Guide for making ideas

Guide for making ideas
Tweet Topic Started: Oct 8 2010, 11:24 PM (2,062 Views)
Sora	Oct 8 2010, 11:24 PM Post #1
No boost! No boost! Posts: 1,617 Group: Super Member Member #1,175 Joined: Jul 20, 2010	Making ideas is a fun way to get your opinion out on the direction you want the map to go. In the 90+ idea threads I've made, here are some of the things I've learned that I'll call the do's and donts of idea making. We'll start with what you should keep in mind when making an idea in general and then get into more specific type of ideas, what you should avoid doing and then finally how you can start to form some ideas. What to keep in mind before making any idea 1) Unique- Is your idea unique? Does it bring something interesting to the table besides a new skin for a hero or flashy spells? What makes a hero unique is interesting gameplay that's different then other heroes like bebi's micromanaging or spells that synergize well like broly's. 2) Space- Always keep in mind that the map has limited space. Go back to criteria 1 when considering if an idea should take up some of that space. 3) Search function- Make a conscious effort to search previous posts to see if someone has already posted your idea. 4) Necro- If you're going to make an idea based off a previous idea, be sure to give credit to the original idea maker and add something new to the idea instead of just essentially necro posting. 5) Complete ideas- Have a complete idea when you make a thread. For instance, if you're suggesting a hero to be added, then have a complete moveset or if you're suggesting a place to be added, have ideas for vendors, sagas or anything else that would take place in that area. 6) Presentation- Use whatever resources you have to make your presentation look nice. If you have templates to present your spell/hero ideas or gifs for your spell idea you should use them. Even if it's just using color to highlight points you should use it. These things are eye candy for the reader. Also if you're going to post an image and it happens to be huge, be sure to spoiler it so your viewers don't have to see giant pics. What to keep in mind before making a bonus hero idea 1) Following Canon- Avoid fanmade transformation/characters in suggestions like ss3 broly. 2) Power lvl- Characters from dragonball with power levels around 200 are usually not accepted as suggestions. What to keep in mind before making a spell idea 1) Synergy- does the spell synergize with the rest of the hero's abilities or are the hero's abilities just a random collection of spells that you think look cool? What I mean by synergy is, does the spell improve the effectiveness in some way of the hero's other abilities? A good example of spells that synergize are broly's blast meteor and gigantic meteor. You throw your gigantic meteor and then hit it with blast meteor, triggering it to go off and hitting the target/targets with both. This is an example of dynamic synergy. We'll get into different kinds of synergy in a moment and the kinds you should use and the kinds you should avoid. - Dynamic Synergy Dynamic synergy is when 2 spells are effective on their own but when used in succession one triggers an added effect from another or makes the other easier to land. This is the type of synergy you should always aim to create when making a hero suggestion. - Forced Synergy Forced synergy is when 1 spell's primary purpose is simply to enhance the other spell but provide no other effect like disabling heroes/sagas. This makes for forced gameplay, which becomes boring. Avoid this by giving any spell in a synergy added effects that make them viable on their own. 2) Gifs, pictures or videos- If possible use gifs and pictures of the spell used for people to see what you're talking about. Here's an example of a spell that might be hard to understand without a gif but with the gif the idea becomes clear. Buu Kite Tooltip: Buu stretches out his body to increase his wind resistance, stopping him from getting knocked back. Activateable skill: When buu activates this skill while being knocked back, he stops the knockback. (works on all knockback abilities and items) Mana cost: 5 Cooldown: 30 seconds 3) Be Unique- For spell ideas for bonus heroes or reworks of pre existing spells, don't offer a spell list based entirely on pre-existing spells. Try your best to think outside the box and come up with spells that offer the hero unique gameplay. Avoid saying things like "X hero will have Y as an ability, which is just like a kamehameha/galick gun/masenko". This can be hard but by doing this you force yourself to think of new spells and abilities. 4) Coding- If your not a mapmaker this can be tough. I'm not either but try to keep in mind when making an idea if your idea is even feasibly possible to code. This shouldn't be your primary concern because if your not a mapmaker you have no idea what limits the wc3 engine has. I don't either but always keep it in the back of your mind when making some idea. 5) Variety of spells- Not every spell a hero has needs to be a nuke or a combo. There's alot of other viable types of spells you can make for a hero. These include - Global: spells that hit players from any point in the map. - Disables: stuns, immobilizing, slows and other types of spells that disable a target - Escape mechanisms- spells like super buu's new dimension scream that allow the player to escape You can blend some of these types of abilities together to form a unique spell for a character. 6) Game breaking- try not to think of something that's too overpowered. Even if the character you're proposing was really strong in the show. 7) Complexity- When making a spell idea, it doesn't necessarily need to be complex to be unique. A spell can have a pre-existing effect, such as a slow, stun, aoe, but incorporate that effect in a unique way that hasn't been done before instead of giving a spell 5 different effects. What to keep in mind when making Saga ideas 1) What ifs- I personally like the hypothetical what if saga ideas seen in games like tenkaichi budokai but they usually aren't accepted. Keep this in mind when making an idea along these lines. 2) Dragon ball- This goes back to the power level criteria. Original dragonball sagas like red ribbon army or emperor pilaf are usually shot down because of the weak power levels of the bosses. While your idea might be accepted, keep this in mind when making an idea along these lines. What to keep in mind when making ideas for places 1) Significance- Did this place you're going to suggest, hold any memorable battles? Was it the spot where a certain character gained a power up or died? Places that appear strictly in filler episodes are not always the best bet. 2) Vendors- If you're going to suggest a vendor make sure he sells something that isn't already in the game. 3) Space- The map is near full. If you're going to make a suggestion for a planet or any large area, realize that adding your idea would mean taking something out. Just make sure your idea is worth the space. Things to never do 1) Bump bump bump- Don't double post to draw attention to your thread. This goes not just for ideas but posting in general. If someone likes your idea they'll post in the thread without your bumps. Double posting will just make mods upset and probably earn you a warning. 2) Flame wars- Don't argue with others concerning your ideas. It simply derails your own thread and gives mods more work. 3) Being insistent- Don't insist on having it your way. Be flexible in your suggestions, if the map makers like your idea but find that your suggestion isn't codeable or would prefer to incorporate it another way then be gracious enough to listen to their suggestions. How to start making ideas Making ideas for heroes/spells As you know the only real restrictions when coming up with a hero suggestion are power level and sticking to canon. As long as your hero is fairly strong then it has a chance, just don't make up any transformations. Now that you understand what characters you should be looking to use, I'll try to take you through where you can draw inspiration toward making a hero's moveset. When coming up with an idea for a moveset for a bonus hero, follow a certain theme. Theme's can come from a variety of places. 1) Moves in the show- I'll use Tien for an example. Tien in the show had alot of attacks that stole his life force in order to inflict dmg like the evil containment wave and the tri beam cannon. His moveset would be made around this concept of using his life force to dmg the opponent and then dealing high amounts of dmg while sacrificing some of your health and then finding ways to regenerate his hp that would be give a greater return if you're health was low. This would encourage the player to take more risks for greater rewards. 2) Using the hero's story to get ideas- You can come up with moves based on the character's backstory. Maybe you're trying to think of a moveset for a hero that's a mad scientist who's trying to escape hell like dr. myuu or someone psychotic seeking revenge like broly. Their backstory can help you alot in coming up with alot of ideas. 3) Getting inspiration from other games/shows- Maybe you have another game you like, for instance l4d2. You can make some abilities based off boomer, tank, witch, as long as they follow the theme of the hero. If your hero is big and strong like broly, it makes sense if he were to have a move based off the tank in l4d. Useful links for your ideas http://www.wowwiki.com/WC3_Icons/Icon_List A list of all the warcraft 3 icons for you to use in your spell suggestions. http://www.gifsoup.com/ Make your own gifs from youtube videos. I was able to make some great gifs at this site, including buu kite, however, the site can be unresponsive at times. Great for hero and spell suggestions when it's working. http://dragonball.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page Great site that has information on anything you need to know about dragonball, as well as nice pictures. Try not to copy and paste an entire hero suggestion's skill sets directly from here though. Thanks for reading and hopefully this guide helped you spark some ideas. Edited by Sora, Nov 26 2010, 02:19 AM.
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