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[center]The Seasons RPG[/center]
This is a multi map RPG I had the ideas for a few years back. I was developing it with a wierd friend, but he went crazy and claimed that it was his idea, said he was going to sue me, etc. Basically he was fusterated that I rejected many of his ideas for the map. I wrote down a lot about this map, but then abandoned it and stoped playing starcraft for quite a while.

Around a year later, my interest in starcraft was rekindled (again), and I decided to start making the skeleton of the RPG. I developed it exstensivly, filling up a 200 page marble notebook with concepts, ideas and plans. I got one section of it done, but I was heavily distracted by "the order of the stick forums" (link in sig). 400 posts on the order of the stick forums later, I thought about working on The Seasons again. However it was then that I hit upon a realization. It was too long. It was a five player bnet map and 256x256. Not only would this take too long to make, but people would never play it, I would never play it. I have played some two hour RPGs in my time, but tons of people left during the game, and in retrospect it was a waste of time. A lot of people disagree with me on that matter, but I decided that if I were to make an RPG, it needed to have a much smaller map size.

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[center]Outline[/center]
Now I have a new plan for a 128x192, five player, Iceland tileset, and the basic outline looks crudely like this

S = Starting town
X= Another town
Q = Quest objective
D = Dungeon
T = Temple

This is not the terrain, just kinda how things are divided. The best way to descripe it would be the flow of the map. It looks kind of wierd, so left me exsplain: The black lines are dividing terrain. The red lines are the paths the heros take on their way to the quest objectives. The purple curved lines represent where the heros are teleported to when they compleate certain objectives. The numbers represent the order of the paths the heros take.

Anyone want to know more about it? I don't want to spill every single detail with this post. But I have just about everything developed. And I will start working hard on it this weekend.

I don't understand.

In your "drawing," does each color represent a different player?

And if, will each player have a different objective and/or have a different cause? For instance, are each of the different colors in enemies?

I would have put stuff in about the story line, classes, enemys, what makes mine unique. But I don't really have the time today. Look forward to it tommorow.
^(Laziness)

What features would this map have?

Could we here details on the storyline..oh and if you need help ill be happy too help.

so would I! seems interesting, though had to beleive you filled up 200 pages, i could help put in some systems.

maybe you can put my new spell system and the old summon spell system on the map for the mage? I just want some credit though . Consider it.

I filled up a bit more then 200. But it's because I'm a compulsive writer and have big handwriting. But that is besides the point.
I don't really need help with any of the systems. I feel like this is something I could tackle myself. However concepts, ideas and feedback would be really nice. I might like a little help with the terrain.


What is this new spell system? Could you give me a link to the thread in the ideas forum where you described it?


As I said before I don't really need any help. On friday I'll post the whole story line. But for now here's a brief outline:

The sun went out recently, and no one quite knows why. This caused the northern half of the planet (where the game takes place) to be plunged into an ice age. Also people have been going missing for quite a while now. The prince was one of the people who went missing, so the king as asked for some heros to find and rescue him.
After you visit ol'Jhonney to get a thermosuit to protect you from the cold. ol'Jhonney revels that the sun was artifical, and that it was an anchient nearby de-Quori temple that powered it. However some evil force raided the temple and scattered the three crystals that enabled it to power the sun. He shows you where you can find a device that will help you find the three crystals. You find them, enter the temple. Defeat the boss, and thus ends "The Seasons RPG, Winter".
The next map is a single player 256x256 and is titled "The Seasons RPG, Spring." There is much more plot involed in this one.

P.S: I will try as hard as I can to make it so P1 can skip the cinimatics, of which there are 3 breif ones.

hm..cool, ok then gl.

[center]Classes[/center]

Currently I have 7 fully devolped classes. This is not enough! I need ideas for more classes. The ones I have now are:

• Fighter
• Barbarian
• Knight
• Archer
• Necromancer
• Mage
• Goblin cheiftan

• The fighter is an arcon. He can recuit zelots, and can buy items that increase his shield.
• The barbarian is a firebat. At 5th level he gets stim packs. Everytime he gains a level he gets a pack of grunts (marines) to help him out. He can also recuit grunts using money.
• The Knight is a sige tank. When he goes into sige mode, he trasforms into a dismounted knight (golith) and a noble steed (vulture). Although the knight has a very slow cool down time, he has high damage, and is ideal for destorying bosses. I need ideas of special abilites that the knight might have.

Archer:
level 1: Longbow (ghost)
level 3: Shortbow (marine)
level 5: composite longbow (Alexis)
level 7: rapid shot (stim packs)
level 9: Magic longbow (Duran)

The composite longbow archer can cloak (but only a night).
The magic longbow can cloak and use lockdown.
Don't worry about the mechanics for these (don't say things like: omg ur so stupid, heros automatically have everything reasearched and you don't know that), I got everything covered.

Mage:
level 1: Fireball 1 mana
level 2: gains energy to use hulucination + strom
level 3: Stasis 2 mana
level 4: Weaken 3 mana
level 5: Dark mage form (dark archon)
level 6: demon summoning 4 mana
level 7: gains malestrom
level 8: Death slug 5 mana
level 9: Mind control (ground units only)
level 10: demonic ritual (permenant demon summoning)

Necromancer:
level 1: 5 zombies
level 2: psionic strom, entangle, consume
level 3: 10 zombies
level 4: cloak
level 5: lich form
level 6: 10 zombies 5 skeletons
level 7: Swarm of bats gains consume in lich form
level 8: 10 zombies 10 skeletons
level 9: Plauge
level 10: 10 zombeis 10 skeletons 5 ghosts

The goblin cheiftan is a class that can build a town. I'll elaborate more on it later.

For the record, Chieftain is spelled this way, not the way above. It should be capitalized as well—just some grammar criticisms.

Meh to you.

I didn't mean to insult you—I was just trying to help.

Grammar is a very important thing in mapping—I'm easily turned off by bad grammar within maps while gaming and usually just quit when it occurs.

About you saying that having a 256x256 size map and people leaving when the maps long like say 2 hours or so.

Well Killers old Final Fantasy 7 rpg was 256x256 and most people stayed to play lol. And it wasn't even flashy in many ways.

I didn't feel insulted, that is why I said meh instead of

Well, you may be right. But another one of the merrets of a smaller map is that it takes less time to make

Hey, the idea on characters haveing diff. quests and fight is like my RPG. anyway, it's cool

Anyway, your knight can have these diff. abilities (you can change the names)

Holy Disruptor - Casts Distruption Web
Gate to Sunlit - Casts Recall then teleports the normal enemies into the void
Holy eye - casts a map revealer then disappears.
Subterranian Barrage - Casts burrowed lurkers

You can't create a disruption web with triggers
Almost, but I'm looking for a different flavor for knight spells.

Also, what I really need is an idea for another class. Unless you think 7 classes 5 players is enough.

I am currently working on a part of my map with very advanced triggers, so this means a piece of my map will soon be releaced in the form of an aplication to the SEN map making team.

Oh, and for the record, you can't control Mind Control. He'll be able to mind control anything, and you can't really restrict that. I recommend you scrap the spell. Maybe for the Knight you could create a wraith and name it "Lance" or something along those lines.

I like the lance idea, I'll consider that one, thanks.
If you mind control another persons class, then the game detects it, crashes your computer (it crashes because people who try to MC their allies really pisses me off), and gives the other guy his class back. If you mind control and air unit, then it automatically gives it back to the enemy player. Abilities such as mind control and lockdown are disabled in the presence of bosses (they lose all energy). Most units owned by the town are invulnerable, and therefore unmindcontorlable.

Basically what i'm trying to say, is. I'm not a newb, I've considered the problems mind control can raise.

I personally think it would be eaiser just to get rid of it, but you have some nice anti-measures in place of it, so you can go ahead and still use it. Maybe you could use Taunt as an ability for the knight, but that'd be more along the lines of a more warrior type fighter. It constantly orders all enemies in a fairly sized location to a small location centering on the knight, forcing them to ignore targets for a select time till the spell wears out.

I'm also thinking of a "Shield" spell of some sort. It has two variations I'm thinking of, everyone in a certain area around the Knight becomes invincible until they either leave, or the spell wears out. Also, "Divert" where it makes everyone invincible in the location, and he's the only one who isn't. This will give the effect that he is "protecting" and diverting attacks from his allies to him. This will also suggest some form of teamwork, as the other characters would protect him, as they cannot be hurt.

I have shield type spell thingys for the fighter planed out. As for taunt, I really like it, but it seems like it would fit the barbarian better. But the barbarian does need some more spells as well...
Taunts a keeper, and I'll start thinking about how to use the lance.

Meh....well if you need an character class i suggest making a creature a character class...such as Phoenix or Chimera. If you would prefer not to however, there is always the trusty Thief class (known for speed and lack of loyalty) or the Dark Knight (DK from now on) class (known for....bluntly....being badasses and having awesome spells but slow to level up) You should make the DK have a low starting attk but gain alot from weapon ups. Hmmmmm......well to just throw stuff out there you can go for a Pirate class....known for brute strength and close ties to shipmates. You seem like the "spell guy" so i won't tell you too many but i believe the DK should have mostly summoning spells or weakening spells. The Thief should make copies of itself (for moving so fast) and steal items for the heros. Phoenix-healing, Chimera-hmmm...hard to do....i would vote party support spells with average attk with an attk at all. Pirate-call for shipmates or something.

If you need a tester just ask. I'll post again if i have anymore ideas.

The knight can have a spell that lures people, and the barbarian can have a spell which drives them away... YAY good ideas.

Who wants to know the potions you can buy:

• Minor healing potion: Heals you to full health, doesn't heal any hits.
• Good healing potion: Doesn't effect your health, restores one hit.
• Emergency healing potion: Heals one hit and restores you to full health. You can drink it fast, but drinking it costs money as well as buying it.
• Full healing potion: Restores you to full health and hits.
• Full Mana + Energy potion: Restores you to full health and mana.
• Lite mana potion: Restores one mana.
• Energy potion: Restores you to full energy (if energy is allowed in your area).
• Invincibility potion: Makes you invincible for a short period of time.
• Strong Invincibility potion: Makes you invincible for a longer period of time. But hurts you 1 hit and puts your health to 1%.

Who wants to know the items you can buy:

• Lantern: An observer that hovers above your head allowing you to see cloaked units as well as up hills. And be extinguished by a strong wind, and needs oil to stay lit.
• Magic orb: Like the lantern, but it's a science vessle. The wizard can teach his special abilites, for a cost. Less suspectable to winds, but demons are bad for it as well as you.
• Horse: A vulture you can trasform into just in case you ever have to run.
• Lantern oil: Oil for the lantern. See above.
• Magic first aid kit: Lets you restore yourself to full health while on the road, but while your tending to yourself, you are vulerable to attacks, and it's hard to run while your sitting down.
• Enchanted boots: To give your warriors that extra boost that they need. (zelot leg upgrade).
• I need ideas for more items! More I say!

The amount I like those ideas are directly porportianal to the order they are listed in. Cataplut = great, booby traps = good if I can't get better ideas, Summoning circle = nah, Image projector = definatly not.

Status: Having some trouble with the backpack triggers. I stupidly thought you could add and subtract (not just set) the amount of reasource in a mineral field. Now I'm using reavers, but those come with another set of problems.

Sounds great so far... seems like alot of thought and ideas are being put into it which is always good. Just a few comments:


So dismounting makes the Knight faster by becoming a goliath? Shouldn't dismounting make him slower since his horse would be faster than him right .

I also agree with however said spelling was important earlier. Bad spelling makes it look like you spent less time than you did making your map and spelling errors are the easiest things to correct... all you have to do is read over what you typed a few times in your beta testing and you can get it mostly corrected before its released to the general public .