MOBA game mode - Champions of Nyn

[Mynoduesp]

Introduction

I'd love to create new content for the game but frankly I am pretty terrible at PvE map design. When I saw this post from MephistoRoss my gears started running, ideas kept popping in and out of my head and motivation as well as time I've got plenty for the time being. I don’t like asymmetrical games/modes, this is one of the reasons I’m bad at PvE design. In the reply to the post I scribbled down a couple of ideas and here is a more fleshed out variant of my thoughts.

“My” community map idea: Champions of Nyn 

A MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena).

We’re going back to 2003, the release date of Defense of the Ancients (DOTA), a community map for Warcraft 3. Back then MOBA as a game genre didn’t exist and a guy called Eul released this gem of a community map into the world. Today games like League of Legends are amongst the most played and popular games ever created. My vision for this map is not to replace any of the triple A titles out there, but to apply the concepts inside of Skylords reborn. 
More concrete vision for this map/gamemode (if MOBA isn’t a familiar genre to you I’d recommend to read the wikipedia article first): A 3v3 map with team bases at the center left and right with 2 lanes splitting the map into top, middle and bottom jungle. Best comparable with the old 3v3 map “Twisted Treeline” from League of Legends. When entering the map all players can choose one of multiple playable characters to play this round. Comparable to how you had your hero Harvester in the community map “Rise of Demon” by Emmaerzeh/Lebovin, you will unlock specific skills for your chosen character by killing minions (uncontrollable units from a team which run towards the enemy base) and monsters (jungle camps/enemy units periodically spawning in the jungle). Skill usage can be restricted by either cooldown, energy or both combined. Boss monsters will be part of the jungle giving one team an advantage over the other by granting a buff, debuffing the enemy, enhancing power generation etc. 
Currently I have no specific idea to make use of the deckbuilding aspect of the game. The only “reasonable” thing for me at the moment is to ban every single card to prevent major balance issues. I’m up for suggestions though.

My humble skills

I’m new to coding but can do quite a lot of stuff in Skylords reborn inside of mapscripts. Everything mentioned in 'my idea' is doable with the skills I’ve acquired during the pandemic. But, I’m not all knowing and will need some help. Especially in map generation, as far as I know maps can be generated with pixelated images, I saw it on YouTube once. That’s pretty much all I know of map generation. Further I need to improve my knowledge of script groups which I didn’t come around playing with so far.

My future plans

Realising a project like this requires quite a time investment which I’m willing to do, but also proper planning. This community map won't be released (V1.0) before following milestones are achieved:

• V0.0.1 Proof of concept; playable 3v3 team game with objective and 1 playable hero (respawning)
• V0.1 Creatuon of map (balancing and redesign along the way) 
• V0.2 Minions and experience; leveling up heroes granting more power and abilities
• V0.3 Monsters and neutral buffs
• V0.4 Increase number of playable heroes to 3, make them unique (max one of each per team)
• V0.5 Playtest 1 (closed beta) & balancing
• V0.6 Increase number of playable heroes to at least 6
• V0.7 Add eyecandy: Animations, cutscenes and character callouts to the map
• V0.8 Playtest 2 (open beta) & final balancing

But before I really start on V0.1 I need one thing: Community feedback if there’s even a wish for a mode like this. What do you think? Would you give it a shot? Do you even have ideas? And would you like to be part of a small dev crew?

Regards,
Myno

 

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Update 14.01.2021

• The proof of concept has been made in a 1v0 environment (simulated PvP)
• Much data has been gathered about how to influence the gamemodes balance

There's not much more to say, unfortunatly the influence I have to make this gamemode somewhat balanced are very limited without editing gamefiles - which is a bannable offense. So yeah... I'm not going to put much more hours into this project until mods/modpacks are implemented which would allow me to change specific character attributes which is in my opinion mandatory to continue. I hope to continue somewhen...

Regards,
Myno

 

Edited January 14, 2021 by Mynoduesp

[Loriens]

That sounds great, really like this idea.

[Eirias]

I believe there is already  beautiful map like this.

I tried playing it 1v1 and it wasn't that fun, but maybe it would be  good startling place.

[Mynoduesp]

1 hour ago, Eirias said:

I believe there is already  beautiful map like this.

I tried playing it 1v1 and it wasn't that fun, but maybe it would be  good startling place.

Do you know the name of the map? 

Emme recommended the maps "Spellwars", "Castle wars" and "Twilight vs Bamdits" for me to check out. Although elements of all maps will be part of this creation, nothing gets close to what I have in mind. Tbh, I didn't like to play these two maps either, but they had interesting consepts, but IMO Spellwars lacked engaging gameplay, Castle Wars was too clustered and dawn out, and lastly Twilight vs Bandits has a severe balancing problem. 

[Eirias]

On 8/20/2020 at 5:18 PM, Mynoduesp said:

Do you know the name of the map? 

Emme recommended the maps "Spellwars", "Castle wars" and "Twilight vs Bamdits" for me to check out. Although elements of all maps will be part of this creation, nothing gets close to what I have in mind. Tbh, I didn't like to play these two maps either, but they had interesting consepts, but IMO Spellwars lacked engaging gameplay, Castle Wars was too clustered and dawn out, and lastly Twilight vs Bandits has a severe balancing problem. 

i think  castle wars is what i was thinking of, as I said not a fun map 1v1 but some neat concepts and maybe a good starting place

[Mynoduesp]

43 minutes ago, Eirias said:

i think  castle wars is what i was thinking of, as I said not a fun map 1v1 but some neat concepts and maybe a good starting place

Checked it out for some scripting insights, but it wont be anything like it.

If it will be fun... I don't know, we'll see :>