BEER BEER (paired mapping contest)

The honourably cityguards have been protecting the noble king for decades, but the threat was never as big as now. The Extremely Evil Enemies have poisoned the king's guards in order to weaken the castle's defences and to kill the king. Of course you and your companions tried to get an antidote immediately. But every priest you could find was unfamiliar with the Extremely Evil Enemies' poison! Time was running out! The last person you could ask for help was the Friendly Brewmaster, brewmaster of the castle's most famous inn. And, believe it or not, that old drunkard had a solution... or at least something like that..


And so, you and the other guardsmen followed the advice of the Friendly Brewmaster and got yourselves totally wasted, while the forces of the Extremely Evil Enemies gathered around the unprotected city gates...



So much to the storyline of our new map! Now let's have a closer look at the gameplay. Basically every player can control one hero, with which he has to protect the king from incoming enemy creep waves. They'll be attacking from three sites, so most likely there are going to be 3 hero-squads in action (3 heros in each if the game is full).


There will be about 20 waves with several boss/special/bonus rounds in between. Some random, some not. Most important thing if you play the map is, that you have to stay drunk all the time! That can be achieved by buying different kinds of beer at the inn. But of course there will be some free beer, too. (WEEEE!!!! )

In the beginning you can choose between 3 hero-types. Meele, caster, ranged. At lvl 10/20 theres a selection between different ways your hero can go, just as you can see below. Maximum level is at 30.


We plan to make the gameplay simple, fast and funny. The best way to show you our intention might be our background music.


Paired Mapping? Who's responsible for what?
Unhit: Ideas, Jass Triggers (lots of them!), GUI Triggers, Terrain, Spells
frooker: Ideas, 2d-Artwork, Models, GUI Triggers, some Terrain, Spells

Status:
Items 50%
Waves 80%
Spells 80%
Terrain 90%
Heros 90%
Icons 95%
Inventory/Skill System 100%
Awesome Stuff 115%

Screenshots:
Infront of the castle
Infront of the castle 2
The village
The graveyard
The Friendly Brewmaster
The noble king
They're coming...

110%? Err ... ookay ...
The terrain looks kinda dull, and with a stone path and then cobble path it's a bit senseless, decide for one. Also needs more environ doodads : \
The whole idea is kinda ... weird. I mean, "Beer Beer" tells you "Get drunk, drink beer, whatever!" and not "Defend the king!".

This doesn't look so bad. Pretty good, actually. I haven't looked at the contest anything, but this seems like a top 3 to me. Hero-tree could use some work most with the names, but so far it looks pretty good. Could u please show us a screenie of the inventory/skill system? As far as it is special.

Thanks for the replies.

Ivanneth said:

The terrain looks kinda dull, and with a stone path and then cobble path it's a bit senseless, decide for one. Also needs more environ doodads : \

Click to expand...

About the street terrain, I like it that way. They're often used paths which were made again and again over the years and result today in a mix of different stones and trails. Some older layers only remain as fragments on the road. And maybe we're going to place some more doodads in the next days, as you can see the terraining is still at ~ 80%.

Ivanneth said:

The whole idea is kinda ... weird. I mean, "Beer Beer" tells you "Get drunk, drink beer, whatever!" and not "Defend the king!".

Click to expand...

Yep, it tells you "Get drunk", because as soon as you're getting sober you'll die within seconds. The story with the king isn't that serious afteral (as you might have noticed!), it's more about some drunken guys, fighting through waves of Extremely Evil Enemies.

Revolve said:

This doesn't look so bad. Pretty good, actually. I haven't looked at the contest anything, but this seems like a top 3 to me. Hero-tree could use some work most with the names, but so far it looks pretty good. Could u please show us a screenie of the inventory/skill system? As far as it is special.

Click to expand...

Thanks a lot, here's a short gif-animation about the class selection and the inventory:



In the beginning you start with selecting a class, what transforms you into your hero. In the bottom of his inventory you can see 2 buttons. Let's start with the right one. "Status Points". The number indicates how many points you can spend on your stats (Str, Agi, Int). If you click it, your inventory changes into a little menu, where you can choose where to spend yout points. Also there's a cancel button of course, as well as a display for your remaining free points (top right). Back to the start, the button on the left. "Evolution". You can only click that one after you reached lvl 10/20, and again a little menu shows up, where you can choose the possible ways your hero can go to specialize his abilities.

/edit: what I forgot to mention, our heros don't have any direct str/agi/int gain every lvl but 5 unspend skillpoints, so you can decide whether you want a warrior with high hp or huge dmg for example.

(I'm not quite sure if an animation was the best way to show it. If you didn't understand it I can try to explain it again.)

Ivanneth said:

110%? Err ... ookay ...

Click to expand...

By now, we even reached the 115% mark!

Sorry for any grammar mistakes by the way, I'm not a native speaker.

frooker said:

About the street terrain, I like it that way. They're often used paths which were made again and again over the years and result today in a mix of different stones and trails. Some older layers only remain as fragments on the road. And maybe we're going to place some more doodads in the next days, as you can see the terraining is still at ~ 80%.

Click to expand...

I would also like to add that it's pretty annoying if you have all doodads set before all triggers are done, because that greatly increases the time the map needs to save and load, so that's also a reson there aren't that many doodads yet.

And about some more features:
- Difficulty scaling with both player number (3 different levels) and a selected difficulty in the beginning (5 different levels)
- Different waves with not just 1 unit type but different interacting types.
- Boss waves with triggered fights.
- Random events with some fun minigames

Okay, here goes a little update on our progress since our (mine, actually) last post, we accomplished the following:

- Finished all of the waves and did some testing on them. We will have to do further balance tests though, but the basic spawning concept is ready.
- Finished the multiboard and included all but one of the features we want in there. The multiboard will show players' level, kills, kills within the last 60 seconds ("kills per minute") and highest kills per minute as well as the team's average and team's total.
- Fully implemented the diffictuly system: the difficulty has 2 dimensions, 1 scales with the difficulty selected by the host in the beginning and affects mob hit points, spawn intervals and some special spawns as well as the level of bosses' abilities, the other one scales with the player count and affects the actual number of players (there's three spawn points that each respectively become active and/or disabled when the player count drops with 1-3 players, 4-6 players, and 7-9 players.
- Finished a couple of bosses: As already mentioned before, the map will include several boss encounters which, unlike the usual way bosses are like in hero defenses (which, technically, BEER BEER is), will be triggered fights with special abilities. That will make them a lot tougher than just a big hp monster you have to just attack and attack, but certainly a lot more fun. Bosses will spawn right after levels 8, 10, 13, 18 and 20 and while those on level 10 and 20 are fix, the others will be random out of a pool of at least 3 different bosses for that wave.
- Finished the basic terrain layout. We will certainly add doodads etc, but the basic structure and terrain texturing is done now.
- More awesome (and mostly useless) stuff : added text messages from NPCs (especially the king, who turns out to be quite a coward!) and more stuff to drink, like the precious mead which increases your mana (=alcohol level) maximum for a given time.

So far, so good. In conclusion this makes the following update on our status (we also added some minor stuff of course, so that explains the spell/items update):

Status:
Items 15%
Spells 85%
Waves 85%
Heroes 90%
Terrain 90%
Icons 95%
Inventory/Skill System 100%
Awesome Stuff 120%

If you would like more info on anything or some screenshots, just let us know

This map Sounds really cool man, is there any set release date yet? and if you need any testers i would be happy to help.

~4rankie~

Hey, thanks for the positive comment
A first version will certainly be released on September 30 / October 1st because that's when the contest we're in ends. However, we don't know if we can implement all features and especially all hero classes (we have planned far more than those on the screenshot) in time so there will certainly be updates afterwards.
Help with betatesting would be greatly appreciated, if you want to you can PM me your ICQ/MSN so I can always tell you about possible test dates.

No problem man, But ya even after the contest is up you should continue to make this map to the best of its limits. I also pm you my msn.

Sounds cool, can't wait for a finished product! GL for the contest. (terrain looks decent, but more doodads are needed, I do see you said you will add more later though)

Hey, I'd just like to post about our progress since last week. It's going pretty well, but we don't know if we can finish everything we want until the contest ends, however, all the basic features necessary for a proper gameplay will be in. We added a couple of new possibilities with evolutions since last week and plan to add two more if we have the time to. The techtree now looks as follows:
click me!
Our aim with the techtree is to offer at least 2 alternatives to pick from on every evolution level. As you can see, with the exception of the two heroes yet to be announced (of which we don't know if they will be in the contestversion) this has worked pretty well!
Hero names are subject to change and icons that appear twice will certainly change.

We also did some basic wave balancing already and are still doing this every time we test. We will run the first tests with around 5 or 6 people soon.

Also added some new bosses. The finished map will have 11 different bosses of which you will face 5 if you beat all waves

Hello everyone who ocassionally checks this thread!
The contest ends today, and i will soon upload the contest version to the downloads section and link it here and in the contest thread.
First of all i'd like to say sorry to those who would have liked to test with us: we have been totally busy during the last few weeks, only doing spontaneous tests when we thought it was necessary, didn't have time for more. However, we will certainly continue working on the map (since we are not finished yet) and that means also that we will need good testers - and i guess we will find them here .

So anyway, the contest version will feature:
- PvE hero-defence gameplay with up to 3 lanes.
- three partly independent hero trees.
- Maximum hero level of 30, evolutions for all heroes on levels 10 and 20. No missing spells.
- 20 Waves with 5(4) boss waves.
- Rather "colorful" waves, not just single unit-types. Wave have special abilities.
- Triggered bossfights, not just a big fat mob with loads of hp.
- Difficulty scaling with player numbers and one of 5 different difficulty modes which the hode can select.
- Floating texts showing players' damage and healing on the target unit.
- Variable spell and ability damage amounts, critical strike chances for spells and abilities.
- Loads and loads of custom-made spells for just this map. I took some ideas from my previous map, Tides of Darkness, but even for those i rewrote the triggers.
- Hero revive system: heroes can revive themself with their hero's ghost when they die, or alternatively, a cleric (a hero class) can revive them.
- ... and more!

Known bugs:
- Rabies (not a herospell) doesn't work i think. I don't have the time to fix it for the contest any more - have to add some more items rather.
- The final event (after the Pitlord has been defeated) might be buggy. We didn't have time to really test this.
- Some triggers do leak because frooker doesn't know JASS well enough and i didn't have time to unleak everything. However, those that would leak a lot (like spawntriggers) are unleaked and also partly run on native funcs.

What we didn't have time to add, but will add in the near future:
- The Boss after level 10, i.e. the final boss of the orcwaves, is not yet implemented.
- Random events - i had already scripted an engine for first-person view out of a tower to attack incoming waves from it. We didn't have time to finish this event though, might be in in one of the very next versions. Also, other random events will be added sooner or later to make use of the terrain, which is, so far, rather useless.
- Some spells and abilities might not be what we wanted them to be in the first place, meaning they could be placeholders and might be replaced. However, for spells this is rather unlikely, we will rather add new classes with new spells. Tooltips might be changed though
- More balance - it is hard to tell, we don't know how the balance between classes is like right now. It should be rather even, but probably could be more even. Future versions will try to even the balance. Also, some bosses might be rather weak right now. As I said, we didn't have much time...but they should all be atleast moderate, and not super-easy. I think.
- More Items: i have just started with the item engine yesterday, and future versions will have more items for sure. Also, there will be possibilities to upgrade your pint slot and the useless slot might be changed intro a trinket slot for special items like rings etc.
- Modes: we are planning to implement modes like the famous allrandom or a tournament mode where 3 teams of up to 3 players will "defend" against each other.
- Some model, and certainly, icon changes. Currently, a couple of hero icons appear twice, especially with the ranger tree which was the last one we finished (i just finished the last ranger spell 1 hour ago). There will be changes.
- Terrain will be improved with more doodads with future versions.


Okay now all of this makes it look like the map isn't even remotely finished. However, it's perfectly playable already. We just want to let you know that we won't stop working on the map and that more features will be added with future versions.
If you play the map alone to "test" it, please try to play as many different classes as possible and try to get as far as possible (maybe even with whosyourdaddy, when playing alone) in order to see as much of the map as you can! Bosses spawn after waves 8, 10 (not yet implemented), 13, 18 and 20.
If more than 1 hero is alive after the final boss is defeated, there will be a final fight for the final barrel of beer!

Okay enough text from my part for now...i will upload the contest version in about 2 hours. Thanks for your patience, and if you are going to play it, have fun! We are happy about feedback, especially about praise of course
Thanks!


(I will edit this post after i uploaded the map)

I like the idea of this map! What effect does the beer have on you? Does it do like in drunken archer in uther party?

Thanks for the reply! But no, "unfortunately" it doesn't have an uther-party like effect we considered it in the beginning, but then we thought for a hero defence map you play for about half an hour, it would probably be annoying after some time (although a lot of fun in the beginning, probably).

In our map, mana reflects your alcohol level. You start at 1000 mana and permanently lose some, even without using abilities. If you hit 0 mana, you're sober and suffer from the hangover as well as from terrible pain from the poison (as said in the first post, that's our "storyline", it's also explained in the loadscreen) and lose 5% of your base hit points per second, so you have to stay drunk or else you die real fast. Also, while sober, your attack speed is reduced.
If you are totally wasted, meaning you're higher than 750 mana, on the other hand, you gain a bonus. Your damage increases by ~25% and casters have a higher chance to deal critical spell damage. This effect can be prolonged by drinking a horn full of mead which increases maximum mana by 250 for 5 minutes. Intelligence does not increase your mana amount, it just slightly increases your regeneration, causing you to lose your mana slower. Because smart people stay drunk
So basically, the gameplay is like: face a wave, kill some mobs - calm down, run to the tavern, and drink some beer

I just gave up adding armor items and trinkets. Those will be added with future versions. Going to run some last tests now, then i'll upload.

In honor of this map being good and an entry for the Mapping contest, I have approved this map in the Maps resource section.
~Craka_J

Thank you! here's the download link btw...forgot to add it

BEER BEER has been ranked #2 in the Paired Mapping Contest! Thanks to everyone who voted for us. I hope there will be another such contest soon and I believe that frooker and I will be glad to participate again also congrats to all other contestants!

Meanwhile, the map has been updated a couple of times. You can still download it here. I've got an exam next week and frooker doesn't have internet at his new flat yet, but I think in about two weeks you may expect a new version with more items and maybe even new hero classes

i like beer beer map, and always play it with my friends. But it hard to ending that map

the terrain should have abit of blight in it but other wise nice terain and with hero tech tree it shud join up and marksman and sorceror

Hey, thanks for the comments!

@valkemiere: yes, we know that difficulty is a problem at the moment. While we already managed to play through the game pretty often in online games, it's still too hard on difficulty "Easy". One of the reasons i see here is that often, especially on easy, you reach lvl 30 on around wave 15 and you already have the best available item on lvl 10. So then, waves 15-20 become harder and harder while your hero remains the same. We will have to see how this develops when we've added more items (armor, trinkets and new, better pints). Probably this should help making easy real easy

So now that the competition has come to an end, will the development of BEER BEER continue or do you guys consider this a done project?

Yes, certainly! Although at the moment we're both busy and/or out of inspiration, we certainly want to continue. Next versions will include more bosses, more items (especially those we had already planned for the release version) and of course bug and balance fixes

I tried the map and the concept was good but it had quite a lot of bugs and didn't seem to be balanced out with fewer players and such, will this be fixed in next version or sometime in the future?

If you could tell us about the bugs, yes, we'd be grateful to know and glad to fix them. And balance will be fixed too, of course. Although we didn't experience trouble with few players, we already played through the map with all different numbers of players; however, difficulties in general are too hard atm which will be fixed.

Bug reports will come later.

Anyways me and my friend played through, just us 2, with some warrior thingy and a priest. We failed miserably not long into the game. The priest seemed to be useless without massive amounts of backup, so in a 2-player game the character was almost useless and died upon spawning again.

GJ! finaly a map where theres some fun in ^^ i like the idea; get drunk or die really nice