News: The Modding Hub in New Design

For months, this website has been left unupdated, and it has been on a stage of dormancy recently, mainly because of the development of my new maps and a long vacation back from before, but finally, a new upgrade for The Modding Hub is here!

Significant improvements in design were the new banner image, the new sidebar background and the new blog post background. The change in design is important, the previous form of the website looked almost bland. The admin profile widget has been moved to the bottom of the blog posts. The new banner image is probably the most important among all the design changes. There are new sidebar widgets added and some widgets have new styles to redefine their looks.

Alongside the new design comes my newest map, Tropical Assault. It is a revolutionized footman wars map that seeks to form a new standard for the genre. Read the post for more info about this new map.

Some contents in various posts have also changed and I removed the Navigation Bar. Instead, I have changed the nav bar to a custom list menu divided into two portions, the Main Menu (the site's main sections) and the Other Stuff (miscellaneous things that are really important).

However, these things are just the tip of an iceberg. A dozen of changes, big or small will be made in a weekly basis. I planned for a World Editor F.A.Q. to be put in this site soon and a few widgets.

For now, don't hesitate to explore more of the website's features and content. If you like the new changes, send a comment to the blog. I'm interested in further improving the site with your great ideas!

Good luck, and always have fun!
~jonadrian619

Tropical Assault

Status: Currently in development.
Release Date: July 10, 2008
Total No. of Versions: 5
Available Versions: v1.0, v1.1, v1.2, v1.3, v1.4, v1.4b, v1.4c, Latest Version - v1.5b

Introduction:

This is a unique Footman Wars map that seeks to set a new standard for the genre itself. Complete with Race selections, Unit Class selections and a variety of upgrades and Heroes for each Race, Tropical Assault isn't just any other Footies map. Conduct epic battles or short confrontations, level up your Heroes and elites, and put your mircromanagement skills to the ultimate test.

Development:

I have made an effort to create a unique Footies map that isn't just limited to what it is right now. I may not have enough time right now and I'm too preoccupied to make major improvements for the map. Right now, I'm developing a CTF map, but I will release versions (with minor alterations) on a weekly basis. Right now, I'm experimenting on some 'expansions' for the map, made plans and the like, and it turned out well. This kinda solves the problem caused by the very small playing space in most footies maps, which makes 'em a bit boring. Yes in future versions, there will be more races and, the map will become wider and more spacious.

Tropical Assault Walkthrough:

At the start of the game, a selection dialog will appear. Pick one Race from the selection, then select a Unit Class from another selection dialog. Each Race is unique and contains 3 Heroes to choose from. Your overall forces will be determined by the Race you've chosen, so pick one carefully. The objective is to destroy the opponent's Town Hall, and do the same until all of enemies are wiped out. However, this is not the only thing you're going to do.

• Races - There are several unique Races to choose from (e.g. Human, Undead, Blood Elf). Each Race has its own set of 3 Heroes and a variety of Upgrades to be researched. But you still need to select a Unit Class for that Race.
  
• Unit Class - The Unit Class is the type of units that will determine what units will be spawned from your base. There are three Unit Classes; Melee, Ranged and Magic. Melee units tend to use hand-to-hand combat as a weapon against enemies. Ranged units have somewhat effective ranged attacks which keeps them out of harm's way in the heat of battle. Magic units are simply known as spellcasters. They have two spells that they can use and each Race's Magic-class units have different and unique spells. Each Unit Class has its own strengths and weaknesses when it comes to their attributes, so keep this in mind.
  
• Upgrades - You can dramatically improve the strength and effectiveness of your forces by researching upgrades from your Town Hall. There are also special upgrades called Training. These upgrades allow your units to acquire their offensive, defensive and magic (Magic-class) abilities through training. There are also upgrades for your Towers. Those upgrades are located in the towers themselves, not in the Town Hall. These upgrades improve the tower's effectiveness against incoming intruders who try to attack your town hall.
  
• Siege Units - Each Race has its own Siege Unit. These are vehicles that you can build from your Town Hall. Siege Units have very long ranged attacks and can deal a considerable amount of damage, and more of the damage against buildings, you can only handle a few at a time, though.
  
• Rally Points - You can set the Rally Point of your Town Hall to any place you want. Not only that, units that are spawned from your Town Hall will automatically proceed to the set Rally Point, which makes it very useful.
  
• Strategies - Your Hero has the ability to use Strategies. These are commands given to all of your units except your Hero of course. Strategies order your units to mass-attack at the center or to one team's base.
  
• Bonus Gold - When a Hero kills an enemy unit, there will be a chance to give out additional gold. Killing enemy Heroes gives out even more bonus gold. This gold is based on the slain Hero's level
  
• Powerups - When a Hero kills any enemy unit, a random powerup will drop. These powerups can be either usable Runes or Tomes which increase a Hero's attributes.
  
• Items - With the introduction of v1.5a, there is now a new Item Plaform for each team, adjacent to that team's base. In this area, there are various merchants and item shops which sell different kinds of useful items, armament and potions, sold at reasonable prices.
  
• Game Commands/Game Modes - There are various game commands (e.g. -ms, -uc (unit count), -rt) available in the game. There's one game mode available, Magic Mayhem (-mm). When enabled, this disables spell cooldown and mana costs of spells for all units.
  
• Boss Creeps - With the introduction of v1.5a, the Hall of Tropics no longer contains powerful items. Instead, it sells out hireable Boss Creeps. These are very powerful creeps that are much like bosses, sold with a high price tag.
  
• AI - Tropical Assault also has AI for CPU players. The AI is really simple, so they can only select their own Race, Unit Class and Heroes, learn skills for their Heroes, and periodically mass-attack their units to the center of the map.
  

Change Log

v1.5b

*Tropical Assault's Partial Expansion Version (Version B)...

• Removed Lumber Costs from all Boss Creeps in the Hall of Tropics.
• Fixed a variety of bugs in Green Dragonlord Arena.
• Balanced the increment and base amount of the attributes of certain Heroes.
• Fixed a bug that allows players to use Books of Town Portal when participating in Special Events.
• Fixed a bug which made players enter in another Special Event though they are currently participating in another Special Event.
• Fixed a bug which made the Heart of Dagohoy item limitless (even when it is a charged item).

v1.5a

*Tropical Assault's Partial Expansion Version...

• A new Item Platform is now available for each team provided that it will greatly augment the power and effectiveness of their Heroes.
• With the introduction of the Item Platform, the Hall of Tropics can only contain very powerful Hireable Boss Creeps.
• A variety of Heroes and their abilities are now balanced. This includes the abilities of each unit-class.
• Fixed the stun duration bug behind the Power Strike and the Body Point Attack abilities so that now Heroes get a mini-stun (0.01) and normal units get a 1/4 second stun duration.
• Fixed a hotkey conflict between the Flame Blast and Lightning Fury abilities.
• Balanced the first skills of all Magic-class units.
• Three new Special Events which allow players to participate in 1v1 arena battles/PvP (player vs. player) duels to test their strength, and if they win, claim great rewards.
• A new monetary system, Special Event Points, is now available restricted for Special Events and PvP duels.

v1.4c

• Added a hotkey for the Strategies menu and assigned one hotkey for each strategy.
• Fixed Ghoul's lack of armor. Now set to 5.
• Rebalanced the three unit classes and made changes to their damage, movement/attack speed, and their armor types.
• Ranged-class units now have 700 range.

v1.4b

• Fixed a problem in the Shadow Clone's hotkeys and now it can function properly.
• Blood Elf Summoner's Hit Points, Strength/Intelligence per level and Damage have increased.
• The following hero skills and abilities have been beefed up a little and made even better: Siphon Spirit, Holy Light, Devotion Aura, Wind Walk, Bladestorm, Blizzard, Brilliance Aura, Carrion Swarm, Vampiric Aura, Tranquility, Trueshot Aura, Mana Burn, Frost Nova, Dark Ritual, Lightning Fury and Chain Lightning.
• Illusions in Shadow Clone now receive less damage from attackers.
• Shadow Clone now only works on organic units.
• Magic-class units' armor has increased by 1.

v1.4
*This is yet the most playable version of the 'current' map since many balance changes and improvements have been made. More will come at v1.5 and the quest for a revolution in Footman Wars continues!

• Added the all new Blood Elf race.
• There is now a new Loading Screen for the map which looks better and more pinoy-style!
• Balanced and finally fixed the HP and regen rates of the Undeas units to the map's standards.
• Each race has now its own Siege Unit available. These siege machines are capable of long-ranged assaults and are effective against buildings, though only 3 can be controlled at a time.
• Some items like Potions of Mana, Health, Vampiric Potions and Books of Town Portal have increased replenishment time and have more charges. The prices for Staff of Sanctuary & Book of Town Portal have increased as well.
• The chance of dropping powerups has been reduced from 12 to 8.
• Fixed the Bonus Gold system so that it can no longer give out additional gold when destroying illusion-type units.
• Fixed a bug where bonus gold is given when killing friendly units, and now it doesn't.
• Killing illusions will no longer add to your kills in the Multiboard.
• There will no longer be any powerups dropped when killing illusions.
• Implemented a new Experience Bar.
• Added a HP and Mana regeneration aura to Town Halls.
• Balanced the Night Elf Archer and the Undead Infernal to the map's standards. Infernal has now 1000 HP.
• Balanced the Night Elf Huntress' hit points.
• Many more balance changes to the units and especially to the abilities.
• Fixed a bug where powerups can be dropped when killing allied units.
• Fixed a tower bug in which the towers gain no damage and less armor when Tower Upgrade has been researched. Now I set the proper upgrade amounts for 'em.
• Added a new Tree Revival System.
• Added a new Hero Kills system that swaps an amount of gold between players when a hero is killed.
• Added a new Game Clock in the multiboard.
• Added the -ms command.
• Bounty is now given when destroying Towers and Town Halls. 100 gold is given for destroying towers and 250 gold is given for destroying Town Halls.
• Fixed Magic Mayhem mode so that now it can 'always' remove cooldown and keep the mana to the max.
• Fixed a multiboard bug in which all players will be grayed out when one player is defeated.
• Night Elves now have a defensive ability Thorns.

v1.3

• Added 10 powerups/poitons that can be dropped in the item pool of the Powerup System, now with a total of 15 powerups.
• The Powerup System no longer applies for summoned units.
• The Powerup System now drops items for a 12% chance instead of a 10% chance before.
• Added the Injury System which is created by Hero12341234.
• Added the -rt, -zoom and -uc commands. -rt removes all text from the screen. -zoom adjusts a camera's distance. The distance of the default Warcraft III view is 1650. Higher than that, it will go higher. Lower than that, the camera gets closer to the ground, but it should not exceed 700. -uc counts all of your living units, summoned units, wards and heroes.
• Added a new game mode or simply a special game command, Magic Mayhem (-mm). When enabled, this will disable cooldown and mana cost for all spells, and it is obvious that the magic-class units will have a better advantage, but this is only for fun and shouldn't be used in regular games or official tournaments. However, you cannot enable this mode after 80 seconds in the game time has elapsed.
• The gold cost of Orb of Fire is now 2500.
• Made an adjustment to the gold costs and bonuses of some items.
• The Undead's Blight defensive ability now gives 2 HP regeneration per second instead of 60% regen rate.
• The Necromancer's Raise Dead can now summon 4 skeletons per corpse and they can last up to 45 seconds, but it now has a 25 second cooldown and 180 mana cost.
• The Human Sorceress' Solar Beam ability now has a longer distance, but it now has 185 mana cost.
• The Orc Shaman's Forked Lightning ability now has 180 damage per target.
• Units of all computer players in a team are now given control to the human players in that team.
• A dozen minor bugs and flaws have been fixed as well.

v1.2

• Fixed the Undead defensive ability, Blight, so that it could really give out 60% regeneration instead of .60 HP per second.
• The Defensive Ability Training's tooltip is now fixed. It will say that it will apply for all classes. It can now be researched w/ no requirements, but the gold cost has been increased a bit.
• The Bonus Gold system doesn't work for Summoned units anymore.
• Fixed a bug in the Bonus Gold system, the amount of gold given when a hero is killed is dependent on it's unit level, not the Hero Level, so I made it to be linked to the Hero Level of the slain hero.
• For AI's, Heroes now take more time to revive when they have a higher level. Each level is a second longer.

*There are not much changes in this version, most of the time just small changes. I'll add more races in the future, as well as new features to make the map more interesting to play.

v1.1

• Fixed a bug where units have food costs and therefore some texts appears above your screen.
• Fixed a nasty bug where units are still spawning even when the said player is defeated.

v1.0

• First Release

Screenshots

1. Featured
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. Other Screenshots

• http://i166.photobucket.com/albums/u87/jonadrian619/TAPIC1.jpg
• http://i166.photobucket.com/albums/u87/jonadrian619/TAPIC2.jpg
• http://i166.photobucket.com/albums/u87/jonadrian619/TA_Screen01.jpg
• http://i166.photobucket.com/albums/u87/jonadrian619/TA_Screen04.jpg
• http://i166.photobucket.com/albums/u87/jonadrian619/TA_Screen05.jpg
  http://i166.photobucket.com/albums/u87/jonadrian619/TAPIC5.jpg
  

Credits

I may have created the map from scratch, but I used a variety of external resources for this map. Thanks to all the people who created those resources!

• Crazyrussian - Command Buttons
• General Frank - Blood Elf Mage Model
• Mc! - Blood Elf Demon Hunter Model
• Elenai - Blood Elf Shieldsman Model
• Hero12341234 - Injury System

If you want to view a more detailed thread of Tropical Assault, please click here.

Good Luck and Have Fun!!

~jonadrian619