HUNTED:

What can I say- this is my swansong. My years of mapping has led to this creation. With a completion time of a little under 2 months, I can say that I am thoroughly impressed and satisfied with my work. This map sets the bar for Arena/Survival/RPG maps, not joking. With a diverse character building system, in depth spells, a total of 50 =) and intense gameplay- this game drips with awesome. You will have fun playing this map, you will be challenged to find the best build to take on anyone who challenges you. Players are even allowed to both be the same power.

I present to you: Hunted v1.04. It owns all kinds of shit, no lie. Hours of testing have led to this perfection. There have been numerous complaints; however, from people who could not grasp the intensity of this game... For that, i also present to you: THE OFFICIAL HUNTED STRATEGY GUIDE. Enjoy it.
STORY:

Intro
This is a twisted experiment. An unknown party has left you stranded on a unexplored island. They tell you that you are not the only one they have taken here. The island grants you one power to aid in your survival. You are also told that the only way to earn your freedom is to be the last person alive on the island- which means you must kill the others who are stranded. But don't feel bad, they are out to kill you as well, with powers just as destructive as the one given to you. Diplomacy? You can team up with another person to try to survive, but who can you trust when only one person will get out of this alive. This unknown party has their eyes on you, maybe your safe as long as they need you alive, but maybe not.

The Mist
So what's so special about this island? Besides the extended terrain done by yours truly, this island is often covered by a thick mist. This mist has magical properties and is the source of these powers that you are given. The mist comes and goes at random times. When the sun breaks through to the island, it is impossible to hide. At least the mist gives you some cover from everyone who is out to kill you. Also, while the mist is think, your MP will regenerate, MP does not regenerate when the mist is not present. This adds strategy to builds that use their powers.

Territory and Diplomacy
The island is separated into different sections called territories. You can claim these territories to gain vision of the area and also to gain experience. You will gain experience not only from claiming territories, but also over time at an increased rate for each territory you control. Players can steal territories from each other by standing on a 'Territory Marker' for at least 15 seconds. Diplomacy can also be a large part of this game. Teams can be powerful, but also lead to your death. Remember that in the end, only one person can be alive, so you can't trust anyone. Each player has one territory defended by an Ancient Device (Cannon) with an Alter next to it. The alter can restore your HP to your current maximum, but it will need time to recharge after you use it. You will know the alter is ready to use by a visual cue above it.

CUSTOM STATS SYSTEM:
One highlighted idea of this map is my hero customization and level up system that i plan on using. I want the players to really be able to diversify their builds. Unlike some games, Multiple players WILL be able to use the same skill set, but i want to maximize the possibilities for character builds to ensure that even two people who pick the same power can be totally different characters. One way I will achieve this is by breaking up level up bonuses into 5 categories. Players will receive a choice of which to power up with their newly gained level.

Vitality- Investing in this area will increase the maximum Life of your Hunter. This is important because once people start breaking out their final spells it won't take much to kill you at low HP. The maximum level for this stat is 15.

Strength- Investing in this area will give your minerals. Yours minerals are used to upgrade. You can upgrade the hydra range and speed if you wish, or you can put the minerals into attack and defense upgrades. Attack upgrades will carry over into your basic skills.

Skill- Skill points. Think Diablo2. Basically, you are allowed to put up to 3 skill points into each of yours spells. This enables you to have 4 levels total of each spell. Each level will increase the usefulness of effectiveness of the spell, but it will still be the same spell. The maximum level for this stat is 12.

Intelligence- Investment in this area will increase the rate that you regain your Magic energy. This may be important for builds that focus highly on magic use to damage enemies or any other effects their spells may do. The maximum level for this stat is 15.

Power- Your magical capability. Investment into this will increase the maximum amount of Magic energy your body can hold. Some builds may not invest much into this area because they could revolve around use of their first or second spell. The maximum level for this stat is 15.

WILD ANIMALS:

To make it more realistic, there will be wild animals roaming around. These animals can be killed. Killing them then will gain you a little bit of EXP and a little bit of health. As of now, the only confirmed animal is BEAR; however, TIGER may be added as well.

PASSIVE ABILITIES:

Sense: Player is more alert of the surroundings.
Might: Player gains strength more rapidly.
Enlightenment: Player regains MP faster.
Evade: Player has a chance to avoid damage.

SPELL SETS:

There are 15 different spell sets to choose from. In addition to these, there is one default skill set that coexists with the one you choose. The following is a list of available spells and their functions.

Spell Set(1): This is the K Hotkey no matter which power you choose.

Spell Set(2): Fire
1. Burn - Damages all enemies in the area. Upgrades increase the damage dealt and the duration of the spell.
2. Flame Aura - Emit flames that dance around you, harming your enemies. Upgrades will increase the number of flames and the duration of the spell.
3. Volcano - A powerful attack with a long and short range effect. Upgrades will increase this spells damage.

Spell Set(3):Lightning
1. Bolt - Damages nearby enemies. Upgrades will increase the damage of this spell.
2. Particle Storm - A static field prevents enemies from casting their spells while in the area. Upgrades increase the duration of this spell
3. Lightning - Damages enemies in an area. The lightning shoots in a (usually) downward direction. Upgrades will lengthen the duration and damage of this spell.

Spell Set(4):Time
1. Slow - Any nearby enemies will move slower. Upgrades will lengthen the effects of this spell.
2. Immobilize - Enemies will be unable to move, but still able to attack. Upgrades will lengthen the effects of this spell.
3. Teleport - This spell teleports you to your base. While teleporting, arrows are shot at any visible enemies. Upgrades will decrease the cooldown time required for this spell, and the number of arrows fired.

Spell Set(5):Energy
1. Heal - Heals some HP. Upgrades increase the amount of HP healed.
2. Laser - Damages a nearby enemy. Upgrades increase the damage of this spell.
3. Energy Field - High concentrations of energy paralyze enemies in the area. Upgrades will increase the duration of this spell.

Spell Set(6):Earth
1. Clay Golem - This calls a golem from the earth to attack enemies. Upgrades in this spell will increase the number of golems you can command up to a maximum of 6(it might be 8).
2. Petrify - Prevents enemies from moving or attacking. Upgrades will lengthen the effects of this spell.
3. Quake - A subterranean attack on nearby enemies. Upgrades in this spell will increase the damage dealt.

Spell Set(7):Death
1. Apparition - Apparitions attack the enemy. Upgrades increase apparitions and duration.
2. Terror - Stops enemies in their tracks. Upgrades will lengthen the duration of this spell.
3. Death Sentence - They will die in X seconds... Upgrades lower X, players afflicted with this must go to their alter to remove the curse.

Spell Set(8):Wind
1. Highwind - Heavy winds decrease the movement speed of all people in the area. Upgrades increase the duration of this effect.
2. Gale - This spell clears the mist from the island and deal damage. Upgrades will decrease the damage for this spell.
3. Tornado - This spell drags enemies toward it, hoping to damage them when they reach the center. Upgrades increase the damage dealt by the tornado.

Spell Set(9):Water
1. Vortex - A vortex appears that drains MP from enemies inside of it over time. Upgrading this spell will increase it's length.
2. Torrential Rain - Strong currents damage nearby enemies. Upgrades increase the damage dealt by this spell.
3. Freeze - Completely freezes all units in the area. Upgrades increase the length of this spell.

Spell Set(10):Light
1. Scan/Solar Charge - Creates minimap pings that constantly follow an enemy hit by this spell. Upgrades will lengthen the effect. / Solar Charge can only be used in the sunlight and it makes you invincible for a short time.
2. Binding Light - Stuns enemies. Upgrades will increase the stun length.
3. Scorch - Drains the MP of all nearby enemies. More MP is drained with upgrades.

Spell Set(11):Life
1. Cure - Heals HP, more HP is healed with higher upgrades.
2. Shield - A shield protects you from damage. Upgrading this spell will strengthen the shield.
3. Tranquil - Protections from damage for a short amount of time. Upgrades increase the length of time.

Spell Set(12):Spirit
1. Possess - Nearby enemies lose control of their hunter for a short time.
2. Neutralize - Brainwashes enemies into thinking you are their ally for a short time.
3. Curse - Afflicts enemies with numerous negative statuses and drains some MP. Upgrades makes it more brutal for your victim.

Spell Set(13):Machinery
1. Assault Vehicle - Summons an assault vehicle. Increased maximum amount with upgrades.
2. Detonation - Detonates your assault vehicles to damage and stun enemies caught in the explosions.
3. Metal Storm - Condensed metal ions from you surroundings rain down on nearby enemies. Upgrading this spell increases the damage dealt.

Spell Set(14):Dark
1. Fade - A Teleport-ish move. More info later.
2. Blind - Anyone hit by this spell will become blind. Upgrading this spell will increase the length of time enemies are inflicted with the blindness.
3. Shadow Flare - It hurts. Upgrading makes it hurt more.

Spell Set(15):Arcane
1. Blade Dance - Damages nearby enemies with blades. Upgrades will increase damage, duration.
2. Disable - Puts a curse on enemies that will not allow them to cast spells. Upgrades increase the duration of this curse.
3. Bleed - Inflict open wounds on the enemy, causing them to get damaged over time. Increased spell levels will increase the duration of this effect.

Spell Set(16):Gravity
1. Gravity - Same as highwind,
2. Magnetize - Drags enemies toward you. Strengthens the effect with upgrades
3. Black Hole - Drags in enemies from all over the island. Players are damaged if they get too close to the center of this spell. Upgrades increase the damage dealt by the black hole.


SCREENSHOTS:









More to come. GET THIS V1.04 NOW, It's even closer to perfection than the last version =)

Attachments:

Post has been edited 11 time(s), last time on Mar 29 2009, 9:36 pm by Norm.

Haha. I remember playing with you and making people leave :].
If you want, ill test for you because i know the concept of the game

Edit : This game rocked so bad.

I haven't played it, but I will simply because if your description. Whether or not it turns out to be good it's refreshing to hear an author really get behind their work and just say that they really believe in it. 9 times out of ten it sounds like the Farty when he releases a new program/tool, "Just whipped this up really quick, I wasn't really trying" When I read things about a map from its own author like "well it works, theres still more I could do if I wasn't lazy." They are asking me not to blame them that it isn't fun because they just said it isn't fun.

ANYWAYS, hopefully I find someone hosting this cuz I can't.

wow i just saw this map in the concept area pop up not long ago maybe a week lol and boom now i see it finished hell yea im dling this lol. sounded so neat ty.

*Magicide orgasms*

Must.

Host.

Now.

I played this a couple of times and i have to say it was very fun. except for the fact that people kept getting owned and leave. I don't see any bugs so far. great work btw

You should add a small spell description in the mission objectives. Would help out players alot.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Mar 22 2009, 10:55 pm by Xero.

@Positively: =) Ty for all your help in the demo stages BTW- I can't wait to totally own u in the finished product.

@CAFG: Thanks for the encouragement- I do believe this map has a lot of potential for success, and a description like that I think is necessary to get people to actually try it out lol. If you can't find anyone hosting it- try op HuntingGrounds on USWest, My e-friends and I are often there.

@killer: Definitely try it =) This was one of my most exciting projects that I've done and that is the reason why I completed it so quickly. The Day I first started putting things together was January 20 something. I think you will like what you see.

@Magicide: I don't have much to say to that, but I didn't want to leave anyone else in my response chain lol. Thanks for your excitement, I hope it doesn't fail to entertain you.

@Xero: Fun is what I was aiming for =) Glad to hear positive feedback. Yes, I know that people getting owned and leaving is a problem as of now, but my e-friends and I are trying to start a system to educate people on how to play better so that less people are complete noobs.

@General Audience: ONLY 5 HITS? Gross. DL This. Play It. Appreciate it.

More info pl0x?

Sorry for the vagueness lol. The in-game description is actually a little better. This spell is actually Shadow Marker/Fade, and it works like this:

Step 1: Cast Shadow Marker. A Shadow Marker appears at the point of casting. It has 30 HP, so it can be destroyed by your enemies, so place it somewhere that isn't well-traveled.
Step 2: Cast Fade. This is the same hotkey as Shadow Marker, except now that you have shadow marker casted, it is fade. This spell teleports you (after a charge up) to the Shadow Marker.
Step 3: Upgrade. At level 1, Fade takes nearly 3.5 seconds to charge up. This is bad, so upgrade the spell. At maximum level, Fade will only take .6 seconds to charge.
Step 4: Repeat. After you cast Fade, your Shadow Marker will go away. You must start from Step 1 again to successfully cast this spell.

This game is okay- the ideas are good, but there are many things that could make it better:

- Make the Spells more Original or Independant. Most of the spells consist of teleporting, stunning and attacking.
- Make the spells more flashy . To me, they all look the same. I can't tell one from another. Also, some spell effects are not obvious.
- Maybe make the games shorter? One game takes about 30 mins. It would take a long time to experience all the spell sets, and it gets boring and repeatitive. Maybe you can shorten the time to capture a territory. It seems like capturing is the whole game.
- The game would benefit from better terrain. No offense, but the current terrain is ugly and unbalanced

fun game but i really cant see my self playing it as competition. its more to pass the time for me because of some of the problems.

changes needed imo
1. spell descrips big time. this will help alot (i had no freaking clue what fade/ shadow script did it did not seem like it worked to me.) As a side note its really hard to tell the changes from 1 lvl to the next. i understand the more u upgrade a spell the better it gets. but its really hard to see if something is worth upgrading or if u should hold your upgrade until you can afford a better spell. maybe a descrip of lvl differences would help also.

2. the pickin of passive ability needs to be forced to pick b4 the game starts after everyone picks a element. reason why is because noobs don't realize they have to pick one and noone can upgrade any of there spells until everyone picks this.

3. upgrading spells would be helpful if each had a better name than a letter. i know you did it for the hotkeys but its really annoying to have to check to see whats what all the time. it may be easier if you changed it to spell1 spell2 spell3 and then common spell or whatever your calling the spell that everyone has access to no matter what element they choose.

4. some spells are rediculously overpowered. that mana drain one in particular is just insane. especially for day time use. if you have a big mana pool you can drain everyone elses mana and then fight. i mean i cant get out of range of the stupid thing. it would be better if it drain mana in a location. at least then theyd have to follow ur butt to actually hurt you quite as bad.

over all good game.

Heh. We'll see. Your Volcano trick was lame though :[

as a suggestion, you should add some type of interface during the spell type selection process that tells you what the element specializes in. Just an idea that would help new players get a grasp on what they're about to choose.

Well.. You've heard My complaints already ^.- ...
You're getting quite a few good feedbacks too. You should actually listen to them <.<... (I hope u do, cause u don't seem to listen to mine :C)

You're making the same mistakes as MetalGear with his ... Shireken/Hero Wars 2009/<insert copied name here>..
You're implementing too much, there is great details but they are NOT implemented well. The game doesn't flow, and neither does your ideas... They are good ideas, and I liked the original idea of survival tremendously...
But they were put together simply.. not well...

I'm only telling you this much cause I think this map has potential.

1. I agree with all of Yoshi's points (!Yoshi! ). Your game is solid, but is effectively boring. Read between his remarks..
- More original spells -- means your spells are boring
- More flashy spells -- means your spells are boring
- Better Terrain -- means your terrain is boring AND unbalanced (<-- will get to later)
- Make game shorter -- means your game drags on way too long and is boring

Now I have been called mr. ADHD, but the general B.net public has worse mental illnesses than I do. They have ADHD, Dyslexia, and Schizophrenia (donno how to spell :S) at the same time. If you want ur game fun, it's got to be not boring... which gets to my second point...

2. Your Spells!!
- It is a nice idea to have different themes of spells.. only problem is they are similar... Gravity = Slow = HighWind ... Immobilize = Freeze = blah blah blah ... Sure, in TS, there's Crippling Strike, Shockwave, Static Charge, Grenade, Bomber, Charge of Courage, and etc. .. but in TS, they are different units, with completely different builds. You are using all Hydras, so your spell sets have to be VERY different...
- Obviously, some of your spells are excellent.. I bet your death sentence is awesome, and I like Shadow Fade... but the rest sounds.. meh~.. They feel all feel like Supportive Spells...
- I really recommend you remove some spell sets.. Like "Time", which is utterly useless, and mix Spell Sets like Energy, Life, or Arcane..... Shadow and Dark... There're just too many to make any of them significant. This is especially important as we are all hydras.. And since you only need to control the hydra and the spells, with not much opposing forces, alike spells = boredom.
- Also, the Spells don't seem very balanced in the moment.. which brings me to the third obvious baddie..

3. Balancing..
which you need more time on (Which is fine, as long as you got the first two points, you can take ur time on this) ... The Terrain is not well balanced... Fix it...
Also, remember I said not to make the game a game of Territories? But it is.. it's not about hunting people anymore :S.. it's just about gaining the most territories... which boggles my mind.. What were you thinking?? I warned you about this one :S... it's not fun running around taking territories...
Ways to avoid that is 1. Make the arena smaller..
2. Make this a team game.
3. Put different Perks for each territory... maybe some will give you extra mana when you're next to it.. some will have some defenses...

The territories are right now a Must in the game, but they are all so generic, which makes the game boring.
I guess "Boring" really is the thing that's pulling this game from its popularity... I think you can still make the game much faster paced, which hunting Should be like.. One wrong move = dead... Territories should only be a supplement to the game.

Buut in the end it's your game.. so it's your call...
~Unholy

Thank you for all the advice, in this newest version I have made changes to speed up gameplay.
Information about such changes can be found here: Changlist In addition, to greater understand the complexity of this map you can view the strategy guide here: Official Hunted Strategy Guide

Thanks again. If you are interested in this new game, please download the newest version below.

Post has been edited 2 time(s), last time on Apr 1 2009, 2:55 am by Norm.

eh ive got one more sujjestion. i believe its fade/shadowmarker. this spell is utterly annoying and causes some problems. For instance my opponent had double my exp and was doing very well. he choose different upgrades than i and what not but he was clearly wining the beacon capping exp game (i believe it was like 300-600exp), but anyhow i was able to clearly out meneuver him and killed him once.

after that it was a stalemate as he had maxed hp and i had at some point later maybe half of that but his exp was spiraling out of control. theres no effective way to cap faster than your opponent and along with that theres really no wway to terminate your opponent if he plays it right. maybe the hp regenrator should have some hp its self and if u lose it you die. would be much more beneficial.

i spent the last 3/4s of the game running arround and dodging trying to gain enough health to actually be able to take a fight 1v1 against him i think he was healing and he had double my upgrades so i never seemed to get anywhere and neither did he since between my teleporting away and healing/capping territories i just couldnt be killed.

I was kinda disappointed for the fact that it's two lives now instead of 3. People die so fast because of my lightning build. The 15 second capture was an improvement than the 20 second one. I was hoping to see spell descriptions and a more balanced terrain.
I was kind of thinking you should put "how to play basics" in the mission briefing and tips on playing this. New players are still confused on how to play this game and quit after their first death anyways and I really don't want to explain everything to them. Also, during the selection process, after each step you should center view since some players just start playing right after they choose their spell type and that gets really annoying
Hope the new version (if you're making one) will have some of these suggestions.

Where's the link to the new verson?

Lol, the new version is now posted for real, i had to take it down to fix a minor bug and forgot to put it back up. It's up now, the filename is Hunted v1.03. If you are interested in playing with the regulars the channel is op HuntingGr0unds on USWest gateway.

Two good things about this map.

1. My favourite unit is the Hydralisk.

2. I own with time. Immobilize + range + teleport combo = win.

So much funnnn.