[ToH] Trial of Heroes mod

[Mordach]

I'm interested in making a mod for my Trial of Heroes multiplayer concept (http://forums.relicnews.com/showthread.php?t=76946).

It's basically a type of game where a team of players control a band of Heroes, fighting in set scenarios to undertake great quests for glory and power. I've gotten alot of positive response regarding the concept, and even after less than 1 day there's been several requests for a mod... I think Trial of Heroes has great mod potential.

I'm looking for a few decent modders to form a taskforce to create the mod as soon as the new mod tools are out.
As I'm not a very experienced modder myself (I'm learning), all help is greatly appreciated.
I've worked out the basic concept, and I've already started working on scenarios, units and other stuff for Trial of Heroes.

For the crew I need map/mission makers, people with experience in attribute editing and restructuring, bright heads with good ideas, and people that otherwise feel they have things to contribute with.

If this sounds interesting or you have questions about Trial of Heroes, drop a post here or PM me and I'll be happy to respond.

EDIT: I've got a few team members now, so for the time being the crew is full. However, feel free to give ideas and other feedback on the project.

[Argonaut]

This whole thing could be done in multiplayer on a map by map basis. When the players choose the map online it sets up the scenario for them.

firstly you'd need to decide what each player gets when they choose a race. (their starting hero) - I'm guessing it would be FC for space marines, Big mek for orks etc.

Restrict all the other units using SCAR files attached to the map and restrict buildings... The player would start with their hero and that's it!

spawn the enemy units as a comp- player if you want, so all players worked together or you could set it up as you described in the other thread.
You could even set up alternate win conditions for each map that represent the scenario.

Basically this could be bashed together pretty quickly and once the main body of code was done it could be ported across to any map and it would not need to be run as a mod. If you wanted it to be a mod you could include a lot of special abilities that the player would get for their character. This would play something like gauntlet (remember that old classic!?!) with the players forming a team to try and defeat the scenario (whatever that happened to be).

As a side note, there is a command in winter assault that allows you to record variables into the players profile. This could be used to 'upgrade' the players character as they progress. Similar to the player getting stars when they go online, the player could get access to a better character when they fight a certain number of battles and win.

example - a brand new player chooses to play as SM. The mission starts and they get an SM sergeant as their character. They go on to play the mission :)

They continue to play and win until they have got 5 wins - when they start their 6th game, they are given a different character to play with. Maybe colonel brom? Or an apothercary or the librarian or something - They go on to progress through the character 'levels' until they get to Force commander or Assault Terminator or something. You get the idea. As this is stuck into the players profile it can be carried with the player from game to game. You'd just need to find a universal piece of code that a) checked the players profile to see what their current level was and b)spawned the right character for the level.

Drawbacks - you'd need to make maps for each level. Players of level 1-2 would not survive level 10 maps, and level 10 players would cruise through a level 1 map.

- it would be better if there was a whole experience system set up as part of the code to make it hard for players to zoom through the levels compstomping. (killing a grot gives you 1 experience point, demons 5000 exp points etc etc)

- this will take a while to code

- The whole thing is map dependent, and the ME only works with 1.3 ATM.

So there's my input! In between doing my stuff, I might have a go at putting something together as an idea of what would be possible. It would be a simple mission with something like 'go here, beat this guy up = you win'. I'm thinknig of something like gauntlet as a great starting point to work from. The enemy could just keep psawning until you capture a strat point/relic etc. This would encourage teamwork as the others would need to cover the guy doing the capturing!

[Mordach]

Thank you for the response! You have alot of good ideas here, and I'm gonna look into a few of those.

What I've been thinking is basically something like this:
Players start with one building, the Hero Shrine (or something similar..) where a number of different Heros are buildable (this should be one or max two) depending on the scenario. The Shrine will be the spawning point if the player's hero dies, respawning him/her after a set amount of time (if respawning is allowed in that scenario).

There will be a number of different Heroes available for each race, each one with abilities and strenghts that will benefit the warband in different ways, thus making all the Heroes interesting to play in their own unique way. I will try to balance out the different Heroes in the best possible way so they will all be worthy of playing. I've got a list of units I'm determined to field in the mod (as playable Heroes) with their different ablilties (which I'm hoping to sort out as the mod develops) if you're interested.

An experience system of some sort would be great to implement, although as you say this would take alot of programming. I'm trying to figure out alternate ways of making upgrades available to the Heroes as the games progress.

[Finaldeath]

Ahhh, like those Warcraft 3 things. Remember there isn't any items around, but SCAR can make *permanent* changes to stats for specific players and thier units :)

You could do it all in one script, but that'd mean you have no special abilties.

Also, you can, with the WA expansion or some new icons (you mainly need icons), abilties using the function Util_AbilityButton_CreateModal() (or what it calls - Button_SetTextures() and Button_SetTooltip()).

See wxpbutton.scar for the WXP scar file on it - useful, because you can add things like "Heal self" or "Take Control", like the WXP did with special spells to take over guardsmen in mission 3 and chaos 5 of the campaign.

You'd need a hefty scar script for anything complicated, but if you wanted to have good heros, experience (+HP +Damage) and so on, it'd not be terribly hard. Finding who killed what might (so group experience might be a good idea).

Anyway, good ideas. I might move this to the mods in progress forum if you are going to go through with it with a team. But as you said you just want ideas and are putting it forwards for inspection, it can be left here for now.

[Mordach]

Ahh, great help indeed, Finaldeath! The possibilities are vast.. if we can just get the new mod tools...!!

I'd be grateful if this thread could remain here for a while longer, perhaps until a few modders have confirmed they're interested in participating?

All ideas and other useful tips are appreciated.

[Mordach]

Hmmm! I've got a few nice ideas for the ToH mod, and one of them include a choosable Aspiring Champion with a kind of beastmaster role, leading a pack of Cultists... If there already is models and code for Heavy Stubber Cultists, then it wouldn't be too hard to implement that in the mod...

I'm thinking about trying to implement a new resource system for the band of Heroes, where each Hero gets req (or rather exp) for killing enemies (how much will depend on what enemy is killed), or for utilizing his special role (ie, an Apothecary will get exp for healing his comrades), plus the group gets a small percentage for each kill.

This new resource system will work like a different kind of experience system, and the exp each player collects can be used for upgrades of various kinds to his Hero. If something like a skill tree is possible to achieve, then it will also be possible to "tech" to various abilities or strenghts...

This, if properly balanced, will ensure an exciting and new way of playing and might add new aspects to the game.

[Jkar]

An idea how the hero shrine could work:

The hero shrine could be updated to build heroes just like an eldar aspect portal. The initial research is the cost of the chosen hero (maybe a scaling of cost could be implemented to limit the number of heroes), building the hero unit wouldn't cost anything but time (this could make the time it takes to build a hero his resurrection time).

Another thought would be to give the hero shrine the matrix relocation ability that can only be used to relocate the building near another hero shrine (for maps that weren't designed for ToH). Teams could get into one spot that way without the need for builder units.

Just a few thoughts. I hope they're usefull for your mod.

[kindred ravens]

shouldn't this go into "mods in progress"

[Mordach]

shouldn't this go into "mods in progress"
Yes, it probably should... Mods, feel free to move this thread to the "Mods in progress" subforum.

EDIT: Thanks!

@Jkar: Thanks for the ideas, I certainly think these are well worthy of being in the mod. Both of them would simplify alot of things, so I'll look into including them in ToH.

Current mod status:
I've redone the Apothecary and Assassin along with their respective weapons, and I'm currently working on the Scout and a few other units. I've done alot of brainstorming lately and I've come up with ideas for alot of the upgrade structure and quite a few abilities and other things I'm looking into including in the mod. However there are a few things I probably won't be able to do until the new mod tools are out, but I'm working on what I can regarding the Heroes at the moment.