replaced blacksmith Hammerclaw with Heavy Hammer

Bishop
- Merge auras
- Bring starfall dmg in line with tristan’s lightning attack
- New Skill: "Violent Exorcism" -melee attack that pushes unit away


Customized Loading screen
- Add the logo and some info
- Mark fate and hidden areas on map preview

AI upgrade costs adjusted
- AI heroes were on a very accelerated upgrade schedule, this is no longer the case

Removed outdated hints
- Free peoples actually can undo upgrades

Demon upgrades better explained
- Clarified with tool tips, text color

URL now in map description

Leak pass
- found a few point leaks in recurring triggers

Hidden path no longer too narrow (center grave)
- removed offending tree

Quest msg now sent when a gate or outpost is destroyed

Ghost hero bug fixed
- Blightspear was killing unused heroes in hut area

Text bug in cheat karma, unrounded string, fixed

XP quest lvl 12, 16, 20 fixed

Expanded fate system
- gold 4 fate
- More fate shards on map
- AI forces drop fate shards upon kill plateaus (i.e. every 250 kills for humans, 500 for demons)

Tutorials clarification

Change terminology: creeps -> spawns

Complete tool tip pass

Fixed artifacts broken by skill changes

Updated AI to use new skills

Balanced the Fate cost of all artifacts

Acolyte no longer appears when manifest pain uses Soul Barb

Improved AI hero response to being shot by outposts/gates

High level Hero balances:

Blacksmith
- reduced honest toil agi bonus
- reduced blacksmith str/lvl
- remove extra armor upgrades from Forge Arms

Manifest Pain
- Flay dmg pulled way back
- Reduced armor and life

Old General
- Gravity of Will high level dmg reduced

Interesting Times!

So many things have been going on that it has been a rush of excitement lately, surrounding Aerie of Ruin and otherwise. I launched a new version of my portfolio here (flash cs3 is the devil!). My girlfriend landed her dream job! It also seems like everyone I know is having their birthdays so there have been lots of positive vibes too.

I conducted a series of private playtests with people with a variety of experiences: some had never played warcraft, some had never played dota, some played dota a lot! The feedback was good and only a single small bug popped up.

I addressed the major concerns and rebalanced, then released the map to the public last weekend as Aerie of Ruin 0.99 Public Beta. A few of the release sites:
http://war3.incgamers.com/?p=mod&m=11176
http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/resource.php?t=99161&prev=status%3Dg%26search%3Daerie%2520of%2520ruin%26d%3Dlist%26r%3D20
http://clanmapz.com/forum/showthread.php?p=953#post953
http://www.epicwar.com/maps/68603/

It's been great playing public games on battle.net. The feedback seems consistent...about 1/3 of the players absolutely love it, and are vocal with praise. 1/3 of the players hate it, and usually drop out within the first 5-15 minutes. 1/3 of the players are silent but play the game to the end (and usually the high scorers).

Since they usually skip the cinema and tutorial, bnet players tend to be confused about the creep upgrade system, and unaware of Fate and artifacts of power. I think this turns some DotA players off, since they are unware of how to really customize and blow out their heroes.

The Darkling's silence really demoralizes some people. Some DotA players really like how tough the spawns are. I think they welcome the micro-ing challenge. Some DotA players don't like how much the spawns effect the balance. I think they miss the easy farmings.

The dual aura heroes are scorned by dota vets. I'm seeing why too, and plan on merging the auras to provide those heroes with active skills.

I've learned some interesting things about the map and genre in general by playing with strangers and getting quality feedback from forums. I've only seen 2 game breakers so far...Twist Fate and the Gravity of Will rush (very creative!).

There is a lot more but I have to go...I'll upload the 0.99 -> 1.0 changelist soon!

Real Life Wins Every Time

Lately I've needed to step back and let real life into the driver's seat for a while, but I'm thinking that Aerie of Ruin is almost ready for release! The latest play balance is promising...after some more testing I should know how close it is, and I'll post back then.

Moving Right Along

It's been a busy few weeks since the last post: writing, story-boarding, learning, experimenting, implementing, and debugging cinematics for AoR. Happily, I stumbled on Anitarf's Cinematic System during my research; his work has allowed me to implement easing camera moves, sweet fog effects, and precise character control where I needed it. My hat is off to you guys!

There are two parts to the cinematic, a drama portion and a tutorial portion. I chose not to record voice actors, mostly for file size reasons, but I thought having a performance in the drama portion would add a lot, so I relied on sounds that already existed which I could use out of the original context.



The tutorial is more detailed than I originally intended, a recurring theme in the AoR development. I think it must be a side effect of having a great tool that makes it easy to add such detail.

Looking back at the to-do list I posted in July I'll update my progress here:

1. MAP - I was looking for a tileset that would allow a subtle and balanced progression from the thriving Free People to the blighted cold of the Black Kingdom. In the end I chose Ashenvale as the base set which gives a slight emphasis to the lush southwest of the map. If I could have added just one more texture to the palette I probably would have chosen Felwood or Northrend instead.
2. EXPERIENCE - I did a series of playtests incorporating feedback and levelling out the heroes a bit. Feedback so far is great. I'll do one more big private test before I release.
3. QUESTS - I decided against more complex quests (delivery, escort, collection, etc.) in favor of more general quests. The level quests will reward heroes who gain experience quickly but can't get a whole lot of kills on their own. Fate Fragments and scattered gold pick ups really highlight the hidden areas of the map too. I had some NPC related quests designed but cut them for scope. I did add a hint system that drops random hints every 5 min.
4. BALANCE - The heroes have been integrated into the Balance Spreadsheet (of doom) with a more accurate way of calculating DPS. I've redesigned the upgrade paths to allow for more coherent strategy and strategic responses. I'll use feedback from the final private test to create the first release balance of AoR.
5. TOOL TIPS - Done.
6. TECH - There are no outstanding bugs that I'm aware of, but I'll take one more leak pass before I call this one done.
7. CINEMATIC - Done.
8. STORY - I've had it critiqued several time and recieved excellent feedback, which helped me reshape the last that darned paragraph and cut out some of the fat.
9. WEBSITE - Squarely in the design phase right now, but it shouldn't be long before it's done. I'm not going to make a big community site, just an info center.
10. LOADING SCREEN - Icing on the cake.

See you on the flip side!

Poor Man's Patching

To test the map I logged onto bnet the other night, which gave me the 1.22 patch. Hah what's the worst that could happen?

How about the map crashing at seemingly random times with an access violation and no call stack to trace through? Yuck.

After a day of letting my AI players run through the map on 3 different computers (so glad I chose to build AIs even though they've been a horrible time sink), I was finally able to pinpoint the problem.

The Black King's Spoils of Conquest power, based on the Tranquility spell, sometimes crashed the game...not often but once identified it was reproducable (on my map, but not on a test map unfortunately). Thank goodness for the Logs folder saving replays for crashing games!

I thought it was my trigger, but it would crash even with that disabled. I had removed the Tranquility (Target) buff from the power, but once I put it back the crashing seems to have stopped. Oh boy I sure hope the issue is limited to that power.

Feature Complete!?

It just hit me that Aerie of Ruin has recently become feature complete! I must have been so focused on planning out the finishing touches that I didn't realize until now :) How did this happen? I shall review the last big feature, share one of my most powerful tools, and then discuss my to-do list:

I migrated the creeps from individual to group movement.

I played with group movement before but ran into a mysterious problem; units would randomly run away from the group and wander the map! It seems this behavior is a known issue with “Unit Group - Order Group to Attack-Move To (Center of LOCATION )” so a work-around was in order.

Group movement has many advantages over individual, though it is trickier to pull off. Groups move in formation without running into each other whichmakes them more efficient in terms of both combat effectiveness and pathfinding performance.

Ranged units became MUCH more effective since they actually attack in sync with the front lines.

Fortunately the individual group system is still being used by the AI Heroes, so I didn’t have to throw it away.

The game feels very different now and certainly for the better!


I created and now maintain a balance spreadsheet which tracks and rates the effectiveness of every unit type and spawn group.

Here is today’s copy. So far it has been an invaluable tool for visualizing and implementing balance changes. The game has undergone drastic changes in troop roles and balance, and even spawning patterns, and this spreadsheet lets me navigate those big changes while keeping the creep tug-of-war balanced and even.


I created a prioritized plan to git ‘er dunn.

Here is a glimpse at my high level ‘sprint’ plan which details the path the finish line.

1 BUGS (check)

My backlog of bugs has been pretty small at this point, since I usually try to fix them as soon as I find them. Some of these I had tried to fix before but ran into gotchas or dead ends, and some had been recently broken by movement system changes. The Warp VFX was popping up and sticking all over the place and it took a while to squash. The only open bug is the Rot Structure Icon that randomly attaches itself to human heroes when the Black King upgrades to (uses?) his Rotting Touch skill. There must be an ability side effect I am missing since the trigger seems so simple. I will try again on that one if I am bored.

2 AI (check)

Hero AI has turned out to be a huge task, and has probably accounted for 1/3 or possible even ½ of my dev time so far!

I’m sure it will be worth it. Playing against and with AIs that have almost full knowledge of how to play the game has shown me some very exciting in game moments! The convenience of the AIs for dev testing has also been a great boon in aiding the development and balance of AoR.

The last major items I checked off recently are: Stand Back from Enemy Bases You Fools! Warp Forward, and Warp to an Assaulted Base. The added survivability and mobility this allows makes the AI more competitive. In terms of emergence I saw a beleaguered AI hero warp home then buy and chug a health potion while warping back to the fight. It happened so fast I thought I was lucky just to have seen it happen at all!

3 MAP

It’s finally time to make the map look pretty and terrain more interesting! This kind of work will be a major shift in thinking so I expect it will be quite refreshing.

4 EXPERIENCE

Time to play several games with each hero! While implementing this excruciating task ;) I’ll be making meticulous notes about the experience, identifying all tool tips that need to be made, including color info.

5 QUESTS

I’m thinking of adding a few more advanced quests to diversify the gameplay just a wee bit. We shall see!

6 BALANCE

Take a pass at Artifact Costs, Hero Balance, and Spawn Balance based on the notes from #4!

7 TOOL TIPS

This will be a total pass for content, color, format, and style consistency based on notes from #4!

8 TECH

Time to address the few lingering technical tasks, like combing the triggers for outstanding leaks and handling player disconnects. Optimization might be necessary.

9 CINEMATIC

A quick set-up of the world, and maybe a simple tutorial? This will require more thought but it is low on the list for now so that is OK.

10 STORY

Write a short story presenting the fiction of the world, characters, and game.

11 WEBSITE

I’ll probably just dress up a free net blog page with a link to the download location and maybe a few custom images.


Time to get busy!

Heroes of Old and New

There are 12 Heroes with 4 Abilities each and 42 Triggers to enhance the effects of those abilities. Here are some notes on half the heroes.

Black King
Removed Rend the Earth, made Order 2 his special. Rend was just another earthquake, and Order 2 is so unique that I made it the special of both the Black King and the Old General.

Broodmother
I had to change Penetrate the Earth and also Perversion, as there is no way to make this happen in a trigger. The function is still unique in that higher levels of PtE make stronger towers. Perversion simply increases the max number of towers which is an effective compromise.

Wyrm
All his powers made it intact and all had to be trigger enhanced...except possibly Blighted Step which I think already exists as an ability, but I had already written the trigger when I noticed it in the editor :0

Bishop Sophrosyne
In her case, all abilities were implemented intact. Divine Light was the only power that even required a trigger.

Duchess of Drake
There were some GOTCHAs with her tower building powers, the biggest being the limitation of a single "tiny" ability. After a lot of experimenting, I decided to make magic towers summoned via triggers (and therefore able to be placed anywhere). There was no way to give the Duchess a discount for tower upgrades though.

Strongarms
AoE permanent stat upgrades were not an option, but I really like the alternative. His ability now upgrades all the armor and weapons for all Free People units (as if it were a paid building upgrade in vanilla WC3).

Heroic Conformation

My original designs for the hero and artifact powers were made knowing that not everything would be possible to create, or possibly even create in a timely manner. In the end several changes were made, several concessions for sure, but imo even more improvements. I'll post a few heroes and the changes to give you an idea of how they evolved.

Artifacts of the Past and Present

Wow I'm really bad at blogging. Ah well, yesterday I finished the last of the 48 Artifacts of Power!

After the majority of hoorah-ing was over, I set about putting the artifacts in player specific stores, only to find a big GOTCHA: stores that Select Units (and thereby drop purchased items on them) are shared by the whole team. Turns out there is no way to do this with the editor itself (my conclusion after many tests and much net searching). Player-specific shops drop items directly on the ground. Since it is very very important that artifacts only go to the associated heroes, this would have been a major set back if there was no work around. Ah the fun of shoe-horn development on doc-lite tools!

Luckily I remember playing other maps with player-specific shops so I knew there had to be a way. My hack around involved creating regions around the different shops, removing the item model (to avoid popping) from each artifact, and creating a trigger for each shop, like this:

Duchess Artifact Hack
Events
----------------
Conditions
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Actions
----------------
This gives the illusion that it works like a normal shop, but this would never do for a final game, ---------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------

---edited out to prevent cheaterz!---

D&D 4e Time

...
brb
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950716 steps to go...

Saw this when doing some maintenance. The blue really draws the eye!

Blogger is being difficult....click on the image to bask in the glory of MS.

!(a blog)

All 12 heroes are now in the game, and artifact implementation has begun. Some of the powers have been altered and made more interesting. I'll post a change list soon.

It's Been Such a Long Time

...but don't worry I'm not going anywhere. Lots of real life happening, but now that is safely taken care of for a while, it's back to mapping!

The AI is in a better state now, with only three outstanding behaviors left to add: melee hero temperence, gate defense, and gate upgrading. Even without those it is quite fun (for me) to start up a 4v4 game played with AIs and see who comes out on top.

I've fixed many small issues and have now completed 8/12 heroes and started on #9: the Broodmother. After her I'll tackle to Duchess of Drake, and finally crown it all with the General and the Black King. Once those are in I'll turn my attention to the artifact creation and work on adding a few final layers of strategery before final AI work, tuning, balance, and map beautification.

It's been almost exactly a month since I've started this project, and when it moves, wow does it move fast. What a testament to Blizzard's incredible tool and asset work that such a major departure from W3 can be created, with no prior knowledge of the toolset, in such a short period of time. Also it is worth noting that I decided a few weeks ago to expand the scope of the project rather than diminish the quality and vision of the final product. It wouldn't do to show that I had picked up bad habits and felt the need to rush this to release!

It's Alive, Aliiiiiiive!

I stared into the Abyss of AI and found it staring back! Once they released me from the asylum, I discovered that the AI editor isn't used for custom maps at all. An AI system for this map would need to be totally trigger driven (!!!) which means lots of work.

During my research I also came to realize how important it would be to have some "automated testers" and also how important AI is for a finished product. I decided that it would expand the scope of the map significantly but it would be worth it. I was really happy to learn that heroes will use custom skills fairly well on their own, which removed a big chunk of control logic from the scope.

The AI has a sort of hierarchy of needs that goes like this:

1. Stay Alive
2. Defend Gates
3. Navigate
4. Spend money
5. Level-up

I'd estimate the progress in each of those areas to be:

1. Stay Alive - 80% - needs melee hero adjustment
2. Defend Gates - 0%
3. Navigate - 80% - 1 bug where heroes lose move orders
4. Spend money - 60% - works for the black kingdom, only a little for free peoples
5. Level-up -100%

Melee heroes (1) have a hard time staying alive since they are so aggressive. I'll put in some logic to have them stand back and soak free XP at lower levels. Defending gates (2) should be straight forward. There is one navigation bug (3) left where custom trigger skills are overriding move orders. Spending money (4) works for the demon gate upgrade system and potions. The Free People money system is next on my list to put in. I had to think long and hard about the leveling system (5), but it is now working for each hero. Both spending and leveling will require updates as new items and heroes are implemented, but it doesn't take much and the rest of the AI should stay autonomous (ha).

Today I Finished Blackened on Expert Guitar!

Wooo! I guess the title says it all ^^
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Afterwards I got to work on teh craft and implemented the following:

• Fall back lane spawning
• Add gate and outpost rebuilding spots
• Add gate scoring
• Basic item store

The fall back spawning system works by checking the side lanes for friendly spawners, and if it doesn't find any it doubles up the spawning from the main base/castle. This effectively stalls the snowball effect, and in practice works out really really well. The gate and outpost rebuilding adds a neat movement to the game that wasn't there before, and also more strategic spending options. Gate score replaced lumber and basic gold items are now in shops near the hero spawn areas.

Tomorrow I'll look into adding versus AI. If it works that should go a long way to helping me get plenty of data with which to balance out the gold economy. What remains then, gameplay wise, are the other heroes and artifacts, gate point economy, and a good hard look at creep upgrades.

Checking Off Lists with Gusto

Some of the changes implemented last time deserve some elaboration. Removing the phase system, the hopetown invasion, and complex creep routing, makes the map a bit more traditional, but what is in place now should still fresh and unique and more importantly understandable and predictable. Asymmetry will be preserved in several other ways, like the 2:1 balancing mechanism, and the map layout. The 2:1 system basically means that one basic demon creep spawn is a match for basic 2 human creep spawns. It feels really good!

For todays update, based on the to-do I posted last time, I knocked off the following items:

• Add normal gate tech to main demon gate
• At least 3 more fleshed out heroes

The first took all of 30 seconds but the 3 heroes took all day! It's good to have a baseline for 2v2 now. Dryxx, Sparrowhawk, and the Old One join Agony for 1/3 of the planned heroes.

After playing a lot today to test out custom abilities, I'm leaning heavily towards fallback gates/outpost spawning to buffer the sudden lane surge against anyone who loses a flanking outpost/gate. I'll put in the gate and outpost rebuilding next, and then scoring to see how that affects the balance first.

After that I'm going to move up the basic item store in priority to get a rein on the economy. Then if I find that versus AI is in scope the game will really become fun to test. The final creep upgrade path will become evident soon after (hopefully addressing my concern about the creep upgrade paths being too light).

Creep controlling systems should fall in to place when I tackle Lord Brogan, as his command abilities and the Order abilities should overlap nicely.

Artifact and hero implementation will require most of the remaining dev time, certainly followed by balancing and testing, and aesthetic improvement.

The map regions have been simplified greatly from before

Helpful Links
Hex Color chart
http://www.virtuelle-identitaet.ch/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=19&Itemid=32

Knockback Spell Help
http://war3.incgamers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=34342

Special FX animation advice
http://war3.incgamers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=39341

Special FX Basics
http://war3.incgamers.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-40457.html

Early Update

It's late so I'm keeping this vague and mysterious, yet simple.

Update

• Reworked creep nav again, simplified the creep movement patterns
• Removed phased system
• Created a 2:1 Free people spawn to Demon spawn balancing mechanism
• Balanced base spawn groups
• Removed outposts and gates from Hopetown and Fwd gates
• Implemented instant spawn purchasing
• Lots of new creeps

Top Priorities Looking Ahead

• Add normal gate tech to main demon gate
• At least 3 more fleshed out heroes
• Tower coverage in the main bases
• Add gate and outpost rebuilding spots
• Add gate scoring
• Look into adding versus AI
• Finalize creep upgrade path structure
• Creep controlling systems (FP routing upgrade, Order I+II)
• Basic item store
• Artifact implementation
• More balancing!

Weeknight Warrior

Lots of progress the last few nights (at this rate I will need to come up with a new opening line)! This weekend should be a blast, as the map is at the point where I can focus on adding the other heroes and cool trigger abilities while playtesting and making sweeping balance changes. Hopefully it will get far enough that I can include some buddies in the testing and gather quality feedback. Here's a quick run-down of what has changed:

Demonic Creep Spawning + Upgrades

The demonic creeps system works differently than the humans. Gate upgrades are one-shots and only effect the particular gate, unlike human upgrades that affect all the outposts. There are 4 upgrades right now, differentiated more by theme than gameplay for now.

Creep Navigation

Creeps on both sides are now very consistent in their navigation.

All tooltips working on the demon side

Last night I had a crash course in tool-tip making, and went to town on the demon side of the tracks.

1st hero finished: Doom of Agony

I jumped right in to develop one of the melee heroes. Agony was pretty straightforward for the most part (Misery is a straight up derivative of mirror image, and Flay is close to the Crypt Lord's Impale with special fx). The other two abilities, which seemed simple on the surface, ended up taking the majority of the time.

Ability notes: Soul Barb

Steal large amounts of speed and attack speed from target. This was my first exposure to custom buffs. I overrode the slow spell (couldn't find another easy way to drain attack + move speed) and created a trigger that awarded Agony with a custom haste buff, with matching stat progression to the slow spell.

Ability notes: Devour the Spirit

Eat a creep, permanently adds to armor and HP. I completely misjudged this one. Orc Devour + perma armor + damage = easy, right? In the end I created two stages to the spell, changed the effect to be perma strength (the end effect is similar...it doesn't boost armor but does boost health and damage). The first stage is a dummy spell that triggers instant creep death, the second adds a passive ability that gives +1 strength per level, and is levelled up by the trigger whenever Agony uses the ability and kills a creep. In the end its probably better to have as strength upgrade since the armor upgrade would be tougher to balance out.

Asymetry in AoS

One of the strengths of DotA is the equilibrium of the game when no heroes are around to mess it up. My first experimental stab at AoR is meant to have a different kind of stasis, in that battles will progress with no heroes, but they must progress "evenly" so that the game doesn't play itself to a foregone conclusion. The challenge here is in convincing players that progress is "even" though the map is not symmetric. The most obvious imbalances in a towerless setup are the big crowds that snowball when a region falls. Is the challenge insurmountable? It might be in for my scope! I can always fall back on tradition.

Special Case Creep Behavior - defense?

There is some odd behavior in the side nodes (east/west, yellow/sanguine) where creeps do not respond when another gate in the same area is being attacked. I'll play with responses soon, since what they do will effect the major battles in Hopetown significantly. The solution path that is most appealing now is to give players some control over creep routing. We'll see what comes of it by the next update!

Tower Effects

I haven't wanted to commit to towers everywhere...the more ways to differentiate from other AoS maps the better IMO. However towers in other AoS maps are there to control the flow and pace of the game, as well as give heroes something to fear in the early game. Plopping in some towers confirmed my theory...but also turned the tide of the game drastically in favor of the demons.

Preloading

New custom abilities introduced some stalling into the game since they were not loaded as part of the map. I followed some forum advice I found to preload abilities by spawning a dummy unit and assigning it all the custom abilities before the map is loaded. It worked!

All the known bugs out...but one (warp effect)

The only thing I haven't been able to figure out so far is how to attach warp effects to the gates. They seem to work for outposts though, so i might just have to do some crazy work around.

Coming Soon

• Creep routing controls
• More heroes (Dryxx, Sparrowhawk, and Old One are next)
• Gate and Outpost Rebuilding
• Tool tips for Free Peoples
• More experimentation with towers

Helpful Links

Tool-tip Tutorial
http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/showthread.php?p=590829

Trigger Spells 101
http://www.jx3.net/TDG/wiki/index.php/Trigger_Spells_101

Basics of Dummy Casters
http://war3.incgamers.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-41280.html

Rise of the Lich King - Concatenated cinematics from W3+TFT
http://files.filefront.com/The+Rise+of+The+Lich+Kingavi/;10075997;/fileinfo.html

Demo maps
http://www.elilz.com/demomaps.php

Long time, No E

I've been so distracted by the allure of the editor that I've neglected to stop and update the blog. Sorry! Here's a friggin huge update to make up for it.

Revised Map Layout
The big change is the removal of the direct line from to Weirhold to Hopetown. This reduces the branches to 2, which is acceptable for an alternating routing pattern. The terrain change also adds more asymetry, which supports one of the goals of the map.

2 phase, alternating creep routing system
Everything changes when Hopetown is lost. The Demons have established a major foothold and staging area, but have had a lot of pressure put on the Sanguine and Yellow gates. At this point the creep routing effectively mirrors: the sanguine and yellow gates send all forces along the side, while the east and west outposts split their forces to attack Despair.

(scan and insert pics here COMGIN SOON)

Hopetown to Despair phase change
When Hopetown falls, a pair of Demon gates instantly appear and the land is blighted. When props are placed around hopetown they will be destroyed/corrupted appropriately.

Adapted Multiboard from DotA template
A simple leaderboard, but there is a lot to it. For the test map it will suffice, and I should have a good idea of what the final board will when I am done.

Camera restrictions for Hero Arena
Increase usabitity by focusing the player on his first decision. Also hide the hero arena and remove power locations when done.

Warp system for gates and outposts
My first use of a dummy unit, I went for a system like EotA, where each Outpost has a warp button the portals in the hero for a little gold. Ultra mobility is cool.

Tier 2 creep waves
Expanded the creep selection and tried having them spawn in different configurations when the phases changed. That didn't last long though....

Defense systems for gates and outposts
Outposts shoot arrows like towers do and gates let off a periodic aoe attack.

Revised Free People creep spawning system, creep upgrade system
After much agonizing I went ahead an put in a basic creep upgrade system that gained some momentum and evolved into a straightforward new system for spawning free people. Next is demon spawning, then possibly hero abilities and upgrades.

Many new Creeps for the Mix
19 Free people and 17 Demonic creeps so far. The final count is still in flux, as are upgrade pathes, but i can imagine the final count with be somewhere between 15-25 per side.

More Helpful Links
Abilities - Buffs and Spells
http://world-editor-tutorials.thehelper.net/cat_usersubmit.php?view=24502

Masters of Mapmaking - Development FAQ
http://momm.seiken.co.uk/forum/index.php?showtopic=7

Map Drop
Here's the latest

The Morning After

For my 2nd map test, I started by playing around with map sizes until I found one I liked best. For the scale I'm going for 128x128 (DotA size) is too cramped. It turns out 192x128 feels way too big, so 160x128 turned out just right.

Why not make it vertical like the map diagrams? The slant adds a lot of character to the visuals and seems to bring out the best in the aesthetics of W3.

160x128 (left) is what I settled on. 192x128 (right) was too big.

I looked closely at the DotA template and created hero selecting inns, placeholders for all 12 heroes, 8 custom creeps, the outpost/gate spawning system, and a bunch of creep routing triggers. I really like how productive I can be in this editor, even though I am still just learning the ropes.

After a few iterations to balance the creeps out, it became very apparent randomization of creep routing really hurts the experience. One of the cool things about AoS games is being able to rely on the predictability of creep patterns.

Next pass I'll focus on the gate-creep spawning + routing paradigm to make it a more interesting and integral part of the experience. Some other things I'd like to do after that include playing around with hero navigation, hero powers, advanced creepage, and upgrades.










Some pics of the fights in my latest testbed

Lots of triggers so far!

War 101

To start my W3 trigger editing experience, I played around with a basic map (the Creep Revival System linked to below), and added a few interesting mechanics just to see if I could. It was actually really easy! I like this toolset a lot already.

Some of the triggers I made include:

• Killing a hostile neutral creep makes two hostile neutral footman spawn
  
• Blight Spear Test – kill every neutral on blight and create an effect when they die
  
• Blighted Step Test – blight is spawned under the hero every few sec
  
• Champion and Footman Spawning – create reinforcements from the spawn hut every few seconds, don’t if the spawn hut is dead

I made some custom units, including a hero with trigger enhanced abilities and custom skills, a very large custom champion unit with fast powerful attacks, and a custom Spawn Hut building and spawn region. I also removed upkeep from the map setting.

I made a study of memory allocation and leaking by reading a bunch of forums and tutorials. It seems kludgy compared to how great the rest of the editing experience it, but at this point I figure it is better safe than sorry. All the point, group, and effect leaks I could imagine are fixed in this test map. I hope to avoid all leaks from the start for the next map project.

For the next testbed map, I will rough out a shape and size that should represent the final 'lanes,' set about some spawning tests, and perhaps investigate some gate logic. After that one I should know enough to start on the final map!

Download it here!

Helpful links

Memory leak description with examples
http://world-editor-tutorials.thehelper.net/cat_usersubmit.php?view=27242

Another memory leak with examples
http://world-editor-tutorials.thehelper.net/cat_usersubmit.php?view=27219

Channel, apparently the mother of all custom abilities
http://world-editor-tutorials.thehelper.net/cat_usersubmit.php?view=14972

Trigger Enhancing Spells…sounds complex but there are lots of examples
http://www.thehelper.net/forums/showthread.php?p=214782&postcount=2

Free DotA template, great example triggers
http://world-editor-tutorials.thehelper.net/maps.php?view=137

Creep Revival System
http://world-editor-tutorials.thehelper.net/cat_usersubmit.php?view=55581

Worldcraft Editor Tips

http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/showpost.php?p=56206&postcount=1

High Level Design Summary

Here is a quick list of what I would like to get out of AoR in terms of game play. Hopefully with practice the game play can be summarized succinctly, but for now lists of descriptions and comparisons must suffice. If the final product matches what is in my head, then we are all in for a treat!

• AoS Genre - I can't deny it even though I keep trying to, AoR will be an AoS map. The core of the AoS experience is what I would like to capture and hone with AoS, namely the hero focus and the auto creep wars. Though some of the AoS maps have cool usability features and improvements that should make AoR more enjoyable, there are many ways I will differentiate AoR, so read on.
• Asymmetry - The demons are big, bad, and few, while the good peoples are many and weak. The map is also not symmetrical, and neither are the strategies used by the two sides.
• Super Heroes - Heroes are relatively meek versus creeps in most AoS games, and their roles tend to be rather generic, and only enhanced by combining powers with other specific heroes, and with super item buying. In AoR the heroes are distinct tactically and strategically, and have unique upgrade paths through powerful artifacts. Long upgrade paths that allow rewarding customization like in DotA and EotA, and will certainly be explored.
• Large Scale War - DotA and the like spit out only a few creeps per cycle. EotA and ZotA both up the number of creep significantly to great effect. AoR will follow.
• Accessibility - There is a lot to be said for the ability to jump right in to a game with out needing to study recipe books and structure/unit guides or interface manuals. Simple but deep is AoR's goal.
• Creep Progression - Upgradeable creeps change the focus of the game from Hero killing to diversity and trickiness.
• Consistent Theme - Fantasy fiction is prevalent in AoR and compatible with established Warcraft lore.
• Competitive AI - I hope to have the time to create a competitive AI adversary for when there just aren't enough live players.
• Gate-Outpost Paradigm - A territories style game progression that affects creep spawning patterns and artifact distribution.
• Short and Sweet Scope - AoR is not intended to be a full scale DotA competitor, but should hit a sweet spot and be a quality experience.
  

Above, the graph of the map with named locations, in two promising starting configurations

Artifacts of Legend (part III: Artifacts Explained)

Artifacts are hero specific items purchased with Gate Points at the Hero Altar. Artifacts are rare and powerful weapons that empower your generals with unworldly might.

Each Hero has a choice of 6 artifacts, 2 of which are have a limited number of charges and are disposable. The other 4 permanent items are exclusive pairs, such as two swords and two armors, or two robes and two scepters. Heroes cannot use two of the same type of item (i.e. hero can equip one sword but not two).

Artifacts are designed to play to a heroes strength and allow players to further customize their hero power growth across the game.

Artifacts of Legend (part II: Black Kingdom)

The Doom of Agony
Plated Scales – Hardened scale reforged with steel protect him from physical damage.
Runic Hide – Chiselled runes all over DoA’s body protect him from magic.
Arrex the Abnegator – Arrex is a huge sentient ax that destroys positive buffs and makes the target creeps permanently immune to friendly auras.
Pillar of Earthheart – A giant weapon forged from material mined at the center of the world.
Words of Doom – Perma-curse every enemy in range, limited use
Thorn of Crippling – Stun hero for long period of time, limited use

Dryxx
Hooks and Lashes – Fiendish contraption that feeds even more pain to Dryxx, giving him bonuses to movement speed, attack speed, and attack power.
Nerve Prongs – Use to temporarily incense Dryxx, wildly expanding his abilities.
Terror Prism – Reflect Dryxx’ fear on nearby foes, causing them to flee at a reasonable rate.
Opal of Everblack – Sooth Dryxx’s mind giving him a high HP regen rate and faster movement.
Fetid Soultrap – Dryxx feasts on rotten souls from his soul-trap instantly regenerating him 100% and granting him 10 sec of invincibility, limited use.
Inverse Mountain – A tiny mote as heavy as a mountain, will destroy most buildings in one shot, limited use.


Death Hand
Fatal Blade – Increase attack damage and ‘twist fate’ effects significantly.
Mind Razors – Increase the potency of training creeps significantly.
Master of Puppets – Avatar potency significantly increased, cool down decreased.
Master of Fear – Cause opponents to flee at a regular rate.
Reap – Kill one foe instantly, heroes take 90% damage, limited use.
Loose the Hounds – Spawn a group of 9 hell hounds that have fast movement, high damage, limited use.


Wyrm the Terror
Mask of Horrors – Cause opponents to flee at regular rates, wile taking damage.
Rotten Fleshmask – High chance to stun opponents that are close by.
Blightfount Figurement – Increase the blight penalties for enemies and benefits for friendlies.
Soul Extractor - Remove the decay from the Domination skill, effectively binding dominated characters to you permanently.
Fork of Blightshock – distribute huge sum of damage among all enemies on blight, limited uses.
Universal Curse – Apply the effects of Wyrm’s Mass Curse ability to the entire map, limited uses.

Black King
Reign of Black – All siege damage effects are doubled.
Reign of Red – Effects of Subservience and Spoils are significantly increased.
Black Crown – the duration and area of orders are drastically increased.
Burning Crown – All demons receive armor and weapon bonuses.
Hell Horn – Blow Hell Horn to cause your creep producing buildings to produce instantly, limited use, long cool down.
Royal Guard – Summon burning legion vanguard, limited uses.

Broodmother
Violent Mitosis – Spawn Feast creates an additional copy.
Prolonged Suckling – Spawn Feast copies no longer decay
Terraphobic Touch – Tower build times reduced, tower upgrade cost decreased significantly.
Genetic Domination – All trained and spawn feast copies given significant bonuses.
Macabre Incest – Spawn Feast on every existing copy, limited uses.
Primal Surge – Boost all demonic stats on the map temporarily, limited use.

Artifacts of Legend (part I: Free People)

Sparrowhawk
Vorpal Sword “Lymric” – Always critical hits
Rapier Sword “Charger” – Very fast attack speed, decreases cool down time of abilities
Cape of the Sparrow – Increase movement and attack speed significantly
Cape of the Hawk – Increase attack power and attack speed significantly
Bullhorn of Blasting – make all attacks splash
Banners – call in a horde of peasants and soldiers, a limited number of times
Ancestral Feather – Triple damage with all attacks for 10 sec, limited uses

Old One
Sefirotic Staff - Increase all stats and spell effects.
Recender, Dragonstooth - Significantly increase attack speed and damage
Auzal, Tome of Worlds - 5% chance per attack to warp creep target to instant oblivion
Betragar, Tome of Illumination - All Free People +25% Magic Resistance
Pipe of Mysterious Vapors – Very fast mana regen
Powder of Abm’Kazmud – Powerful area explosion, limited use
Dimension Doors – Instant effect teleport scrolls, limited use


Bishop
Dogma of Holy Might – Heal spells also do damage on enemies. Divine light does +50%.
Dogma of Flourishing Life – Healing spells twice as effective.
Exalted Robe – Increase armor significantly
Cloth of Gold – Increase gold income significantly
Holy Water – Devastating area damage on demonic enemies and buildings, limited use
Divine Right – Immediately restore all health to all allies, limited use.



Duchess
Mattock of Construction – Decreases cooldown for tower building skills
Tail (read: whip) of Enhanced Instruction – Raises training bonus significantly
Gown of Learning – Increase XP gained by 25%
Cloak of Hiding – Invisible 25 sec, long cool down
Damsel’s Distress – Attract dozens of suitor knights to fight for her hand, limited use
Superior Planning – Drop a super tower with creep spawning, single use.


Lord General
Helmet of Aura Amplification – extends range of his auras
Crown of Command – intensifies the effects of all auras
Longblade of Youthful Vigor – Increases attack speed and damage significantly
Ceremonial Sword – All ally units in close range become temporarily inspired.
Hell Horn – Blow Hell Horn to cause your creep producing buildings to produce instantly, limited use, long cool down.
Marching Drums – Force friendly creeps to congregate at friendly border bases wherever possible, limited use.

Strong-arms
Earthheart Hammer – Increases all forging bonuses
Masterwork Grimwode – Significantly increases combat stats
Panzer Plate – Super thick armor that only Strong-arm can wear.
Master Forge Apron – Decreases cool down/mana cost of forging
Life’s Work – Majorly boost one creep or heroes weapon permanently, limited use.
Daughter’s Kiss – Completely replenish health, mana, cool down, and gain invincibility + haste 10 sec, limited use.

The Black King and his Consort

Black King
Damned Patriarch
Healer/Siege

Notes
The Black King is one of the nefarious leaders of the Burning Legion, chosen to lead the attack on Azeroth and to break the Tree of Life. His regal bloodlust is unmatched, and he intends the woe he inflicts on Azeroth to become the greatest of all legends. The Black King can draw blood through the skin of his enemies, and infuse it into his loyal followers, healing them potently. He can also use this technique to drive his followers mad with frenzy using Subservience. Order 2 allows him to exert his will and gather larger groups of creeps for an attack. Inflict Rot and Rend the Earth will quickly reduce any fortification to smoldering rubble.

Powers
Spoils of Conquest: AoE steal life from enemy, award to friendlies.
Subservience: Similar to blood lust, damage friends to make them attack extra hard.
Order 2: Order nearby creeps to attack the target you specify, or retreat/reroute in the direction you specify.
Inflict Rot: Adds powerful siege component to Black King’s normal attack as well as a contagion that saps life from creeps and heroes.
Rend the Earth (special): Create an earthquake of evil, an extremely powerful area siege attack.



Broodmother
Tainted Womb
Creep upgrades/Builder

Notes
She is a mindless being who knows only raw emotion, endless pain and constant hunger. She lives to procreate via corrupted copies of the living, and abuse the world with her staggering fortifications of taint and ooze. Her influence also upgrades newly produced creeps, similar to the Duchess of Drake's power. The Broodmother is the demonic Tower Defense hero, who can thrive in any condition by duplicating even powerful creeps, and can invest in Perversion to unlock the most devastating towers in the game.

Powers
Spawn Feast: Devour a creep, then spit out eggs that hatch into duplicates of that creep. Those creeps stay with and protect the Broodmother.
Penetrate the Land: create tower, types of tower depends on special level
Will of the Matriarch: passive aura that affects building production levels
Order 1: Order nearby creeps to attack the target you specify.
Perversion (special): Expand tower selection for Penetrate the Land.

Heroes of Iron and Steel

Strong-arms
Blacksmith
Upgrades/Melee

Notes
Just as Strong-arms wares are renowned for their keen craftsmanship and durability, so too his legendary strength is the subject of tales in all corners of Azeroth. He fights to defend his daughter Seline, and the grave of his recently departed wife Marina. He can quickly upgrade the armor and weaponry of ally creeps and heroes. Strong-arms can also hone his might through Honest Toil and disrupt demons with his Hammer of Industry attack.

Powers
Forge Armor: AoE permanent stat raise Armor
Hone Steel: AoE permanent stat raise Weapon
Hammer of Industry: Area melee attack skill
Honest Toil (special): This passive Warrior skill makes him a much more effective melee character


Lord Ba’ar Brogan
Old General
Support/Siege

Notes
The free people rejoiced as one on word that 'The Silver Bear' was again raising his mantle for their cause. Lord Ba'ar, distinguished across a lifetime of valor and noble service, will do all he can to save the lives of his liege, family, and countrymen, though he secretly fears the cause is lost. His many strong auras make him an offensive support hero of choice. Ba'ar delights in bringing down structures with his forceful Gravity of Will to both the awe and detriment of his foes.

Powers
Superior Tactics: Battle aura, bonus attack damage and add siege damage.
Superior Discipline: Battle aura, bonus attack speed, slower movement.
Gravity of Will: Targeted siege attack.
Order 2: Order nearby creeps to attack the target you specify, or retreat/reroute in the direction you specify.
Loot Aura (special): Passive aura grants bonus $$ for destroyed buildings/demons

Those Who Blight Our Lives

Death Hand
Manifest Hatred
Nuker/Trainer

Notes
The embodiment of human hatred walks Azeroth, feasting on war, dealing doom to all. Death Hand is a fast ranged attacker, and with Twist Fate and Hasten Death, he is adept at stalking and slaying his heroic prey. Dark Avatar and Dark Right also him to bolster the hulking demon armies with the black powers of hatred.

Powers
Twist Fate: Super powerful single target attack.
Dark Rite: Train and upgrade creeps AoE.
Dark Avatar: Choose a single creep to have a super upgrade. Lose 15% health when it dies.
Order 1: Order nearby creeps to attack the target you specify.
Hasten Death (special): Upgrade normal attack faster and more deadly.



Wyrm the Terror
Manifest Insanity
Anti-Support/Control

Notes
A being of chaos and formless destruction, Wyrm lives for terror. Blighted Step can be a great help over time as can Dominate. Mass Curse can turn a battle, and Madness can sow discord in any battle plan.

Powers
Blighted Step: Blight forms quickly around him and follows wherever he goes; blight affects every free people on it, penalizing their transgressions.
Blight Spear: Attack every enemy standing on creep.
Dominate: Permanently convert enemy creep(s) into friendly creep(s).
Mass Curse (special): Dispel all friends and enemies then apply nasty effects to enemies.

Ladies of the Caer

Bishop Sōphrosynē
God Hand
Healer/Support

Notes
Her words are soft but her actions mighty; Bishop Sophrosyne is a virtuous leader of the people who will oppose demonic evil with the last fiber of her soul. She isn't one to raise her staff in bloodletting, but she is divinely inspired to support the zealous violence in her flock. The Bishop is a very powerful, if predictable, ally.

Powers
Healing Prayer: AoE instant heal
Aura of Grace: Regeneration aura
Aura of Zeal: movement and attack speed bonus
Order 1: Order nearby creeps to attack the target you specify.
Divine Light (special): heal friendly, damage enemy in large area



The Duchess of Drake
Royal Scholar
Builder/Trainer

Notes
The only female scion of the old masters, the Duchess is a most resourceful and eccentric woman, unique in that she won her duchey by her vast contributions to the Caer. She does not hesitate to level her training against the Black Kingdom; any creep producing building inside her Aura of Rigor will train advanced units, and anyone recieving her Brain Pipe will instantly gain experience and improvement of great measure. Her expertise also allows her to employ magic in the construction of defenses, powerful towers to decimate the demonic hordes. She is ideal for Tower Defense style players.

Powers
Build Arrow Tower: Order an Arrow Tower to be built. Any ally can pay to upgrade towers, though the Duchess gets a discount.
Build Magic Tower: Magic Towers are more powerful and dynamic than Arrow Towers.
Aura of Rigor: A passive training aura that perma-boosts creeps generated by a creep den.
Order 1: Order nearby creeps to attack the target you specify.
Brain Pipe (special): Perma-boost all nearby ally creeps.

A Pair of Nightmares from the Black Kingdom

The Doom of Agony
Manifest Pain
Tank/Melee

Notes
The Doom of Agony is the manifestation of mankind's fear of eternal pain; it's only desire is to inflict as much of that pain on living humans as possible, and thus subvert the Balance of Creation. Agony is the only Melee specialist demon hero (demon creeps mostly fill the role) so for the most part he is a straight forward attacker though his powers are less traditional then Sir Tristan's. The Misery skill supports his tank role, while his special, Devour, makes his long term growth unmatched when applied properly.


Powers
Flay: Line attack that stuns and does lots of damage
Soul Barb: Steal large amounts of speed and attack speed from target
Misery: Create mirror image(s)
Order 1: Order nearby creeps to attack the target you specify.
Devour (special): Eat a creep, permanently adds to armor and HP



Dryxx
Blind Terror
Siege/Tank

Notes
Dryxx is a wild force of reckless abandon, a mad unseeing being who exists only to destroy those sensibilities that seperate man from untamed beast. Dryxx is especially talented at destroying structures: three of his skills directly support siege damage. His Lustful Charge is a vampiric charge attack which, along with Corrupt the Earth, allow Dryxx to be an effective tank.

Powers
Wild Strike: Splash damage siege strike
Lustful Charge: Knockback, heal
Corrupt the Earth: AoE siege stomp, stun
Fortify Depravity (special): Raise armor, attack damage significantly, add siege damage

Two Champions for the Free People

Sir Tristan Sparrowhawk
Warrior Poet
Melee/Micro fighter

Notes
Tristan is the most straightforward hero of the map; he's Mr. Melee and is the hero of choice for people who have a burning desire to kill other units. Toe-to-toe Sir Tristan is a match for any creep or demon hero. His special skill, Bird of Prey, when well managed, will doom any adversary. Because of his traditional role, his name itself is an homage to some of the forerunners of English fantasy.

Powers
Inspiration: Significant permanent stat raise (self)
Word of Truth: AoE slows nearby enemies
War Wind: Devastating area attack
Order 1: Order nearby creeps to attack the target you specify.
Bird of Prey (special): Devastating targeted attack, fast charge



Old One
Hermit
Nuker/Siege

Notes
The mysterious hermit yields no name save "Old One" for he knows that names have power and to him power is the most precious coin in existence. The ancient hermit has been a fixture of the Kingdom for generations longer than anyone can remember. He acts in the interests of man for grim, unstated reasons, and he brings a mighty power to support the cause of the Free People. His skills are deadly damage dealers to both units and structures, and his special power, Cataclysm, is the most potent lore in all of AoR.

Powers
Sunflare: Area damage over time
Fault Rend: Area siege damage over time
Channel Chaos: Boost normal attack significantly
Cataclysm (special): Most deadly AoE attack

The Tree of Life is Broken

Here is my first pass at the map layout:

Starhome – The Root of Man
The human base and target of the demons. The majority of human creeps spawn from here. The human heroes can heal up here too.

Faud Mal’ank - Main Fort
This military base spawns the 2nd most. The terrain favors humans heavily.

Eastpost/Westpost
The outposts spawn the 3rd most units. The terrain favors humans slightly.

Hope Town
Where everyone begins, the demons start with a big advantage and are sacking the town. When they take it over, the game moves to Phase II.
At this point many gates open up on the converted Hope Town which the demons name “Despair.”


The Aerie – Alpha Gate
The main demon base where most of them spawn. Also where demon heroes go to heal up and power up. This gate spawns the 2nd most demons.

The Yellow Gate / The Red Gate
These gates spawn a distinct set of demons from each other, or perhaps just give them all different types of bonuses. These gates spawn the 3rd most units.

The Forward Gates
These gates spawn the most demons.

Despair Town
Once Hopetown falls, Despair town rises and gates open. These gates spawn the 3rd most demons. If Despair is destroyed, the area becomes an empty wasteland.

Inspiration

To infuse the map with an identity and depth of character, I'll take inspiration from non-W3 sources. Here are the sources I've identified so far:

HP Lovecraft
The demonic invasion of Azeroth seems to have some parallels and inspirations in HPL fiction. Wherever possible I should exploit this connection (characters, powers, naming, histories, theme, madness).

Arkham Horror
My boardgame group has latched onto this game recently, and we've been having a great deal of fun with it. Of course this game was also inspired by HPL, but there are some mechanics in the game that are quite inspirational. I like the narrative quality of the game, and the gate/monster spawning elements, as well as the web like graph of the city.

Jack Vance
One of my favorite authors, I love his witty dialogue and clever writing style. I’ll attempt to capture some of his incredible verbiage and imaginative naming, setting, and character development.


Sefirot, the Tree of Life

For the map lay-out I will change graph significantly from DotA, since so many AoS games have already used the three lane approach.

I want asymmetry to be important to the experience, with demon giants smashing through hordes of human soldiers.

As-is this the tree is a bit too large for this kind of game, so breaking it down and removing some edges/nodes will not only make the game tighter, it will also make for a cool allegorical tie in!

A promising configuration is to collapse Da’at and Yesod onto Tif’eret. The demon hordes main gate is at Keter and the Human hearth is at Malkhut.

Research

Defense of the Ancients All-Stars
Description
You know it, you love it, the prime AoS map featuring almost 100 heroes and many items, plus item alchemy.
Similarities

• I love the creep warfare in DotA.
• The mechanic is similar to a new action IP I designed at EA.
• I like the hero focus, as it keeps the game simple, focused, and accessible.
• Select hero -> begin play!
• Upgrade and customize hero via gold expenditure.

Differences

• AoR will expand on the creep warfare scale, while retaining the simplicity and ease of understanding DotA’s creeps.
• The map shape will be changed to be less linear to provide more routes for the creeps.
• I like the hero focus and will expand on the role diversity via hero powers.
• Heroes will be much more powerful to deal with the larger encounters of AoR.
• The roles will be more varied than DotA’s but there will be far less heroes to choose from.
• I will try to emphasize territory control and a back and forth rubber band mechanic to keep it interesting.
• There will be a smaller role for towers and items in favor of demon gates and preset human locations.

Battle for Ice Crown
Description
A well produced AoS that is like an advanced DotA with a unique skin.
Similarities
See DotA. High production values.
Differences
See DotA.

Spellcraft
Description
Strange puzzle like game.
Similarities
Not many other than hero selection from what I could tell.
Differences
Lots.

Eve of the Apocalypse
Description
Interesting defense game, where buildings autogenerate manually controlled units. Looks pretty deep, a cross between Tower Defense, DotA, with controlled units.
Similarities
The overwhelmed defense feel should be similar for the human side.
Differences
AoR will be much simpler, with little building and mass unit control.

King of the Castle
Description
Similar to web games where you click on invading armies and your castle shoots and them.
Similarities
Few to none.
Differences
AoR should use the W3 control scheme. More AoS creepage, hero-centric gameplay.

Tides of Blood
Description
Chaotic DotA game with high production values, especially in character and f/x art.
Similarities
High production values.
Differences
See DotA.

Hero Line War
Description
Focuses on manual creation of hordes of creeps which also increases income levels. Interesting, sort of inscrutable at first, and not too aesthetically appealing since the monster just run across these long ‘lanes’.
Similarities
Masses of creeps.
Differences
Most.

Footmen Frenzy
Description
Footmen that you control auto-generate over time. Use them and your hero to attack your neighbors.
Similarities
Autogen creeps?
Differences
Huge, this is a super basic map.

Advent of Zenith
Description
Possibly the most elaborate AoS map with custom heroes, one liners, a demon vs human setting, and more varied creeps.
Similarities
Quality names, map design, visuals, hopefully some custom characters?
Differences
See DotA

Azure Tower Defense
Description
A great co-op defense game that Blizzard made about placing towers to destroy waves of incoming creeps. This map comes with The Frozen Throne.
Similarities
A couple AoR characters can take on tower defense style roles.
Differences
Tower building is limited to specific characters in AoR (The Duchess and the Broodmother).

3 Corridors
Description
A straight forward AoS game with an emphasis on crazy powers and levels and items. I saw a character that could summon towers which is cool.
Similarities
A couple AoR characters can take on tower defense style roles, similar to but more effective than the paladins summon tower power in 3Cs.
Differences
AoR will be more varied in the roles and gameplay. See DotA.

Extreme AOS
Description
Item heavy AoS for 4 player FFAs.
Similarities
See DotA.
Differences
See DotA.

Eve of the Apocalypse: Twilight
Description
A very nicely done AoS that feels much deeper and varied that DotA. I feel drawn to play this more than the rest right now! EotA lets you upgrade creep waves, order and command creeps indirectly, fight for obelisks (an indirect economy), and/or really beef up your hero. The item upgrade system is cool and simpler than other item alchemies too.
Similarities
I like the large scale battles, especially by end game, where the upgradable creeps make for some impressive battles. The one mechanic that grew on me was the very quick, cheap hero travel between nodes. I also enjoy how the heroes are noticably more powerful than in DotA and have a long progression of power. The AI presence is a nice touch too, as is the simple hero upgrade altar. The creep ordering by heroes is implemented well too.
Differences
EotA is daunting at first because there are so many buildings and options, plus a flood of info that makes it hard to use. Manually controlled builders add to the chaos. The map is huge too, which keeps it interesting, but is perhaps too large for the scope of AoR.

Aerie of Ruin Cast

Free People of Caer Mal’ank

• Sir Tristan Sparrowhawk - Warrior Poet - Melee/Micro fighter
• Lord Ba’ar Brogan - Old General – Support/Siege
• Old One - Hermit – Nuker/Siege
• The Duchess of Drake - Architect/Instructor – Builder/Trainer
• Strong-arms - Blacksmith – Trainer/Melee
• Bishop Sōphrosynē - God Hand – Healer/Support

Black Kingdom of The Burning Legion

• Black King – Damned Patriarch – Healer/Siege
• Wyrm the Terror – Manifest Insanity - Anti-Support (blight follows him around the map)/Control
• Doom of Agony – Manifest Pain - Tank/Melee
• Death’s Hand – Manifest Hatred - Nuker/Trainer
• Broodmother – Tainted Womb - Trainer/Builder
• Dryxx – Blind Terror - Siege/Tank

Aerie of Ruin is Live!

Hello and welcome to the AoR blog! If you are reading this, that means that I have been successful in creating an intricate Warcraft 3 trigger map that showcases my level design skills in the RTS genre.

The purpose of AoR is to help me transition from my job as a action/new-ip Game Designer to that of a Level Designer for a AAA RTS team.

The purpose of this blog is to serve as a record of my experience learning the W3 toolset, designing a killer trigger map, and implementing it from start to finish.

Some useful links to start:

http://www.blizzard.com/us/war3x/ - Blizzard's US listing for Warcraft 3 - The Frozen Throne

http://www.wowwiki.com/Warcraft_III:_Reign_of_Chaos - A great reference for a W3 overview and to the most popular maps and map types that have been developed for W3.

http://world-editor-tutorials.thehelper.net/ - The most comprehensive hub for W3 development information I've found so far

http://www.wc3jass.com/viewtopic.php?t=2039 - A really large tutorial covering JASS, the scripting language used for nitty gritty custom behaviors in W3

http://www.blizzard.com/us/jobopp/level-designer.html - The job posting I am working off of. Here are the specific requirements for the submission:

Warcraft 3 WorldEdit trigger map Guidelines:

• The map will have at least a 10 second intro cinematic
• The map is to be played by at least 4 players
• Functional victory and defeat conditions
• Use of the Warcraft quest log
• Good use of doodads and terrain texture to make the map look organic and esthetically pleasing
• Demonstrate strong technical ability using the trigger system
• Well organized and bug free triggers
• A short story background of the map
• A Polished, finished map
• Fun, balanced gameplay