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A few months ago on my stream we came up with a unique handicap for a game I was playing against a newbie. The idea was that my stream moderators would tell me, every few minutes, what unit I could use. I was allowed to build only that unit and if I did not have the tech, I must immediately begin to tech to that unit in order to build it at soon as possible. I got to thinking about expanding this concept into a full-on obs map whereby a group of friends could get together, watch some Starcraft, but also influence the game in an amusing fashion.
Introducing the concept of Trollobattles
A series of obs-focussed maps based on the various ladder maps currently available. 2 players would play the map as normal while a number of others observed. The observers have the ability to vote and the interface by which to do so. They accrue votes every X minutes, as defined by their decision at the start of the map (if everyone wants a truly hectic game, they can accrue a vote every 30 seconds to spend on an event/handicap). Votes can be spent on choosing various handicaps and events to occur on the map to "spice up" the game. The voting is kept hidden from the players and they will only know the outcome of each vote when it actually comes into play.
Handicaps
These can vary wildly and are announced only to the player who receives one. They can include, restricting the building of units, forcing a player to only build one specific kind of fighting unit. Random malfunctions in which productions facilities are frozen or slowed down, exploding vespene gas containers, whatever your heart desires. The more amusing, the better.
Map events
These are major events which effect the entire map and are announced to both players. These can include an AI controlled hybrid which spawns in the centre of the map and begins to run rampant, attacking any units close-by. A psychic storm which strikes randomly on the map, dealing damage to anything it hits. A sudden infestation of burrowed banelings in random locations on the map. You name it.
Balancing handicaps and events
Needless to say, some handicaps and events are far more severe than others. As a result, balancing would occur by making certain events cost more votes than others before they are put into play. If the observers want a specific event to happen earlier, they can all pool their votes towards it. If they just want a more gradual increase in disasters, they can spread their votes around. Handicaps and events will trigger a cooldown, ensuring that the same handicap/event cannot be used again immediately. Some handicaps such as "limit building of units to X unit" will trigger a global cooldown of that category, since changing that 30 seconds afterwards would kinda suck.
Does this map exist yet?
No, that's why I'm posting here. I'm looking to hire a developer for this map, mostly because I think it would be a ton of fun for the Showcraft stream. This would be a paid gig. I'm looking for someone with prior development experience who has some examples they can show me. I'm willing to pay $200 for the development of a "1.0" version of this map with sufficient features and lack of bugs to be playable. I'd also be willing to pay for future development of the map to add new features, hazards, handicaps and events.
If you are interested in taking on the development of this idea, please PM me via Teamliquid with some examples of your previous work.
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Wow so awesome. TL arena had this in BW, but the handicaps always had to be remembered by the players and were never as funny as like 1/50 vespene canisters randomly exploding with aoe damage or a few marines randomly shooting each other if you pack your marines in too close for too long.
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Hey TB,
I've poured my heart and soul into this program over the past 2 years, and would say with confidence that I am fluent with every aspect. By what you describe, this sounds like something I could have running within a day.
I made this post alongside a PM since exposure is always good.
You can find many examples of my work on my youtube channel;
http://www.youtube.com/user/Eiviyn
My first ever production, winner of the first real sc2mapster competition. Released before SC2 hit the shelves.
+ Show Spoiler +
Second production, also first place.
+ Show Spoiler +
My first page 1 map
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My second page 1 map
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Something I made in an evening. If you watch one video, make it this. Short and sweet.
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My latest creation; a full spell editor
+ Show Spoiler +
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If I see a problem with this concept, it must be the fact two similarly skilled players might find this rather frustrating. Of course, it would be a really nice idea for the Showcraft stream.
Good luck with it!
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Hey TB,
Any progress with finding a developer for a "quiz map"? I posted in the showcraft thread some time ago about an idea someone had in the youtube comments on one of your videos.
I dont know if you remember (i know you are very busy). The basic concept was everybody in the quiz has control of a speedling and you have 4 islands, each island corresponds to a multiple choice answer, ABCD say. You would then read out a starcraft related question and 4 multiple choice answers. The players then have a set amount of time, 20 seconds perhaps, to move to the correct island at which point the map is filled with lava except the islands, stopping people changing their answer. Then nukes, storms or perhaps biscuitcruisers can be dispatched to the islands that correspond to the wrong answers. I think this could be really awesome especially with a high number of players, ie chaos as people try to change their answer at the last second only to be burnt to crisp 
To Eiviyn, how easy would this be to implement?
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betaman - not yet, perhaps if Eiviyn can pull this one off, the quizmap might follow.
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You dude, are the future.. This sounds so awesome!
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The Show will have a great feel to it if it has it's own maps for different features, hope you make some more of them, this will make it somewhat similar to some TV shows :D
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This seems like a really awesome concept and the fact that you are paying for the creation of such a map would certainly attract individuals to this. I personally have no skill with map-making, whether it be melee or UMS but an inclusion of a map that was created by the community to be included in the Showcraft stream really intrigues me and I cannot wait for the début of this kind of map.
Good luck to anyone who attempts to do this and many thanks to TotalBiscuit for being awesome!
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Can someone please make this? The idea of playing an obs game and getting screwed over by observers in random ways sounds just fantastic. I think the number of "events" though should be incredibly numerous, so that it never gets stale. Ideas like the marines randomly shooting each other are incredibly amazing and could be expanded upon (like what if a couple units in your control group just said "fuck it" and defected to the opponents team by walking over there?
Want this. SO much.
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your Country52797 Posts
People would finally believe me when I say my units are being more stupid than dragoons.
Unfortunately, they would also be maliciously annoying!
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Thanks for your offers guys. I am currently working with Eiviyn on a prototype. What we'd love is for you guys to contribute various handicaps, hazards and events.
I had some more thoughts during the day. We could change the votes to "rage points" which are accumulated over time, depending on what mode you're playing in (some modes would have faster rage generation and as a result, spectators could fuck with the players more often and in more severe ways). I'd like for spectators to be able to do very small, cheap actions quite regularly which they would be able to afford on their own, without the contribution of others. Say, taking control of one unit, lowering a supply depot, setting a building on fire, cloaking part of the map, generating a false radar blip or something like that. The larger actions such as forcing a player to only build one specific unit for a time would either require a great deal of saving up of rage points by an individual observer, or the combined efforts of a number of observers. The more severe the handicap/hazard/event, the more ragepoints must be saved up in order to enact it. The observers act as jealous and vengeful gods, the players are trying to win in spite of their interference.
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If this ever gets rolling along and you guys need map testers, drop me a PM
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I've almost finished a prototype for the vote version. It has a few basic Obs map features such as voting which players participate.
More importantly, the troll system.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/xTtun.jpg)
The orange bar signifies the current "doomed" player. In this case, you're voting to decide orange's fate. When the bar fills, voting ends and the troll, if any, is applied to the player. The bar then resets, changing colour to the second player, and voting begins anew.
The "votes" label indicates how many votes you've personally accrued. You gain 1 vote every time the bar resets.
The small icons indicate the various actions you can vote towards. In this case, Vespocolypse and Skip are the two candidates which people have voted for. You can see how many of your fellow observers have voted for each event via the highlighted bar next to the event. The longer the bar, the more votes towards that fate. The event with the most votes, or random in the case of a tie, is applied to the fated player upon the round's completion (signified by the orange bar filling entirely).
Vespocolypse causes, for 30 seconds, vespene canisters to behave like banelings. Delivering the canister will detonate it, as will killing the host worker. Unfortunately (or fortunately for orange), Skip is leading this vote. Skip spares this player from the observer's wrath, allowing them to save their votes for a later event.
Amoung the other events are Ban, which prevents a single unit type from being built by that player. If Ban is successfully voted, a second mini-vote appears, allowing observers to vote which unit should be banned.
Restrict works the opposite, forcing the player into a single unit type until the "troll" wears off.
Lastly, Nerf. That's the one with the bunker icon. This //increases build time of a chosen unit type// sorry, I mean reduces the combat effectiveness of a specific unit type.
Not a wide selection, but enough for a prototype I believe.
Personally I do think the Rage resource system would work better, though. Reminds me of Populous.
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How about these?
"Earthquake"--An existing cliff moves to a random location (the previous location becomes low ground, randomly selected one becomes high ground--I have no idea how hard it would be to implement this, or if it's possible, but it sure would be funny)
"BroodWar AI"--All of a single type of unit (troller's choice) lose some of their vision and attack range (perhaps random amount from 1-3, hidden from victim), experience a delay between the giving of an order and the carrying out of it (say, you hit the "s" key, and a half second later, the unit stops)
"(can't think of a name)"--Either displays random buildings to user upon scouting (like, you poke up the ramp and a cybernetics core displays as a gateway) or changes images of buildings you have already scouted (you scan, see a pair of gateways and a robo bay, forget what you saw, and look at FoW, but see a dark shrine, twilight council, and robo bay)
"HAX! HAX!"--When used by the opponent of the victim of the troll, the hallucination spell creates real units, all units move at 1.5x speed and can still attack when burrowed, and/or stim does no hp damage, depending on the race of the opponent of the victim. (for example: the troll is used on Blue, so Red (who is protoss) can make real colossi using sentry energy for around 15 seconds--the "hallucinated" colossi do not time out, but do take up supply)
"Treason!"--All of the units produced by the victim permanently belong to the opponent for a short period of time (it just flips the color of units built for, say, the next 30 seconds)
"idrA rage"--the victim cannot act (neither his keyboard nor his mouse will work) until he "calms down" (a little red bar that goes down to nothing after 5 seconds, but instantly fills back up if the victim attempts to use his keyboard or mouse--he is not told that this troll is active--he must realize it himself, and the red bar is small and in a random location on the screen)
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I'd like to suggest a few little somethings. And because Eiviyn is appearently being occupied by something (I suspect his GF) I'm just gonna leave this here. Maybe you could drop a little note what you think of these TB.
Custom UI/Toggle UI
I'd like to suggest the implementation of a custom UI for the "general population" of observers. Which basically means a rework of the current Blizzard UI to better fit the style of the map. Most people who will play this will probably not see the need for something like a ressource window or the unit tab of the Blizzard Observer mode. Thus, it might be favorable to give them a simple, clean UI with necessary information and an "easy to use" vote menu. To make sure everyone has their favorite shiny, I'd also suggest a simple "toggle UI" button added to the menu bar on the top of the screen (since there is a bit of free space there).
1 Minute Tutorial with Voice-Over
With most current maps, there is a distinct lack of user accessability in form of a quick tutorial. Seeing how this project already has a very strong and well-known voice available (when there are no viking flus about) it would be favorable to have a quick tutorial voiceover to explain the game in about ~1 minute. This should be easy to implement and could make it a lot easier for people to get into the maps gameplay. If Eiviyn uses a bank file, this would allow to check if someone already watched it and just get rid of it for them. People should probably not be able to skip, seeing how it just takes a minute and will save if they watched it or not - also makes sure nobody can argue they didn't know how to play, if they have half a brain. Re-enabling the tutorial via a quick button press on a menu should also be favorable (preferably in the same place as the UI. Sub-Menu just for the map, should be perfectly fine).
Tophat Units
So, some time ago me and a pal of mine decided that Zerglings have to be improved to a certain british standard. I do not know if you remember this, but I actually linked that one to you and you approved of it's well-mannered styles. It's currently to be found in my TL profile, just for conveniance reasons. Seeing how this is a "TB-Brand-Map" I'd like to suggest the addition of Tophats to units in this map. My Zergling currently has a bit of an odd Tophat, but I'm pretty sure it would only take us a few hours to make an engine-ready Tophat that is more to your liking and Eiviyn should easily be able to implement them via the Data Editor. Thus, there would be a Tophat-wearing Legion of Marines. Or Zerglings. Or Zealots. Or maybe even Battlecruisers. Who doesn't love that, I ask thee?
Use of a Mod-File
This might not be really reasonable if you only want a single map, but if Eiviyn was to export the whole thing later to a Modfile, it would be possible to implement your Trollobattles Mode into any map you wish in a few quick and easy clicks. We did something similar with out project TSOF and it works very well. Takes about 30s to set it up and you can play a 3rd person shooter on anything you want.
And just in case you ever think of custom terrain or a cutscene at the start of your map, I'll drop these here. Currently did not have the time, or otherwise I'd have offered my help before, gotta get some stuff done. Might have some free time for long-term projects next month or so.
StarCraft 2 Cutscene
+ Show Spoiler +
Terrain Shots (some WIP)
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We've put the first prototype through it's paces, some hilarity ensued. I'm working on a video series chronicling it's development. Any ideas you guys have as regards to abilities, hazards and world events, please do leave them here, we want to try and implement as much crazy stuff as possible.
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EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/a80CY.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/MEZZy.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/0nLzo.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/yH6pT.jpg)
