Starcraft 2 Race Defense mod
Overview | Design
Design Purpose:
When developing this mod, the core idea was to take aspects of the mod “ZombieFest”, a popular zombie wave defense mod, and improve on certain flaws that the mod has. The finished project should envelope a long lasting experience that players can enjoy for multiple games and can play on any multiplayer map.
Origin Mod Flaws -
Few enemy types
One type of Boss
Players are insentivised to go a select few strategies
Gameplay can last a long time and become stale
Certain races are significantly more viable then others
Design Solutions -
Enemies will use all races and units
Different Bosses depending on race type
Enemies change strategies based on player decisions
Randomly selected Events
Balance changes to each race to ensure all are viable
Game Design Flow
Map is initialized
Player destroys enemy buildings
All enemy buildings have been destroyed
Boss is selected based on enemy units race
Player mines resources
Player expands
Enemies increase
Player increases defense
Player fights boss
Boss is defeated
Player wins
Boss is victorious
Player loses
Building Generation
At the beginning of the match, all buildings are generated at random locations. They must be a certain distance away from each other and the players starting point to ensure the player isn't overwhelmed at the start. These buildings will spawn enemy units based on their unit type. The unit spawn locations are carefully chosen to ensure that the unit won't be stuck permanently. Protoss units require a specific building called pylons near them at all times, due to this we must ensure that all protoss buildings are within a certain range of the pylon. These generations must function on all multiplayer maps.
Enemy Attack Waves
Central Attack Wave
Consistently spawned enemy units that pressure the player. These units change based on the player's current strategy, but should never overwhelm the player. The amount of enemies spawn increases over time.
Structure spawned units
The unit type is determined by the building. Players are able to remove that unit type from spawning by destroying the building that spawns them. This allows counter play for the player based their composition vs the enemies.
Adaptive AI
Every minute the AI will check the player units and determine their strategy. The AI will then respond with the opposite type of unit. If the player has heavy air units, the AI will make ground, and vice versa. This will force the player to have a balanced composition.
Evaluation system
This AI system checks each player's unit and gives an air or ground score depending on the unit. If the player has over a certain amount of points in ground units, the enemy will send air units.