The Shadow in the Warp approaches... (.46+)

I know we've talked about the presence of a Tyranid mode going in, but we should flesh out some ideas right now. A timeline would be nice. :]

gly's timeline and my inspiration

Spoiler:

EDIT: ok, so some more gameplay/code affecting thoughts...
when -ts is entered... 1 random player from each team is switched over to a third team (the nids) and are given a different selection of heroes (only nid heroes... duh ) these two players will be announced and the enemies can see their hero selection just as normal.
One random neutral creep spawn will then function as the 'fountain' for the nid heroes, and become like their home base... (havnt decided if itll have shops as well)
(expanding on this) one random neutral creep spawn will be replaced with a swarm lord (does not respawn) this swarmlord functions as the HQ buildings of the nids, it is given the Neutral Wander ability (the ability the sheep etc have that make them move about) with an aoe(if i can do this) of about 700.
if the Swarmlord dies, all nids (if possible) unally themselves and their heroes (heroes remain allied to eachother).
-> untill 10 minutes, the nid heroes only have themselves on a team, and can only really do some hit and run ganks, or farm forrest creeps.

at 10 minutes, any creep spots that have no creeps currently in them will instantly become nid spawns (so its the nid players mission to clear as many spawn as possible) the difficulty of the spawn before conversion will dictate the difficulty of the nid spawn after conversion.
the aoe of the swarmlord's Wander ability will be increased to 1500
-> it is possible that it will wander into lanes, i am aware of this and that is intended

at 20 minutes, a timer starts. every 1 minute every tyranid on the map will attack the enemies base closest to them
The swarmlords wonder increased to 3000 aoe

at 30 minutes (sorry gly, im not going to do away with creep spawning. it is still an aos after all) whenever a creep spot is cleared when the nids are told to attack the enemy base, they become nid spawns instad.
swarmlords wander incrased to 6000 aoe

35 minutes, some sort of 'hive base' spawns at the intial spawning location giving the nid heroes the equivalant of drop pods and comes with targetable artilary-like guns. at thsi point, one random nid from existing spawns will be added to their spawn every 5 minutes (so if a spawn has 3 hormagaunts and a geanstealer... it will pick one random unit from that group, and make the point spawn an additional of that unit every time)
swarmlord's wander increased to 12000 aoe

tyranids win by killing either one of the enemies base
humans/orks win by killing the opposing team
humans/orks lose if they die to the nids

i dont know what will happen to the still remaining team if the nids kill off their opponent... cause the whole reason is to kill off you opponenet then retreat before the nids get u... possibly give a loss to both teams if the nids kill an enemy?

edit: i know this has prolly been worked on past what i have here... (i know it has), but just a reminder for me...

synapse, when going 'feral' give the unit to player 14
in initialization, player 14 unallies everyone (including self)

the only problem is that it turns the map from an aos to a defense map...

other than that, i love it XD

We could have the sides go and capture/destroy capillary towers and make it a 1 vs 1 vs 1. If the Imperium could cripple the spawning centers and handle the sporadic appearances of Tyranids, let's say they get some sort of bonus that reflects the time and resources spent to slow down the tyranids.

hmm could work...

would you have special nid hero players? Like the first two players on each team deviates to the nids?

That's not a bad idea, although we'd need to limit it to 2 on 4 on 4. 4 on 3 on 3 could be bad, especially if you're trying to live as the imperium or orks.

im supporting the tyranid mode, like you said to an exent it could be like a hero defense type map that way but if you just single it out in each lane it could do the trick.

I seem to remember deus making a nid hero, a genestealer i think, along with my primacii. Perhaps every 5 or ten minutes a 'boss' unit spawns in one of the lanes or something (like titans mode).

Grass, you said it was a type of defense mode right? Maybe we can go through the general layout of the mode and change it to a type of survival, and at the end when 'all hope is lost' a deathmatch commenses against the players and specialised nid heroes. (AI/Player controlled?)
if one dies during the deathmatch he obviously cant respawn. So the last team/player standing wins the game for thier team. (Involving both teams, orcs and men.)

i wanna keep at as much of an aos as possible with thsi idea

which could mean that the neutral outposts become the nids' and their spawn points are in the forrest, making it humans vs nids vs orks with nids being in the middle

with no human controlled nid heroes? I think it would be cool to throw 2 random players on the nid team

thats also possible

take 1 random player from each team and have them on the nid side. with each kill, they help the tyranid cause, and help spawns. the two main forces are trying to kill each other, before the nids get too strong and overwhelm them. If a base is killed by imperials or orks, games over for the winning side retreats. if nids kill a base then it could become a nid base and the losing side joins the nids to take on the survivor.

Very different to have basically a 3 way battle, so much more to do

i like that idea actually

Especially just thinking of it now, timeline for each period in time during the game different spawns etc huge difference from the typical 1v1 battle

it would make things very interesting, to say the least. The opposing sides would fight harder to kill eachother so that they wont all get overrun with nids

the only problem i see... if nids are in the middle.. how do humans/orks get to the other side to kill off their opponenet before getting overrun?

nids start off in the forest, with very small spawns to start with. as the game goes along, maybe they can upgrade spawns since they wont be able to get gear. If they get a base, whoopdy fucking do, the imperials and orks would both rush to kill it, then return to trying to kill each other. The nids would probably come in after about 8 mins after the game starts

edited gly's post with some thoughts/possible gameplay effects

dont have nids have shops. Not until later. The only shop they starty out with is a place to buy hireables, and help with spawns.

I agree with Changer. Nids should have an armory of sorts where they can research upgrades for their little troops and special building. Every time an enemy hero is killed, a random skill of theirs is absorbed into the hive mind's consciousness to be used by Hive Tyrants, Carnifexes, and the like.

So this special building would be empty at first, but as enemy heroes are killed, a random skills is transformed and made into an equivalent item with limited uses. It could become a temporary skill, but I'm not sure how that would work.

ummm. i want to avoid having a comprehensive list of all hero's skills so getting a specific item based on what heroes are killed might have to be changed somehow.

but i do like that idea

agreed with having the nids be spawned based only. shouldnt have much more than that

maybe, instead of weapon and armor shops, they have a genetic research facility of some sorts. The place offers them the ability to help nid swarms or nid heroes. Like increase strength or resistance for a hero, or we could go really far out and say thats how they get their skills.

thats what i had in mind