Tuxedo Templar
Member!
DESCRIPTION: Aight, another of my bizarro maps coming at ya. I've had this one sitting around for a few months now, so I figured now would be a good time to finish it. 
Anyway heres how it works: Its a 4 player game, though at least 2 are required. It plays entirely off the minimap, except for the interface part, which is handled by selecting options from beacons on an island on the top-left corner of the map. In the main portion of the map is the REAL island, where each player's stationary cannon starts off at a random location (Yup! You don't move at all during this game except by teleporting or dying and respawning). The game play is turn-based, and at the start you vote on the time limit for each round, plus each player's starting lives and gold, and whether to see a minute-or-so-long gameplay tutorial or not (recommended). During your turn, you get to select your ammo type (though anything besides regular cannon balls costs money) by casting Dark Swarm over the beacon (bringing your unit to the beacon will give you a description of what that option does, and if its not your turn you can select the defense-only options by morphing your d-only selector unit (hydra) into a lurker over the beacon), and then go on position the aimer and fire your cannon.
Aiming is the tricky part in this, so read carefully. You will get possession of a terran barracks on a smaller island below the ammo-select one in the top corner (don't worry where you'll have it brought up on screen when you've made your ammo selection.) Along the outer edge of the cannon island's terrain is a box of oscillating burning cloaked photon cannons. Your aimer will be one of these photon cannons, which you can see on the minimap by the map pings. Building infantry at the barracks will move your aimer along the burning edges by certain amounts, as labeled by the men standing immediately below the barracks. You will want to move the aimer along the edges such that you can trace a line between it and your cannon (marked by the green dot on the actual island's terrain) that crosses over an enemy's cannon somewhere on the island. Once that is done, you will need to fire the cannon by lifting off the building. The scrolling powder bar that you see while aiming will tell you how much powder will be in the shot when you liftoff, so you will have to get the hang of timing it so you can get the right amount of powder for your shots.
Different ammo types however need to be considered, like rockets don't need to use powder since they will travel indefinitely on an even plane until they hit something on the island or the map's edge, and certain projectiles like craters and warheads have a large splash radius that don't require as precise of an aim as other projectile types. For the full descriptions, move your unit to the beacons during they game.
With all that said, it shouldn't be too hard to master once you, um, master it, and it can be pretty fun if you're playing with the right people, so I suggest you give it a try if you're looking for something new!
P.S. As I said, it'll take some patience and practice, since this is practically a stand-alone game in its own right instead of your normal Starcraft UMS fare (this gots madz triggers), but once you get used to it it can be pretty fun to play, though I dare say I might yet have to do some more balance adjustments/tweeks before I can bring this to v.FINAL with any justice, but for now, enjoy!
P.S.S. There is a known bug in this, where if the player whose turn it is decides to leave the game, the game will hang indefinitely and you will have to remake. It can be avoided by simply not leaving the game during your turn, but of course that'll be difficult to control for 100% of the time so I'll get v1.0 (non-beta) out sometime tomorrow to address that. I'm counting on you people to report any bugs you find, as well as any ideas, suggestions, comments, etc. you can think of, which I'll be sure to address in the next version(s) if possible. GL, HF, KA!
P.S.S.S. Just out of curiosity, are the terrain colors a bit too whacky/bright or do they work out well? I just made them as I thought an island might look (sandy yellow, grassy green, rocky blueish-ish, snowcapped peaks, in that order of altitude), but I'll change them if they make distinguishing things like player's cannons and such too difficult/annoying.
Anyway heres how it works: Its a 4 player game, though at least 2 are required. It plays entirely off the minimap, except for the interface part, which is handled by selecting options from beacons on an island on the top-left corner of the map. In the main portion of the map is the REAL island, where each player's stationary cannon starts off at a random location (Yup! You don't move at all during this game except by teleporting or dying and respawning). The game play is turn-based, and at the start you vote on the time limit for each round, plus each player's starting lives and gold, and whether to see a minute-or-so-long gameplay tutorial or not (recommended). During your turn, you get to select your ammo type (though anything besides regular cannon balls costs money) by casting Dark Swarm over the beacon (bringing your unit to the beacon will give you a description of what that option does, and if its not your turn you can select the defense-only options by morphing your d-only selector unit (hydra) into a lurker over the beacon), and then go on position the aimer and fire your cannon.
Aiming is the tricky part in this, so read carefully. You will get possession of a terran barracks on a smaller island below the ammo-select one in the top corner (don't worry where you'll have it brought up on screen when you've made your ammo selection.) Along the outer edge of the cannon island's terrain is a box of oscillating burning cloaked photon cannons. Your aimer will be one of these photon cannons, which you can see on the minimap by the map pings. Building infantry at the barracks will move your aimer along the burning edges by certain amounts, as labeled by the men standing immediately below the barracks. You will want to move the aimer along the edges such that you can trace a line between it and your cannon (marked by the green dot on the actual island's terrain) that crosses over an enemy's cannon somewhere on the island. Once that is done, you will need to fire the cannon by lifting off the building. The scrolling powder bar that you see while aiming will tell you how much powder will be in the shot when you liftoff, so you will have to get the hang of timing it so you can get the right amount of powder for your shots.
Different ammo types however need to be considered, like rockets don't need to use powder since they will travel indefinitely on an even plane until they hit something on the island or the map's edge, and certain projectiles like craters and warheads have a large splash radius that don't require as precise of an aim as other projectile types. For the full descriptions, move your unit to the beacons during they game.
With all that said, it shouldn't be too hard to master once you, um, master it, and it can be pretty fun if you're playing with the right people, so I suggest you give it a try if you're looking for something new!
P.S. As I said, it'll take some patience and practice, since this is practically a stand-alone game in its own right instead of your normal Starcraft UMS fare (this gots madz triggers), but once you get used to it it can be pretty fun to play, though I dare say I might yet have to do some more balance adjustments/tweeks before I can bring this to v.FINAL with any justice, but for now, enjoy!
P.S.S. There is a known bug in this, where if the player whose turn it is decides to leave the game, the game will hang indefinitely and you will have to remake
. It can be avoided by simply not leaving the game during your turn, but of course that'll be difficult to control for 100% of the time so I'll get v1.0 (non-beta) out sometime tomorrow to address that. I'm counting on you people to report any bugs you find, as well as any ideas, suggestions, comments, etc. you can think of, which I'll be sure to address in the next version(s) if possible. GL, HF, KA!P.S.S.S. Just out of curiosity, are the terrain colors a bit too whacky/bright or do they work out well? I just made them as I thought an island might look (sandy yellow, grassy green, rocky blueish-ish, snowcapped peaks, in that order of altitude), but I'll change them if they make distinguishing things like player's cannons and such too difficult/annoying.
