I have returned! (USDA Approved)

After a somewhat lengthy hiatus from posting pretty much anything on OSP, I am proud to annouce the completion of DM-A51-Warehouse along with 4 simple Warcraft 3 maps loosely based around Advance Wars maps of the same name.

Now as to why I’ve been gone, I’ve had quite a few things going for me lately and posting to the blog just hadn’t been a huge priority until recently. Don’t fret, I plan to return to my normal routine of creating walls of text for your viewing pleasure. In other news, with Area 51: Warehouse out of the way, I plan to focus hard on finishing up Tetris Attacks and getting it onto Newgrounds so ya’ll can have the pleasure of voting 5.

Unreal Tournament 2004

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AREA 51: WAREHOUSE
Deathmatch (6-10 players)
August 2009

“Back on Planet Earth, a certain secret military base, dubbed Area 51, was thought to be lost forever. Recently, an excavation team uncovered what was thought to be just another warehouse filled with ancient nonsense… that is until they saw the large 51s paints on its walls. Inspection of the crates stored there proved that the technology that once existed has long since been surpassed.”

Warcraft 3

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Bean Island
Melee Map
August 2009

Crater Isle
Melee Map
August 2009

Triangles
Melee Map
August 2009

Fan Isle
Melee Map
August 2009

End of an Age

Tonight was my last night of class at the ITT Technical Institute of Nashville, TN. I won’t officially be a graduate until September 18. It doesn’t seem like I’ve been here for 4 years already. It seems just like yesterday that I was just getting started. Boy, time certainly flies (and not necessarily when you’re having fun) and it’s time to move on to the next phase of my life. Though Area 51: Data Storage is not quite complete, I’m going to take a short breather from, well, just about everything. A sort of congratulations to myself for having made it this far. Once I return, I’m going to knock that out quick, fast, and easy.

I’m torn about what I will do after A51:DS is completed. I already have the plans laid out for Area 51: Warehouse, but I’m considering taking a break from Unreal Tournament 2004 and drawing up another short module for Neverwinter Nights, maybe even a Warcraft III map or two, before returning back to UnrealEd. We’ll see when we get there, eh?

On another note, job hunting has begun and I’ve begun sending out resumes to various companies. I’ve started with ones that are actually looking for Level Designers, but I will still send it out to companies that aren’t looking, since they could still potentially be needing a FNG in the future.

Fountain of Hope v1.0

I just finished wracking my brain over Warcraft III’s trigger system. Trying to get it to work as I had originally intended was hardly than I thought. There has been a slight change to it as of now. A player will get the buffs that the fountain offers no matter what kind of unit they have there and lose them if they leave. The type of buff(s) has also changed. Now players will receive: extra health, extra mana, extra armor, faster attack speed, faster movement speed, and heroes get extra stats. While this does give a significant advantage, enough that players will fight for that advantage, it is not enough to make a player overpowered. Perhaps in a future version, I will figure out how to make it only give the buffs if the player has a hero there, like I originally intended. I will be uploading the map soon and you can download it from the Warcraft III page.

FoH Work Began

I started working on the Fountain of Hope last night, since it will be much easier to complete than Ironforge Revisited. I got the level together rather quickly, but since I haven’t really had all that much experience with the Warcraft III editor, I’m having a little trouble with the trigger system. My goal with the map is to give a buff (going to be a health bonus at the moment), but I have different ideas on how to go about it and I still got to figure out how to get it working the way I want it.

One thing that will remain the same, regardless of how I go about this, is that only a hero unit in the vicinity of the Fountain of Hope will grant the bonus. I don’t want players being able to leave a peon there for it.

The first idea I had for the fountain was kind of similar to king of the hill (where you only get points if you are the only one there-in this case, the bonus). I’m sure I can do this, because I’ve seen some pretty good maps.

The second idea was to give the bonus to players regardless of who all is near the fountain, as long as they have a hero there. Reasoning for this is that players in the vicinity of the fountain will be fighting each other anyways and if fighting is always going on there, no one would get the bonus.

Another possible idea is to grant the bonus for a certain amount of time, maybe 1-2 minutes, when a hero gets near the fountain. I’m not so sure about this one, but it would make it so players don’t have to lose a hero when it comes to attacking another players base.

Whatever I decide to do, I’m certainly going to have to do a lot of trial and error until I learn the trigger system.

IF and FoH Documentation Complete

I’ve completed the documentation for both Ironforge and The Fountain of Hope. Keep in mind that these are working documents, so they may or may not receive additions and/or changes as I move forward in the building of the levels. I will be updating the Unreal Tournament 2004 and Warcraft III pages shortly. You will be able to download these documents there along with working test versions once they are ready.

The Fountain of Hope

Initially, I couldn’t think of a new and/or theme for my Warcraft III map, but as I worked on the LDD and it slowly came together in my mind, it just popped out all at once. Here’s a little background story of the map:

Stories of this place have circled around taverns for decades. The water flowing from the center is said to be magical. The Fountain of Hope old adventurers called it. It is said that the water from it can cure any ill, give strength to move mountains, and even revive the dead. No one knows wether or not any of this is true, but creatures of all kinds have fought over it since time began.

Below is a scan of the layout for the level. As you can see, The Fountain of Hope is in the center of the map and all players start around it and have equal chance to reach it by going around the barrier. Obviously, this is a rough representation of what the level will be; it won’t really be so “blocky.”

Revised Project Schedules

After discussing my proposed schedules with my instructor, I have revised them slightly to better suit the time it will take to accomplish each of the milestones. As you can see, I have allotted more time for blocking in my UT2K4 level, condensed weapons, items, and AI pathing into one milestone, and shifted final texturing further down since it is not as important as having a fully functional level for testing. I condensed creating the WC3 map into one week, since it will be a relatively simple map and will not take much time to complete.

Unreal Tournament 2004

Week 3: Complete documentation
Week 4: Block-in the level
Week 5: Block-in the level
Week 6: Refine architecture
Week 7: Weapon and item placement; AI Pathing
Week 8: Apply final texturing
Week 9: Level Optimization
Week 10: Final Testing

Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne

Week 3: Complete documentation
Week 4: Construct terrain; place resources, structures, and units
Week 5: Play testing
Week 6: Refine Gameplay
Week 7: Final Testing

Project Schedules

One of the things we have to do for the project is develop a personal project schedule, listing our milestones and such. Obviously, this is not only useful in helping keep us on track, but shows that we can plan according to our abilities, or at least a best guess of our abilities… we are human after all and tend to think ourselves better than we really are. With that said, I’m going to lay down some milestones for my projects and I do intend to meet them.

Unreal Tournament 2004

Week 3: Complete documentation
Week 4: Block-in the level
Week 5: Refine architecture
Week 6: Apply texturing
Week 7: Weapon and item placement
Week 8: AI Pathing
Week 9: Level Optimization
Week 10: Final Testing

Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne

Week 3: Complete documentation
Week 4: Construct terrain
Week 5: Place resources, structures, and units
Week 6: Play testing
Week 7: Refine Gameplay
Week 8: Final Testing

Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne – Standard 2v2

The other level I will be working on for my Capstone Project will be a standard 2v2 map for W3:TFT. I say standard, because it will not have modified units, structures, etc. nor will it have cutscenes, triggers, or anything else that would qualify it as a custom map (and yes, I realize it is still technically a custom map… it’s standard custom :P). I will hammer out the details in due time, but I plan on there being a least 8 gold mines and at least one special structure, like a mercenary camp.