Orion: Ground Zero is a 2-player coop altered melee map featuring 6 unique subfactions to choose from to go up against 6 Zerg Broods, each with their own techtree and specialties.
The objective of the map is to gather an amount of Crimson Minerals and destroy sufficient enemy Broods. In order to do this, you have to keep a balance between offense and defense, take advantage of control points, and secure strategic areas in the map to hold off the enemy more efficiently.
The map lasts, on average, for 30-60 minutes. It varies depending on the selected difficulty however.
Features
6 unique subfactions, each with their own custom content and modifications to the original techtree
6 unique Zerg Broods, all of which, similarly to the subfactions, sport their own custom content and modifications to the original techtree
5 tiers of Support Powers that can be invoked on the battlefield
Numerous Control Points situated in key locations around the map that provide a negative or positive buff to your units within them
3 events that will occur periodically in a random manner
A difficulty system with 7 levels; affecting the enemy's speed, intelligence and army size and composition
Crimson Minerals, a new resource that is one of your objectives to completing the map situated in vulnerable locations around the map
Elite Zerg Strains will act as captains for their assault groups later in the game, and become more frequent if a Brood is active for a long time
Nydus Worms will periodically spawn and spawn siege parties to attack your base, as well as Nydus Dragons on higher difficulties
Modifications to the original techtrees to ensure that every unit is properly useful in its role, on top of some new abilities and upgrades being added as well as a new mutual unit between all of a race's subfactions
Lore Summary (full lore can be read ingame in the help menu)
After Kerrigan's victory and the fall of the New Overmind, a number of Broods, defiant of the Queen of Blades, have fled to a distant uncharted planet. There they began to recover, attempting to form a new Swarm to overthrow Kerrigan and restore the Overmind's glory to the Swarm. Only one of these Broods still had a surviving Cerebrate, Baelrog Brood, and as such they attempted to subjugate the other Broods.
The Broods were quick to discover a new resource on the planet with grand psionic capabilities, however, situated in parts of the planet's surface. They used this resource to create leaders of their own and defied Baelrog. After a long, brutal civil war, Baelrog had either devoured, destroyed or enslaved the Broods.
Months after that incident, numerous Terran groups and Protoss expedition parties have located this new planet, and the resource as well. Mining operations had been organized and escorted with military forces, to ensure their safety. They did not anticipate to encounter some old foes, however.
Gameplay Subfactions Once the game begins, you will be presented with a selection screen where you will be able to choose one of the subfactions. The subfactions are as follows: Terran subfactions: - The Prospectors' Syndicate, specialized in defensive tactics and the preservation of units. They can easily fortify perimeters and slowly yet steadily secure locations. - The Odysseus Company, adept dealing high damage in short periods of time and using aggressive tactics to push and conquer enemy areas. - The Omega Division, excelling in long-ranged warfare and territorial control, while maximizing the efficiency of their bases and forces.
Protoss subfactions: - The Crusader Caste, making use of brute force and physical strength to defeat their enemies. - The Templar Conclave, boasting the most potent spellcasters, allowing them to control the battlefield and easily disrupt their foes. - The Marked of the Xel'naga, the most versatile of subfactions that is equally efficient in defense and offense. They use highly destructive robotic units to prove victorious.
Events, Nydus Worms and Control Points As previously mentioned, random events will occur, Nydus Worms (and Dragons) will spawn and Control Points will influence the outcome of battles.
There are 3 events in total; Lava Surge, Thick Fog and Drop Pods. Lava Surges will cover the lower ground of the map, where the Crimson Minerals are located, incinerating any ground unit that passes through, Thick Fogs will limit your units' vision while it's active, and Drop Pods will reinforce the enemy with a number of squads that will be sent after your forces and/or bases.
On higher difficulties, for every 3 sets of Worms that spawn, a Nydus Dragon will instead emerge. Nydus Dragons are enormous monsters that lob fireballs at you from extremely long ranges and can tunnel around their surrounding area. However, they take some time to spawn, unlike Nydus Worms, giving you a window where you can inflict as much damage as you can with no retaliation.
The Control Points activate after 5 minutes into the game and randomize every 3 minutes. Some points are preset to always have a negative effect (such as the one in your home base), while others are preset to always have a positive effect (such as the three points in Baelrog's bases), the rest are neutral and have both types of effects. There is also a chance that a Control Point will be deactivated until the next randomization.
Zerg Broods There are 6 Broods in total; Jormungand, Surtur, Tiamat, Garm, Fenris, and the most powerful of them, Baelrog.
Jormungand relies purely on quantity over quality, and will send the largest attack waves at you. Surtur is the opposite, making use of fewer, yet more durable, powerful and heavier units.
Tiamat specializes in aerial combat and will rarely attack you with ground forces (apart from early in the game). Garm plays more sneakily, relying on burrowing units and suspressing detection.
On the other hand, Fenris excells at using spellcasters and supporting their allies. Lastly, Baelrog is the "perfect" Brood, excelling in nearly every department and using elite units. They will rarely attack compared to other Broods, however. Take caution when engaging them.
Also, on top of each Brood using their own exclusive units, as the game goes on they will make use of elite strains; these strains are enhanced versions of normal units and are very dangerous. Initially, they will act as captains in assault waves, but the longer a Brood survives, the more frequent these strains will become.
Screenshots Here's some gameplay screenshots, showing the subfactions on the offense and defense: http://imgur.com/a/Qrmqr
Credits
GhostNova91 (Arclite Siege Tank, Vindicator and portrait, Nullifier)
Thrikodias (Drakken Siege Burner portrait, BW Dark Archon, Defiler Mound, Psi Emitter, Shield Battery, Avenger, Magister and portrait, Shard Cannon, Titan Strider, Banelisk, Zeg Hulk)
SoulFilcher (Defiler, Ship Ion Cannon, icons and/or wireframes for Gas Turret, Grand Cannon, APC, Assault APC, Devourer, Matriarch and Overcharged Yamato Cannon)
Buhhy (Dragoon)
Salirth and AegisRuneStone (Psionic Hydralisk)
Sound emitted by Psionic Obliterators extracted from the game Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2
Loading screen artwork from Mr--Jack
Special thanks to Rohirrim for helping test the map and for his suggestions, and Beider along with various others for their tutorials, which helped me learn the editor.
GENERAL: - All Vespene Geysers are now properly builtable on. - Lava now rises/lowers over 0.5 seconds (down from 4) when a surge occurs.This should greatly reduce lag and its duration. - Pathing has been greatly changed; a lot of doodads now lack colission and few aerial pathing blockers have been removed. - Thick Fog density has been decreased and nighttime is now less dark, for better visibility of units in-game.
CONTROL POINTS: - Control Points now change every 6 minutes (up from 4). - The efficiency of all Control Point effects has been increased, so that they have a larger impact. - Regeneration Penalty now also decreases max life, energy and shields. - Damage Leech no longer returns shields. - The Control Points located at the home base and north expansion have been moved to the south expansions.
SUBFACTIONS: - Select All Warpgates hotkey changed to W (from Shift+W). - All flying Terran buildings now properly use flying pathing. - Bounty Hunt hotkey has been changed to S (from W). - Warpsphere hotkey has been changed to A (from W). - Trade hotkeys have been changed to R and T (from Q and W).
Omega Division: - Psionic Obliterators and Siege Tanks sharing selection alias has been fixed.
Templar Conclave: - Ballistae no longer deal splash damage to friendly units. - Stalkers' Wind Walk hotkey changed to D (from W). - Twilight Templar training hotkey changed to X (from W).
Disruptors' Psionic Shield: - Damage increased to 10/sec (up from 4/sec). - Radius increased to 3 (up from 2). - Radius now properly extends by the target's radius, so that the ability properly damages adjacent units. - No longer damages allied units.
Marked of the Xel'naga: - Phos of Argos' Warpout hotkey changed to T (from W). - War Strider training hotkey changed to R (from W).
BROODS: - Zergling attack priority has been increased to 20 (up from 19), now making them an equal threat to Hydralisks and Roaches.
Does anybody speak or know anyone who speaks Korean? I'd like to know what the reviews over at the Korean server are saying, but I don't speak the language. :/
Also, am preparing a patch that's to be released in the middle of June. Anybody have feedback or suggestions on what to change/improve/add?
Thanks for playing! Glad you liked it As for other similar maps, perhaps Left 2 Die or the coop campaign missions?
Also, anybody been able to translate the Korean reviews? Would really like to know what they're saying/if there's any useful feedback from them for the patch.
I did it on normal difficulty at first and difficult the second try, and both times we ended the map by killing everything without mining any single crimson minerals (it wasn't even really intentional lol, we were like wut ? when it said victory). Maybe find a way to force players to do all of the objective ? Like making ennemies respawn untill you mined them or something. No big deal, though.
Actually, that's intentional, if all Broods are destroyed then you win the game, as an alternative to destroying a few of them + getting the crimson minerals.
Though, I had been thinking about having enemies be spawned from drop pods and flyers coming in from the corners of the map to attack you every few minutes for each destroyed Brood, but wasn't sure if to implement it or not and didn't in the end.
Just released a new patch, improving balance, visuals and difficulties along with bug fixes. Probably going to be the last patch in a long time, as I'll start working on a new map, a Dungeon Crawler RPG, sooner or later. Anyway, enjoy! Here's the changelog:
GENERAL: - Some aesthetics (visuals, sounds) have been improved. - Fixed visual bugs on some buff models causing them to instantly disappear when the buff expired rather than play their final animation. - The Drop Pods event will no longer occur on Sheepy difficulty. - The Rocks blocking expansions are now more durable than before. - In Terran Single Player, one of the Bunkers on the top right corner of the base has been replaced by a Missile Turret.
SUBFACTIONS: - All Support Powers have been overall improved, so that they are properly useful and not overly expensive. - Psionic Singularity has a chance to bounce off to another enemy if the unit it affects dies within its duration. - Auto-Turrets, Point Defense Drones and Rocket Turrets are now attributed as Summoned.
Odysseus Company: - Reapers' D8 Charges now gain +2 damage per weapon upgrade (down from +3). - Fixed a bug where a Rocket Turret would sometimes not appear instantly when the Raven projectile reached its destination.
Templar Conclave: - Disruptors now deal bonus damage vs Summoned units. - Twilight Archons' life has been increased to 30 (from 5).
Disruptors' Nullify has been overhauled: - Silences an enemy, causes it to degenerate energy and increases damage received from spells. Lasts for 20 seconds. - Deals 30 damage to summoned units upon casting.
Marked of the Xel'naga: - Fixed a bug that caused Eternal Ones to receive 10 damage to their Shields from sources that deal less than 10 damage.. - Eternal One attack range increased to 7 (from 6) - Eternal Ones' bonus damage against Armored units now benefits from the Ground Weapons upgrade.
BROODS: General: - Every time you destroy a Brood, its comrades will now attack you slightly faster. - Fixed a bug whee Broods would send more units on lower difficulties rather than higher difficulties. - Broods will no longer attack faster in the lategame on Sheepy and Casual difficulties. - Broods will attack slower than they used to on Sheepy and Casual difficulties and faster than they used to on Difficult and above. - Broods' attack waves are now weaker in-overall on Sheepy and Casual difficulties. - Broods will no longer send elite attack waves on Sheepy and Casual difficulties. - Elite strains will no longer be added to regular attack waves in the lategame on Sheepy and Casual difficulties. - On Sheepy difficulty, Nydus Worms will no longer spawn. - On Casual difficulty, Nydus Worms will spawn only half the units they normally would and emerge every 20 minutes (rather than every 15m). - On Casual difficulty, Broods will use only half the Nydus Worms they normally would. - On Sheepy and Casual difficulties, Broods' units will be upgraded every 10 minutes (rather than every 5m).
Units: - Bloodthreshers' regeneration bonus each time they are attacked has been increased to +0.5 (from +0.25), up to +12.5 (from +6.25). - Bloodthreshers' spell resistance has been increased to 65% (from 40%). - Bonecrushers' physical damage resistance has been increased to 35% (from 30%). - Psilisks now deal bonus damage vs Summoned units. - Kukulzas' lifesteal has been increased to 60% (from 25%). - Kukulzas' damage and attack speed have been increased. - Baelrog Brood's Ultralisks lifesteal increased to 30% (from 15%). - Torrasques' Chrysalis will now display a timer, indicating how much time is left until they revive.
'ello everyone, just bumping to say that another patch has been released! The map has been greatly optimized (so, it should perform better and load faster), new content has been added and lots of bugs have been fixed! Any feedback would be appreciated
I dunno how to (or if I'm able to) edit the original post, so here's a gameplay video and some screenshots!
GENERAL: - The map has been greatly optimized, performance should now be much better than before and the loading time should be much faster. - Added two new difficulties: Hardcore (harder than Toasty!) and Power Fantasy (easier than Sheepy) - Added 3 new upgrades per subfaction - Easy difficulties have become even easier than before, and hard difficulties harder. - Added command for changing game speed. ("-speed [gamespeed]") - Added command for removing any potential lag from the Lava Surge event, if it still persists ("-lavasurge") - Units are now more visible during nighttime. - Simple Command Card is now forced off and cannot be enabled, due to bugs caused by it. - Fixed some model bugs (ie: model not appearing, animation ending before it should've, etc). - Fixed bug: Some weapons did bonus damage to 2 or more attributes, but only applied one of the damage bonuses.
CONTROL POINTS: - The efficiency of Control Points has been further increased, so that they have a larger impact on gameplay - The radius of Control Points is now indicated by a large yellow circle. - When your units enter a Control Point, a yellow circle is formed beneath them. - Control Points are now displayed on the minimap - you can hover over their icon to see what effect is active. - The Control Points in the south expansions have been removed. - The Control Points near Baelrog's base now have a chance of being negative. - Vision Bonus, Healing Bonus and Healing Penalty have been removed. - Fixed bug: Thorns did not damage shields. - Fixed bug: Zerg were sometimes affected. - Fixed bug: Leaving the Control Point around Baelrog's main base did not remove its effects.
GENERAL GAMEPLAY: - Removed the two Xel'naga Towers - Support Powers have once again been changed: they are cheaper and more effective. - Many unit, structure and upgrade costs have been revised - Trading minerals for vespene and vica versa now has a ratio of 1:2 for minerals:vespene (from 1:4).
TERRAN GAMEPLAY: - Mammoth Tank changed to better counter heavily-armored massive units instead of being a splash damage specialist - Thors' weapon ranges increased by 2 and Thor's Hammer now deals +15 damage to Structures. - Thors' 250mm Barrage Cannons are now available to all subfactions, not just Odysseus Company - Warhounds can now use Haywire Missiles against any Armored target. Haywire Missiles' damage changed to 7+3 vs Massive per missile (from 10) and damage type changed to Spell (from Ranged). - Warhound attack speed changed to 1.5 (from 1.2) and they now deal 10 bonus damage to Massive units. - Bounty Hunt changed: it now gives resources on kill, rather than on attack. - Vikings no longer need to stop before transforming into Assault mode - this allows them to transform faster, without wasting time to separate from each other. - Hellions' attack stats changed to match Hellbats', movement speed also increased to 4.5 (from 4.25). - Widow Mines no longer receive damage from friendly Widow Mines, and are now properly classified as Robotic - Science Vessels' Irradiate radius is now extended by the target's radius. - Fixed bug: Could not pause the construction of Gas Turrets and Grand Cannons. - Fixed bug: Thors' 250mm Barrage Cannons did not show any visual effects for when the cannons fired.
PROTOSS GAMEPLAY: - Motherships and Mothership Cores are now immune to stuns and slows. - Carriers can now hold a max of 10 Interceptors (from 8), +5 with Expanded Hangars (from +4). - Dark Templar movement speed increased to 3.5 (from 3.1) and bonus damage vs Psionic units increased to 35 (from 25). - Shield Batteries' shield regeneration aura increased to 2shields/second (from 1.6) and radius to 6 (from 5). - Scout attack speed changed to 1.25 (from 1.6) and they now gain +1 damage per upgrade against Armored and Massive units. - Phoenix now gain +1 damage per upgrade against Light units. - Oracles' Envision now costs 25 energy (from 50), but lasts only 20 seconds (from 45). - Oracles' Entomb cast range increased to 8 (from 7) and it can now be used on-already Entombed enemies to refresh the buff's duration. - Nexus Stasis Containment energy cost per second increased to 2 (from 1). - Fixed bug: Was difficult to select Shield Batteries. - Fixed bug: Nexus' power radius was not shown when a Pylon or Warp Prism was selected, and vica versa.
[TERRAN] PROSPECTOR'S SYNDICATE: - APC passengers no longer die when the vehicle is destroyed, and they gain +2 attack range while within it. - Restoration changed: it now heals double of what it used to and provides bonus life regeneration for 20 seconds, but no longer removes negative buffs. - Combat Engineers' Repair now works only on structures, but repairs much faster than it used to - Combat Engineers' Flaming Turrets now deal +5 damage vs Light units. - Shockwave Batteries' attacks now ignore armor, but damage has been reduced to 7+7 vs Structure (from 10+15 vs Structure) - Power Plants' radius increased to 8 (from 7) and acceleration bonus to 60% (from 40%). - Fixed bug: Flaming Turrets weren't affected by the Structure Armor upgrade.
[TERRAN] ODYSSEUS COMPANY: - Assault APC passengers no longer die when the vehicle is destroyed, and they gain +40% attack speed and +1.5 range while within it. - Assault APCs can no longer use the Engine Overload ability, but their movement speed, attack speed and attack damage have been improved. - Chemical Warriors now deal +4 damage vs Light units and no longer require an Armory to be trained. - Attack and Assault Drones changed to play a more firepower support role - they are more durable, deal better damage, have higher range and ignore armor. - Attack Drones are no longer built in pairs. - Fixed bug: Warhounds, Attack Drones and Assault Drones weren't affected by the Vehicle Weapons upgrade.
[TERRAN] OMEGA DIVISION: - Grand Cannons' range, damage and splash radius increased. - Spectres' Psionic Lash damage changed to 150+150 vs Massive (from 200). - Psionic Obliterators now deal full damage to units hit by their shockwaves regardless of distance and can hit structures for 50% damage - Pathfinders' attack speed changed to 3 (from 2), damage to 30 (from 35), and they can now attack structures for 50% damage. - Pathfinders' Psionic Round now costs 50 energy (from 25) and deals 60+20 vs Psionic damage (from 70+35). - Dreadnaughts' attack range, damage, splash radius and movement speed have been increased. - Fixed bug: Dreadnaughts' weapon tooltip said they can target Ground and Air units.
[PROTOSS] CRUSADER CASTE - Photon Bombers have been changed: they now shoot slower, but have longer range and higher damage. Their Photon Bombs also deal splash damage. - Photon Bombers' Disruption Bombs have been overhauled: They now increase a target's vulnerability to slows by 20% (up to 100%) - meaning that slowing these targets is more effective - and silencing them. Works on all ground targets, not just massive units. - Strength in Unity now increases armor instead of attack speed - still increases damage, though - The Disintegrator Beam upgrade has been replaced by Photon Torpedoes - increases Scouts' damage and causes their missiles to splash damage. - Centurions now deal a fixed 20 damage (from 15-25), bonus vs Armored increased to 20 (from 15) and damage penalty vs Structures removed. - Fixed bug: Warp In Photon Bomber tooltip was the same as Warp In Phoenix.
[PROTOSS] TEMPLAR CONCLAVE - Psionic Singularity no longer bounces if the target dies - instead, it reduces the target's armor and silences it. - Twilight Templar Stasis Lock can be used on already Stasis Locked units to refresh the buff's duration - Disruptors now deal +50% damage to Psionic units (instead of +1) and drain 3 energy per attack (from 2) - Disruptors' Psioinic Shield and Psionic Flare damage has been increased. Psionic Flare duration also increased. - Fixed bug: Conclave Immortals did not deal damage to Armored units. - Fixed bug: Was difficult to click on Psionic Spires properly.
[PROTOSS] MARKED OF THE XEL'NAGA - War Striders are now slightly faster in-overall and cannot be destroyed by Lava Surges anymore - Fixed bug: Gravitational Paradox knocked back air units. (It still slows them, but doesn't knockback them when attacked.) - Fixed bug: Observers did not gain benefits from the Gravitic Boosters upgrade. - Fixed bug: Stormbringers searched for targets to strike with psi-bolts using the attack target's position as a base, when they should've been using their own position. - Fixed bug: Phos of Argos' Energize ability tooltip did not mention that it restored shields.
ZERG BROODS: - Zerg units will now opt to destroy more dangerous units (such as spellcasters) over less dangerous units. - Aberrations changed to be anti-base defense units instead of anti-armored. - Brutalisks can no longer attack air, but their anti-ground attack has been improved. - Spore Colonies now deal 20 bonus damage to Massive units instead of Light. - The Plague ability can now reduce enemies to a minimum of 1HP (from 25HP) and also supresses cloaking - Ravasaurs' anti-ground damage increased to 22 (from 15) and damage vs buildings is now increased by 30%. - Devourers' Corrosive Spores now also slow enemies by 10% for each spore on the target. - Bloodthreshers now deal 10 bonus damage to Light units instead of 20 to Structures. - Bloodthreshers' life regeneration bonus when attacked now has a cooldown of 0.25s after each time it is applied. - Fixed bug: Behemoths' knockback on death affected air units. - Fixed bug: Defilers and Unclean Ones had Shields instead of Shells. - Fixed bug: Matriarchs' Broodling Strike did not spawn Broodlings if it killed the target with the impact damage. - Fixed bug: Hunter Killers were unable to use Frenzy.
Hey all, I've updated the map once more! I've added in some new content, as well as numerous small changes. Most notably, the Solar Eclipse event & a new scoreboard.
During an eclipse, the Zerg will go berserk and attack you from all directions.
CHANGELOG: - Added a scoreboard & ranks. Can you achieve the rank of Supreme Commander or Praetor? - New events: Solar Eclipse, Reinforcements & Investment - Added countdown timers for events & control points - When a Brood is destroyed, the players are now rewarded with Crimson Minerals (bonus minerals if destroyed early on) - Easy difficulties have been made easier, and hard ones harder - Zerg Drop Pods are now weaker in lower difficulties & stronger in higher ones - On higher difficulties, Broods become more aggressive & are enraged more easily
FACTIONS: - Lava Surges will no longer occur before the 10 minute mark - Prospectors' Syndicate Power Plants are now passive & do not explode on death, but are less durable - Changed the lighting of low ground lava-susceptible areas to be more reddish - Added a command to turn control point minimap symbols on/off - Fixed bug: Air Raid Gunships would return to the bottom of the map if no enemies were nearby. They now patrol the area. - Numerous small bug fixes, balance changes & visual changes
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