(12) Abyssium [Pre-1.24]

[Sacreligious]

CURRENT VERSION: 0.47

Summary
Abyssium is a melee-like game, with much more emphasis on realistic warfare than a regular melee game. While rushing is vital to thwart your opponents economies and plans, you simply cannot destroy the enemy base within 5 minutes of the game. Alliances are done in-game, allowing diplomacy to play a large role in the game in forming build-orders and strategies.

Objectives
- Spread out & build a town center. From there, your base begins...
- In most modes, you use -ally <color>, -unally <color>, and -truce <color> commands to set your alliances. A truce is an alliance without sharing vision. Additionally you can substitute "<color>" with "all" to perform the action to all other players.

Allying carefully is one of the keys to winning, but knowing when to backstab your friends is vital as well, if you want to win.

Game Modes
- There are six different game modes, chosen by Player 1 (Red) at the start of the game.
* Normal - Default settings enabled.
* Conquest - You must destroy all of a player's buildings to eliminate them.
* Coin Spawn - Passive Gold Income disabled, but gold coins spawn around the map that you can pick up by attacking them (with any unit). Gold coins increase in value at a semi-random rate.
* Free For All (FFA) - Allying and Unallying disabled.
* Income Only (a.k.a. High Income) - Removes all gold mines from the game. Gold Income starts at 3, and is recieved twice as fast.
* Wonder - Technology Specialists can build a "Wonder." Finishing a wonder wins the game. Players are notified the location of any wonders in construction by pings.

Features
- Well-balanced units and buildings and customized armor/attack types.
- Tons of custom units, all unique in their own way.
- An epic terrain of various environments, each with strategical strengths and weaknesses.
- Very efficient triggering, carefully checked for any memory leaks. Plays very well on BattleNet even with a full house.
- An easy learning curve, but tough to master. First-time players can certainly win if they play their cards right.
- Proper credits given to every single author of imported material or map contributor.

Screenshots & Download (JPG format)

[Tim.]

You clearly have read the rules, I will gladly review this map asap.

[Tim.]

I must say this is by far the best enhanced melee map I have seen submitted here yet. While preparing my report I found I had plenty of good things to say, but hardly any negative issues. I will list some pros and cons, then give my decision.

Pros:

• Great download time. No wasted space on useless models and skins.
• Clean yet unique loading screen. It gave me an idea of what I was in for, and had a little flair with your clan logo. Nice touch.
• Exceptional terrain, I don’t know if you are a terrainer by trade, but if you aren’t you should certainly look into the possibility. You did a great job on perspectives and diversity. I especially liked the rivers.
• Simple gameplay to grasp, complex to master. Perfect type of curve.

Cons:

• You cannot relocate your town hall after creation. What happens when you built your town hall 2 feet from the enemies? All you do is send minutemen at each other until one town hall is dead. You should be able to suicide your town hall or have there be some other way of getting a new start.
• VIP kicking command? Come on now, for such a mature map developer isn’t that a little childish? You are welcome to keep a hidden kick command, but do not broadcast it to the 99% of players NOT on the VIP list. Just let the VIP’s know personally they have that ability. Nevertheless, a kick command should simply not exist at all in my opinion.
• The top right portion of terrain is extremely bare, work on it.
• Your –name command is flawed. It has no character maximum, therefore I changed my name to something like 50 spaces. This pushed my text into the middle of the screen and had some odd side effects like message clipping. Make a maximum name length like 15 characters. Also prevent the | character.
• The horsemen champions sleep ability has a glitch where sometimes they play their run animation rather than their stand animation. Fix this.
• It is easy for players to build huge surpluses and dominate. There needs to be a checks & balance system.

My final stance is unapproved for two reasons: a) the unfinished terrain in the top right and that b) a huge surplus can be created easily. Work on these too issues and update, then you will have my approval.

Regretfully, unapproved.

[DeaD_MeN_WalkiN]

The Onslaught mode really needs some balance, the Ghouls killed my units in 2 hit kill.

P.S That was the first wave which destroyed my base.

[blu_da_noob]

I tested with Tim, and I pretty much agree with all of his points. I can't add too much on the likes of gameplay, as I was the victim of the un-relocatable townhall. What this did give me, however, was a good view of the terrain (when I died :P). There were a couple of places where terrain was a little plain (top right included), but the the foresty areas were great. Overall, the atmosphere was very good.

One thing that Tim didn't mention was the gold mines. We only played one game, so we can't be sure if they were randomly placed or not. If they aren't, there may be problems with some areas being so much better than others (due to better gold mine accessibility). There was also a place where two gold mines were actually overlapping.

I think I'd need to play it again (and actually get a chance to get some units :) ) before I could approve it, but I like the general feel of the map (and this is from someone who generally doesn't like altered melee).

You cannot relocate your town hall after creation. What happens when you built your town hall 2 feet from the enemies? All you do is send minutemen at each other until one town hall is dead. You should be able to suicide your town hall or have there be some other way of getting a new start.

Just to add to this, to prevent abuse you could limit this to the first 5 minutes, or something. I just happened to build mine at the same place as two enemies, and I was basically screwed.

[SeasonsOfLove]

Originally Posted by blu_da_noob

One thing that Tim didn't mention was the gold mines. We only played one game, so we can't be sure if they were randomly placed or not. If they aren't, there may be problems with some areas being so much better than others (due to better gold mine accessibility). There was also a place where two gold mines were actually overlapping.

They are all pre-placed, which does make some areas much better, even if they are bit more exposed to attacks.

[Sacreligious]

Thank you for the extraordinary report. I could host the map 10 times on BattleNet (public) and not get the same feedback.

I will get to work immediately on a new version. I don't see the need to list the changes I will make, since most of it is what you said. Plus, you'll find out soon once I upload the updates list.

I just have a few questions. I agree with you guys on their points, I just need a little clearing up.

1) By the "top right terrain," do you mean the whole desert area, or just the actual top-right corner?

2) Yes, the gold mines are pre-placed. What area(s) did you find better than others, may I ask? Randomly placing them, I think, would only create further disproportion. The idea I had in mind was, the more gold mines there were, the more vulnerable the place was (and vice versa).

This basically would mean that late-game, they would be worse off as their enemies would have nearly as much gold as them, with upkeep contributing to this as well, yet they would still have a more-vulnerable base. Though some areas like the bottom right corner look to have a decent supply of gold mines, and only 2 paths of entrance, it has a lot of trouble expanding if there is any degree of competition, since they are separated by a good distance from the expanding gold mines.

One thing I noticed though, is the desert (top-right) will have a few additional gold mines in this next version, along with its slowed movement.

3) Were the surpluses a result of gold mines, or income? If gold mines, I can tweak the current upkeep settings (the current checks & balances system), along with a few other small changes. If income, I'd be happy to nerf it (Income is for lazy people in my opinion ).

[blu_da_noob]

Originally Posted by Sacreligious

1) By the "top right terrain," do you mean the whole desert area, or just the actual top-right corner?

Whole desert area.

2) Yes, the gold mines are pre-placed. What area(s) did you find better than others, may I ask? Randomly placing them, I think, would only create further disproportion. The idea I had in mind was, the more gold mines there were, the more vulnerable the place was (and vice versa).

I don't think they should be randomly placed, I was just wondering because at one place (little piece of raised land surrounded by shallow water, sort of bottom-leftish area) there are two gold mines which are so close they are overlapping, which seemed kinda weird. And I guess you can ignore the gold mine advantage thing for now, as I haven't had too much of an opportunity to experience the actual play :P.

One thing I noticed though, is the desert (top-right) will have a few additional gold mines in this next version, along with its slowed movement.

One thing this reminds me of: when I was slowed in this area, my peasant had the slow (standard WC3 spell) buff, which looks a little unprofessional. I suggest you make a custom buff with a short description and different icon (probably tornado).

[Sacreligious]

I made a quick search around the whole map, and I actually did not find a single gold mine that overlapped. However, I found one or two gold mines that were adjacent to each other, which may have shown up differently in-game, and they have been separated.

Also, the desert-slow icon was a custom buff, with a custom text "This unit moves slower due to its surroundings." I have changed the icon to prevent confusion though.

[Chuckle_Brother]

When I get a hold of Tim. online next I will see if I can rig up a test.

[HernanG]

Very nice map, im sure u spent a few hours in polishing, i love details such as the colored building help, different armors and damages.

The only thing i can point out, is that spots in the Foresty area (i think this was the... North-West zone) are very small, u can only build 1 or 2 structures.

[Sacreligious]

Thanks for the comment.

The foresty area is meant to be small :) but I'm sure you can squish in much more than just a few structures, especially with careful planning. If there are any spot(s) that *look* like they should be buildable, but are not, then that is a bug and I'd like to know about it. Don't forget you can attack (and knock down) trees with axemen or peasants as well, freeing up additional space.

They are rather low in gold mines, and low in space, but the positional advantage of high-ground to low-ground, along with the difficulty of being attacked compensates for any deficiencies.

Update:
V0.39 Uploaded. One of the changes is the game is now 12 players, so if a moderator could be kind enough to change the title, that'd be fantastic.

Updates List:

=Bug Fixes=
- Onslaught (Game Mode) removed until further notice.
- "-clan" and "-author" bugs fixed.
- "-name" trigger capped at 15 characters (standard BNet name limit). Also prohibits the use of a "|" character.
- "-kick" command removed.
- Revitalize I and II fixed.

=Balancing=
- Added 3 gold mines in the Desert area.
- Upkeep levels redone, and are currently as follows:
* No Upkeep: 0-30 food
* Low Upkeep: 31-60 food
* Medium Upkeep: 61-100 food
* High Upkeep: 101-150 food
* Insane Upkeep: 151-200 food
- Lowered the initial cost & cost increment of upgrading Gold Income slightly
- Lowered the upgrading time of Gold Income slightly
- Gold Income is now gained every second, instead of twice a second.
- High Income (Game Mode) now boosts initial income to 5 gold

=Improvements=
- Game is now 12 players.
- Harsh Environment (Desert) icon changed.
- Improved terrain in the desert, along with a few small enhancements in some other areas.
- You can now relocate your town center within the first five minutes of the game at no cost.

Update #2
- Screenshots Added
- Download link fixed.

[Chuckle_Brother]

Just got a very very quick test(35 mins) off. And I gotta say, at first glace this looks VERY promising.

Aside from a few minor issues(some balance that I don't quite have a fix on, need more testing) and some minor graphical. Mainly dealing with damage/armor-type icons that have an upgrade box, but on units who seem to not recieve any upgrades.

Next version update I will do a proper big test with Tim. and some others. Not gonna pass judgement yet until I see what you do with it.

[Sacreligious]

I will fix the icons, I had originally left them off since at first it didn't seem worth the extra file size, but I now see how much it sticks out from the rest of the map.

Thanks.

[Chuckle_Brother]

Played a few LANs with my neighboors, and so now I have a bit more of a grip on the actual gameplay.

I found a bit of the same thing Tim. noted before, you can outpace other players very quickly if you know what you're doing. Still, gonna play around with it a bit more before I decide.


P.S. Looked more at the terrain, and it IS very nicely presented, you should give yourself a hand, those rivers look very cool.