He's uses all those spells to be more of an assist hero. Using his speed, he can race up to battles and save allies or kill foes. Since he isn't highly offensive, but is extremely fast (by also slowing foes), he can coordinate attacks when the timing is right. I wanted his spells to revolve around that idea of speed, micro, and timing.

Here's an idea for a genetically enhanced being or someone physically fit.
A Zergling that uses the rally-point aiming system to jump over obstacles. (In case you don't know what it is, you select two air units that are hot-keyed, when you shift-click anywhere, the air unit will appear over your hero and fly to where you clicked [the flying unit starts at full speed, rather than accelerating from the start]) The zergling will jump as a scourage, straight to where you clicked. If you clicked farther than your 'jumping range', then you 'land' at your maximum range. When your scourage is shot down, you land momentarily stunned. (if you are shot down, you could use dodge immediately after, to help you recover) (you can't jump if you are stunned)

Burrowing allows you to dodge attacks. When you burrow, you turn invincible for a short period, and another burrowed unit appears under you. Then, a mobile grid will appear over you, and you have a random chance of moving in any 8 directions. So by turning you invincible for a second, and having another target available, it looks like they shoot the ground and miss, as you move around the attack.

While this hero's hp would be minuscule, he could always use dodge in an attempt to stop a potentially fatal attack if his timing is right. This hero is nimble and can jump over cliffs and waters, to engage or outrun foes.

A spell that he casts could remain inactive until he uses jump or dodge.
ex. While jumping, if he's near an enemy, he will home in on the enemy and land on him, creating several zerglings around him for a quick attack.
or if he uses dodge, he unburrows at his foes, stunning him with a mana drain (a scourage death above the enemy to show a counterattack) as if you struck the enemy hard after dodging his attack.

Love the dodge and jump abilities

I think you should make a map with the Operator and Psychopath in it, I think they'd go together well.

Indeed those are sweet.

As for me, I'm writing out specifics about my "Serpent" character. I have this cool theme where he's an old flightless dragon and when he's unburrowed he is a powerhouse who uses Fire-based spells to represent his flame breath. When he is burrowed, he uses ancient curses and techniques to seriously cripple any opponent who falls into his trap. Also, his Dark Swarm technique is going to be called "Constrict" and what it does is stun enemy hero if you hit them with it, and also has 1 of three things it can do. 1/3 no effect on spawn, 1/3 kills your base spawn, 1/3 kills enemy spawn as an added effect.

I'm actually going to add the above bit to my opening posts list of ideas.

EDIT: updated first post with more ability/theme information about Serpent and Crimson Wolf

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Sep 1 2009, 10:49 pm by Norm.

TRIGGERMAN - Alexi Stukov
This guy is a hunter/stalker/survivalist, he has a computer implanted into his brain. He is given a relatively small amount of life, damage is average. Gains full energy for cloak when under trees, bushes, or over covering objects.
1st spell - Precision Aiming - Turns your stukov into an even lesser hp, very high damage ghost. Catch is, you ally enemies so you have to manually attack them (attacking your teammates is still impossible) and you lose vision of everyone but yourself, switching between forms is well advised to be efficient in killing and locating.
2nd spell as Stukov - Stun Grenade - Scourage grenade that stuns foes on explosion. (This spell sets up so you can change back to Ghost to land some hits, spamming would be difficult because you need to change back to Stukov to grenade again, consuming mana.)
2nd spell as Ghost - Visual Scan - You gain vision of the whole map, as well as reading the mana level of your foes (P1 is... ...above 150, P2 is... ...above 300, P3 is... above 0) Mana will be told in increments (of 50?) to reduce trigs, but will let you know when to engage enemies. This spell at night could set up for good ambushes.
3rd spell as Stukov - Claymore - no effect is shown so enemies have no idea you placed it. When an enemy triggers one, they are hit once by 8 invisible bats and stunned (great to place behind you as you run from enemies, or sets up for Ghost ambush)
spell as Ghost - Combat Dagger - any unfortunate melee hero to attack you gets stunned until a high amount of mana drained away, foes spells are disabled until mana drain are over (once they are out of mana, they can't be stunned by this attack again) (sets up for shots)
[more spells/spell revision to come because I just came up with this new hero idea below]

SPIRIT - multiple critters (low�mid hp)
Spell 1 changes the form of your hero. Like Bangalas > Rhynadon > Scantid
This hero is sort of like the Goliath that he could constantly cast spells. (This hero will need a special casting building where all spells do not cost mana) This hero gains mana at a very slow rate compared to other heroes. Depending on the amount of mana the player has, the spell will be much more increasingly powerful.
example as rhynadon- spell 2 with less than 10 mana - instantly kills a nearby spawn unit and gives you exp for it.
spell 2 with 10-19 mana - kills 3 spawn + exp and you lose 10 mana
spell 2 with 20-29 mana - kills 7 spawn + exp and you lose 20 mana... etc.

While he has no main attack, he is an effective spawn killer. Even though spells can be spammed, there effectiveness is minor with little mana. Spells must be charged to bring out their devastating effectiveness, but once used, the hero will be back to a small amount of mana. Therefore...

Spell 1 as Scantid costs 1 mineral� and drains mana from foes and gives it to you. (As long as you have money, you can create a cycle of pain� drain mana, change forms, then cast your charged spells)

Switching costs no mana, and each form has a specialty, Rynadon is the instant-kill grinder, with defensive spells (to help him grind)- Bangalas is the offensive attack spells form, and Scantid is a specialties form or something (support form?)

The damage system of this character is different- this hero is invincible. Under this hero is a burrowed unit� when the burrowed unit dies, you are lose Virtual hp as well as mana, and another burrowed unit takes it's place. Having burrowed units track the hero's damage, means that the hero can lose mana as damaged� the bad part is that damage over a certain amount will not be dealt (ex. burrowed unit has 500 hp, with 100 hp left, the next attack can only do a max of 100 dmg) However, this could add to uniqueness to the hero - resistant to some high-dmg attacks. The good thing about vHP is that changing forms will not replenish hp.

Kind of an off-the-wall hero, but I gave it some creativity.

Nice dude, now you're on the right track to the kind of heroes I'm talking about.

If anyone is interested, I'm updating info on Magician and Artificial Intelligence in the opening post, and beginning work on "Operator" I'll add more stuff as well a bit later on. Check it out!

For Zealot, when he changes weapons/forms his armor (shields) could also change.
Ex. form 1, his shields are set to 10 every trigger cycle (best for tanking weak but rapid attacks)
form 2, his shields are set to 250 every every 9 seconds (better for absorbing strong attacks, or hit and run on minor attacks)

Also, if form 2 sets shields high, but not as often, it could be used as a quick block.
Ex. spell 1 changes forms. You are in form 2 and you just took a powerful hit and your shields are down, you sense another strong attack coming, but you have to wait 5 more seconds until your shield charges� double casting spell 1 will switch forms really quickly and replenish your shield to take another hit.

Opportunity to counter:
When Zealot casts a strong offensive spell, there should maybe be a cooldown or slight stun accompanied with armor set to 0 for a short period. This allows the Zealot to be more thoughtful attacks, because if he misses he could take more damage.

MYSTIC TITAN - Tassadar Archon
When this hero fights a foe, he starts off doing some fair damage, then as you think you got him- he lets loose his true power.
His guy is unique because he is constantly dying in his main form. The enemy computer constantly does direct scarab damage to him, weakening his life. Sometimes this also hurts the foes near him as a benefit. Since this poor guy is constantly dying, he has a semi-high amount of life. His powers are powerful, but self-inflicting, further hurting himself with splash and other harmful spells.
When he dies he turns into a low-hp extremely powerful Archon (he no longer injures himself at this point) all his spells are now extremely powerful� one of his spells includes making 2 of his first form to aid him (a cheap mana spell so he can constantly have two guards that can't travel too far for himself). Casting other spells instantly kills his guards but are create devastating effects.
Spells may include stealing foes mana and turning it into DT's, causing inflicted foes to 'burn' with your scarabs dmg. Powerful vortexes, flashy and explosive spells that emphasize power.
Healing yourself at any of the heal-stations or spells would revert you back to normal form.


Hero idea... that's a building...
SENTINEL - a pylon?
This hero sits as a lonely pylon. Spell 1 gives him a nice shuttle friend. Unloading the first unit from the shuttle moves the pylon to under the shuttle (if the terrain if acceptable). Unloading the second unit plants a photon cannon (only a certain amount of cannons around you plyon at a time)
Spell 2 changes your Shuttles commands (replace the units in it if acceptable) unloading the first unit fires a scourage from your pylon to your shuttle that creates a few scouts on impact for a shot. (you may fire multiple shots, but shuttle must be in range) Unloading unit 2 from your shuttle does something similar� all cannons in good range of your shuttle spawn scourages above them that fly to your shuttle (A Burst shot!)
Spell 3 sets your your shuttle spells to defensive attacks, unloading unit 1 creates a carrier above your plyon, unit 2 arbs above your cannons
Observer projectiles that stun
One spell could serve as an outpost spell for your allies, healing them or restoring mana near the pylon.
One spell could mass up scouts above the pylon and launch them at the shuttle.
Maybe the Pylon could turn into a reaver to move around or heal.


Not that I want to dictate your game, but, when releasing your game for testing, I think it would be a good idea to create heroes on the side of underpowered rather than overpowered because people who test the game and become accustomed to rigged units will complain about their hero becoming 'weak'. Most poeple like to see buffs rather than nerfs.

Ahh I love the creativity you're throwing out there. Mystic Titan sounds like he has a lot of potential. Pylon is really unique, yes, but I just can't bring myself that people would have fun playing as a building haha.

Anyway, what do you think about my set of 12 guys? Do you think they'd represent a good AoS roster?

they're pretty good actually.
i REALLY REALLY want to play as the pylon.

Another building hero is...
CONSCRIPT POD - Barracks
Spell 1 - Aero Drive - creates a ground unit under the barracks that the barracks centers on for mobility (Astrogears!)
Spell 2 - Defensive Turrets - Machine gun wraiths fire from your barracks (coupled with spell 1 to help you land hits)
Spell 3 - Sentry Automaton - Sends out a wraith that can fly around and attack units (max of 3) They self-destruct after a limited period (helps add micro and interest)
When it lands...
Spell 1 - Artillery Cannon - creates a Sieged Tank
Spell 2 - Repair Drone - creates an SCV that strictly repairs (rax, tanks, goliaths, sentries, etc.)
Spell 3 - Lockdown - Limited Invincibility
it can build (a while) 2 goliaths (like mini-heroes) that can cross the map. (Marines turn into the goliaths upon creation)
When you build a firebat from the barracks, your goliaths fire wraiths above them rapidly.
Building a ghost lets your goliaths drop mines.
Building a medic lets your goliaths do something else.
both Spell 4's could be used for my offensive Barracks attacks to use the Barracks more.

Kind of a commanding unit, controlling expendable lesser heroes, while providing good defense and solid attacks. Due to the slowness and bulkiness, the barracks doesn't do too much direct fighting, but helps back up it's goliaths and wraiths during a fight if needed.

Sounds like an original and multi-dimensional version of TS's Summoner =).

Maybe you should make a game where all the characters are buildings.

nah, that wouldn't be fun.
i never really understood TS, it was so confusing. i didn't know how to use the spells, didn't know wtf my probe was doing, etc etc

still, i would really like to see the pylon in play.
the rax is pretty much a summoner class, summons things to fight for them.

ABYSS MAGE - Dark Archon
This guy's all about homicide. His spells are "if I'm going down, I'm taking you with me!"
Obviously, he has no attack. Feedback has a low cost (40-ish). No Mind Control, and Maelstorm has a medium cost (80-ish).
About 100/200 in shields, and High HP.

SPELL I - Hell Spikes - Creates 4 lurkers underneath the AM. His movement is slowed.
SPELL 2 - Death Oath - All heroes around AM can't leave the 9x9 location area.
SPELL 3 - Curse - Creates 1 [tier 1 unit] per second for 8 seconds (TS reference: DM's ult) around all enemy heroes nearby. Around himself, the other computer's teir 1 unit is spawned on the AM aswell.
SPELL 4 - The Abyss - Creates 1 infested terrans around every hero nearby every second for 15 seconds.

I like his theme, but it seems like it has room for more elaboration. Death Oath is probably the coolest spell you said, but he's still lacking something that makes him more unique than just a 4spell hero.

what about a suicide spell that will automatically kill any unit in a idk, 5x5 area around the da?
the da could die, or maybe left with 1 hp.

Doesn't a suicidal spell completely ruin him? You could only use the spell however many lives you have� and if it didn't cost you lives, then you would never die because you could cast it you save yourself from dying from your foe (and probably kill your opponent in the process)

This is true, but maybe instead you could have a passive ability that let's say that when he dies, anyone close to him gets critical HP. You can have it so that your team mates have a 1/3 chance to be effected, and enemies have a 2/3 chance to be effected (The chance counts for each individual, so enemies are 2X more likely to be affected. Using your Death Oath move could guarantee that enemies will be within range when you die, seeing as how they can't flee after using their killing spell.

yea, its like, ill bring you down with me.

Sounds like a passive ability most suited to Psychopath, seeing as how he's psycho and likes explosions.
Rather than a chance, but still be fair- when the psychopath dies a bunch of small explosions go off 2 seconds followed by a a big explosion that sets a foes hp to 1%.

I had a very similar idea.