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View Full Version : The Infestor (map advice wanted)


Guyton
11-17-2007, 9:50 AM
I've been working on a map, not nearly as behemoth as some of the projects going on here, but big enough that it'll take me at least a straight week on consistant working (12 hr days) to pull it off.

It's called The Infestor, it a 3 person, multiplayer map se onboard something between a battlecruiser and a science vessel, this nameless starship has 7 decks and a main bridge, each deck has a primary system on it, as well as a few gaurds locked in a continuous patrol. Each one of the systems gives the crew of the ship a special bonus, for example, the armory adds weapon upgrades, and the sensor system allows constant survallience of every deck on ship. On the main bridge there are several special abilities which include calling an "extermination" team or unlockking the patrol for about 30 seconds.

So life's going good onboard this starship when they somehow pick up a new strain of Zerg. Physically, it appears to be a hydalisk, but it's actually far, far weaker and not even comperable to a single ships gaurd, the only advantage it has is a few special abilities such as heal, an teleport, but what really sets it apart is that for every enemy it kills it automatically creates a perfect replica of it's victim, for example, if The Infestor killed a gaurd, a new one would appear, exactly the same color as all the others, allied with them, and on the same patrol routes on the rest of them, except this one can break out of the routes and it's under the control of The Infestor. The same principle also applies to primary ship systems, destroy one of them and the crew loses it's benefits and you gain it's benefits.

The crew's goal is to use the special abilities on the bridge and the security staff on each deck to aprehend the Infestation OR protect the warp core (another primary system) for about 15 minutes, at which point they would arrive at safety unless The Infestor destroys it. The Infestor's goal is to proceed selectively by decks to take out certain systems 1 by 1 until it can get to the main bridge and take out the main computor at which point it will win.

I must clarify, that the patrolling gaurds on each deck will hardly be controllable except in special circumstances and when infested at which point they will be fully controllable by The Infestor, but it is highly unrecommended to take them out of patrol as the fully crew controlled security gaurds on each deck are generally capable of killing every other patroller on the ship single-handidly.

One last mechanic I never mentioned is the gate system, at the beginning the Infestor has virtually no access to other decks except by long, heavily gaurded tunnels, it can gain acces though by actually taking over the correct primary systems. If it has every possible gate or security sytem it can actually lock the crew out of certain areas.

Finally, The Infestor doesn't have to do all the killing, the Infested crew can kill an the corpses will still be reanimated, but the Infestor has to be on the same deck.

Now, I'm really looking for advice about almost anything from special abilities to new mechanics, you name it. The style of gameplay I'm looking for is a lot like The Thing maps where each player was matching his wits against the other and laying traps for one another, a battle of the wits between players within the given rules.

DarkMirror
11-17-2007, 12:30 PM
Great idea. Hmm... reminds me of a movie map I made once.

Ling666
11-17-2007, 5:29 PM
Possible special abilities: Invincibility for a few seconds, create a spider mine (has a max. # possible), hallucinations of the hero/unit, medic/SCV for a bit (like heal, but takes time and might not fully heal), place turret (gun traps/missile traps also with a max.), observer for a bit, freeze trap (when a unit steps close to the trap [trap could be a burrowed unit], they can't move for a few seconds max. of 1 at a time), and etc. The possibilities are endless, that's just what I can think of right now.

For mechanics, I suggest using a dropship for special abilities. When they get let out of the dropship have them go back in, take away gas/minerals/custom (if you want there to be a cost for specials), and then do the special. Just make sure to have the location that sets off the specials be turned off for air units, otherwise the units in the dropship will set it off. Otherwise, you could use a barracks/gateway/hatchery/whatever for specials. This is particularly handy because the cost can be introduced before you can do the special ability, and is easier to do trigger-wise, but it takes longer for the units to build than if you use a dropship.

Please let me play the map too, it sounds fun :).

Guyton
11-17-2007, 6:36 PM
Possible special abilities: Invincibility for a few seconds, create a spider mine (has a max. # possible), hallucinations of the hero/unit, medic/SCV for a bit (like heal, but takes time and might not fully heal), place turret (gun traps/missile traps also with a max.), observer for a bit, freeze trap (when a unit steps close to the trap [trap could be a burrowed unit], they can't move for a few seconds max. of 1 at a time), and etc. The possibilities are endless, that's just what I can think of right now.

For mechanics, I suggest using a dropship for special abilities. When they get let out of the dropship have them go back in, take away gas/minerals/custom (if you want there to be a cost for specials), and then do the special. Just make sure to have the location that sets off the specials be turned off for air units, otherwise the units in the dropship will set it off. Otherwise, you could use a barracks/gateway/hatchery/whatever for specials. This is particularly handy because the cost can be introduced before you can do the special ability, and is easier to do trigger-wise, but it takes longer for the units to build than if you use a dropship.

Please let me play the map too, it sounds fun :).

Some of those suggestions may be hard considering I'm a purist and only use Staredit, but I do appriciate them, espicially the dropship idea, I could do that and it would work well.

Twitch6000
11-17-2007, 9:20 PM
why only use staredit :/.(unless you use mac).

Protogod
11-17-2007, 9:23 PM
Some of those suggestions may be hard considering I'm a purist and only use Staredit, but I do appriciate them, espicially the dropship idea, I could do that and it would work well.

I can appreciate you wanting to be a purist, but really, you just cant keep up with other new maps if you stick to staredit. In retrospect staredit phails soooooo hard compared to scmdraft2. Theres really not a reason to purposefully avoid it.

Guyton
11-17-2007, 9:36 PM
why only use staredit :/.(unless you use mac).

I use both PC and mac actually, I'm constantly transporting maps between the systems for reasons of convenience, so that answeres protogods comment too. Not to mention maps made with mods just don't have the same feel as a staredit map, but if all else fails I'll try it, I prefer practicality to pride in any case.

ShadoHunter
11-28-2007, 1:44 AM
you should also mod the races to give it an extra element of challenge. download everything you need to start modding from http://files.filefront.com/StarcraftTools.zip/;9008185;/fileinfo.html you can also view a tutorial, to know the basics of these programs at http://www.moddb.com/tutorials/24126/beginners-stracraft-modding-tutorial anybody else can also dload these, as i want as many people possible to enjoy the freedom of home-made mods

DarkMirror
11-28-2007, 12:26 PM
This is supposed to be a multiplayer map. So thus, no mods.

SilverCrusader
11-28-2007, 9:55 PM
In retrospect staredit phails soooooo hard compared to SCMdraft 2
No... StarEdit beats SCMDraft in 2 things:
1. It has a very useful help file.
2. It will fix any corruption caused by SCMDraft 2 (Trust me, SCMDraft likes to corrupt maps).

ShadoHunter
11-29-2007, 1:48 AM
This is supposed to be a multiplayer map. So thus, no mods.

:o oh. sorry about that.

ps. just wondering about the map.... will you be using doodads? like is it going to be filled with doodads, a couple here and there or none at all...?

firedraco
11-30-2007, 8:12 PM
No... StarEdit beats SCMDraft in 2 things:
1. It has a very useful help file.
2. It will fix any corruption caused by SCMDraft 2 (Trust me, SCMDraft likes to corrupt maps).

SCMDraft corrupts maps? I've never had that happen to me before. :concern:

Dem0nS1ayer
12-01-2007, 2:58 PM
No... StarEdit beats SCMDraft in 2 things:
1. It has a very useful help file.
2. It will fix any corruption caused by SCMDraft 2 (Trust me, SCMDraft likes to corrupt maps).

Very true Silver. Whenever I'm not sure what a trigger does, I always use the Staredit help file. ;)