[El Diablo War3Evo]

This is no longer maintained. I'm not sure if I'll ever come back to it or not.

You can find the sourcecode here: https://github.com/War3Evo/SkillCraft


What is SkillCraft?

SkillCraft is a competition mod version of War3Source mod. It is a raceless, level-less, xp-less, mod. It gives you 4 skill types to choose from (Mastery, Talent, Abilities, and The Ultimate). You can mix these skills up to create your own "custom race". Each player is his or her own character, and can pick skills based on his or her own play style. The only thing that separates each person is their own knowledge of the skills and the knowledge of how to play TF2. A non-level base system allows each player a chance to prove how good they really are!


Difference between WarCraft (also known as War3Soruce mod) and SkillCraft mod:

WarCraft is for those whom want to have fun, level up, buy shopmenu items and stuff. WarCraft is for the players whom want to say "Ha! I am a higher level than you!" WarCraft is for those whom wish to achieve higher levels and grab new ground by working hard to gain xp. For those whom take a sit in WarCraft and stay for the long hall will earn their place above everyone else. There are many Races to choose from, and it boils down to your know how. If you know how the Race works, then you'll be able to wipe out your foe better. Learn about all the Races, experience new levels. The most fun part of WarCraft is leveling. I personally love to switch from Race to Race, just to experience the leveling experience.

On the other hand...

SkillCraft is not for everyone. If you want a God vs God experience, where its your wit verse the other persons wit, then your in for a ride of your life. SkillCraft isn't for the weak of heart. SkillCraft is meant to carry the most OP skills and have you battle for your life! So don't go complaining to me that a Skill in SkillCraft is OP! Everyone has access to all the skills given to them for a truly competition style game. You have 4 skill types that you can pick from. Out of these Skill types you will gain a list to the most popular WarCraft Skills and then some... So, what makes a Race in SkillCraft? That is for you to decide.


SkillCraft Chat command list:

playerinfo - you can go the "all players menu by pressing 3 from this menu or even copy a player's skills by pressing 2"

myinfo - similar to playerinfo except it shows your information.

changerace,  changeskills - is the full blown skill menu that can confuse a lot of  players, but was created because of player whom are used to using  changerace.

changemastery or !m - a menu of mastery skills you can change to
changetalent or !t - a menu of talent skills you can change to
changeability or !a - a menu of ability skills you can change to
changeultimate or !u - a menu of ultimate skills you can change to

buffs - to show all your current buffs that has been applied to your character.

scversion - current SkillCraft Version

skillsinfo  - brings up a description of your skills and you can go to the full  list of all skills by pressing 5.  While players browse the description  menu, if they like a certain skill, they can set that skill on the same  page as the description.

skillsinfo2 - brings up a description of all the skills in game

There  is a special preferences menu created.   It allows players to customize  how SkillCraft works for them.  You'll need to advertise to players to  type "prefs" or "!prefs" without the quotes in order to gain access to  their preferences menu for which they can toggle stuff on / off.

SkillCraft has a new cooldown HUD that allows players to see exactly how long is a cooldown for each skill.

SkillCraft also uses the shortnames of their skills which will display as a HUD when they look at other players.

In your skillcraft.cfg you can add:

sc_serverowner_steamid "" - your steam id if your the owner.
sc_serverclantag "" - your clan tag, for special clan chat which players can type & to chat in clan chat.

Your VIP can talk in VIP chat by typing in # in the beginning of their conversation and only VIP or admins will see the message.

In commandhook, I have currently assigned myself as DEV, but will remove this soon and replace it with a cvar.


If a player doesn't know about SkillCraft, the first time they enter.. it will give them a list of skills to choose from, then after each death, they will skill different skills until they have 4 different types.

Installation:

Prerequisites

* make sure you have the latest SourceMod and the latest Metamod:Source


* SDK Hooks is no longer required to be downloaded and installed as it comes with sourcemod 1.5+ snapshots.

* Do not use a command spamming kicker on your server!

* We do not recomend strict sv_pure. You should know what you are doing if you are using sv_pure.

* change your /cfg/skillcraft.cfg to your preferences

* Do not use any plugin that changes the colors for vip / admin / etc. We may or maynot remove this feature. At this time, you can setup yourself as owner of the server, and it will handle admin / vip chat messages. It has a chat system internally. Having a # before you a VIP chats using /say would put that VIP into VIP chat, and there is also a setup for clantag system that allows people wearing the tag to chat internally on a separate channel.

* You'll need to have clientprefs.smx installed on your sourcemod server. Sourcemod usually comes with this, but I just wanted to make it a point as the preference menu uses it.

Saving SQLITE

1. Go to your webhost, create a username and database (using GUI control panels such as cPanel). You may need to contact tech support to allow a database connection from your server IP.

2. Go to sourcemod/configs/databases.cfg

"default"      
{
  "driver" "sqlite" //<-- 
  "host" "localhost" //<-- can leave alone
  "database" "sourcemod" //<-- change if you want, this is the name of the database
  "user" "username" //<-- leave alone sqlite doesnt have authentication
  "pass" "password" //<-- leave alone sqlite doesnt have authentication
//"timeout" "0" //<--leave alone
//"port" "0" //<--leave alone
}

Saving MySQL

1. Go to your webhost, create a username and database (using GUI control panels such as cPanel). You may need to contact tech support to allow a database connection from your server IP.

2. Go to sourcemod/configs/databases.cfg

"default"      
{
  "driver" "mysql" 
  "host" "x.x.x.x"
  "database" "database name" 
  "user" "mysqlusername" 
  "pass" "mysqlpassword" 
//"timeout" "0" //<--configure if needed ...
//"port" "0"
}

A sample copy of my database.cfg:

"Databases"
{
    "driver_default"        "mysql"
    
    // When specifying "host", you may use an IP address, a hostname, or a socket file path
    
    "default"
    {
        "driver"            "mysql"
        "host"                "www.mysql_ip_address.com"
        "database"            "w3s"
        "user"                "user"
        "pass"                "password"
        //"timeout"            "0"
        //"port"            ""
    }
    
    "storage-local"
    {
        "driver"            "sqlite"
        "database"            "sourcemod-local"
    }

    "clientprefs"
    {
        "driver"            "mysql"
        "host"                "www.mysql_ip_address.com"
        "database"            "w3s"
        "user"                "user2"
        "pass"                "password2"
        //"timeout"            "0"
        //"port"            "0"
    }
}

/cfg/skillcraft.cfg configuration:

If you do not have this file, create it.

Here are the cvars that you can change or add to /cfg/skillcraft.cfg:

sc_serverowner_steamid "" - if your the server owner, you can put your steamid here so that anytime you chat you will be recognized by everyone that you are the owner.

sc_serverclantag "" - add a clan tag here for your server.

please check back. I'll be updating this list again soon.


Just extract SkillCraft.zip and sound.zip into your tf folder. Becareful, as some zip programs will extract the folder as the folder's name and then extract the files. You'll need to extract the files into tf without the file name being extracted as a folder name. You don't want /tf/SkillCraft/... you do want tf/addons/ and tf/sound/ and tf/cfg , etc.. okay?


Did I leave any installation information out?? Let me know. Thanks.


Another thread / topic being discussed about SkillCraft / Bugs: http://war3source.com/index.php?topic=1905.0

We have attached a working alpha copy of SkillCraft, including all source files, translation files, and compiled files. Since the sourcecode files does not take up very much room, it is best to just download one complete file. I guess I had to split off the file into 2 sections because of the SourceMod limitation.


You can download the Latest stable compiled copy via Jenkins from GitHub on this link: http://ci.0xf.org/job/SkillCraft/lastStableBuild/

If you need a full copy with all the source, please visit the link https://github.com/War3Evo/SkillCraft

[Wazman]

Why couldn't all the powers be written into one plugin

[El Diablo War3Evo]

Originally Posted by Wazman Why couldn't all the powers be written into one plugin

If a update is done to War3Source, then it is much easier to track the skills "powers" down if they are of the same name and location.

Most of these "standard" skills we are adding and converting from War3Source have a possibility of getting an update periodically. Since we also help develop War3Source, it is much easier to keep a similar naming system to update accross the two different mods. If SkillCraft updates a skill that War3Source could use, then we also update War3source, and on the other hand... if War3Source updates a skill, then we can merge those updates easier.

[RedSword]

At first I was expecting something more balanced, like the good old War3x by Ryan. Doesn't seem to be the case .

(= "sets" of skills predefined that you can choose from)

[El Diablo War3Evo]

Originally Posted by RedSword At first I was expecting something more balanced, like the good old War3x by Ryan. Doesn't seem to be the case . (= "sets" of skills predefined that you can choose from)

Oh, "sets" of skills, by meaning of "Races"? I'm sorry to bust your bubble, but this is a raceless system.

You basically "create" your own "race" or "sets" of skills by selecting each skill you want to use. We will eventually have a way that players can name and save a few pre-set races for themselves.

If you do prefer a Race based system, with leveling, xp, etc. I recommend that you would use War3Source from www.war3source.com and if you have any requests for the War3Source plugins, let me know as I can also update war3source.


Once all the Skills have been loaded and tested, then we will work on a better balance. Currently all the skills are setup for maximum of the default values of War3Source. I'm working with a group of beta testers to help me get all the skills working for SkillCraft. I felt having skills working first before I go on to the next batch of skills was more important than balance, as my main goal is to try and get all the skills working.

Get me if I'm wrong, but I truely feel If I started to try and balance as I go, I'll end up doing double work as I add more skills.

I'll be adding in some cvars for all the skills so that server owners can have more control over how they wish to balance out the game.

Currently I'm working hard to import all the skills from War3Source. The conversion of code is the biggest part, as removing the race system and leveling system is part of the process in order to obtain the goal of SkillCraft. To be competitive version of War3Source where all players are able to obtain and have all skills. I feel a true balanced game is where nobody is higher than the other person and it is your knowledge of the skills vs my knowledge. If I like your version of the skills, I can directly copy them thru the playerinfo menu system.

I do appreciate your comments and I wish to express that this is a beta, and there are many changes forth coming. Comments do help in pushing this into a goal area that will benefit everyone.

[RedSword]

It's just that you are saying it is a "competitive" mod; but IMO it really doesn't feel like it if you can choose all your skills.

Take any MOBA and let players choose their skills... = :/

Right now I only feels like this will be one more "Ultimate Warcraft 3".

And if you're to simply export your warcraft 3 skills themselves, then something will be missing... "competitively"

Warcraft 3 in Source does not offer realism visual feedback to others.

Like in War3x by Ryan, every skills was consistent with the game itself (CS), like there was no teleport & shoot foes beside or instant death due to the fucking ridiculous undead ultimate or similar things.

Also almost all skills had a screen fade-in with a certain color, which was making it clear what was happening (i.e. leeching life, frost armor being in effect, etc.). They were also mostly skill based (i.e. no "thorn aura"/"spiked carapace", but there was a frost armor; and a player can react to being slowed; while being prevented to shoot someone without getting damaged is ridiculous in a Counter-Strike scenario).

Do you plan on having a similar behaviour ?

In war3 source teleporting was only a sound I believe and was instant with almost no weakness. (An older version of teleporting made the screen fade-in from a kind-of purple-ish iirc).

I loved war3x by Ryan, as there was no flying invisible guys (I know, those are 3rd party races). It was the most balanced 4-races pack IMO. A good player was staying alive while having to adapt (not dying to some ridiculous *).

:$ Sorry I'm tired <.<

Red

[El Diablo War3Evo]

RedSword, consistency and visual feedback that you are talking about I feel is very important and should be added.

There are only so many colors, so I'll have to refer to each color being something... Like red for physical damage, blue for magic damage, green for healing or poison?, yellow affecting player buffs, etc.

I feel that "Flying people" and such would be optional for server owners if they so deem to do that, but the standard skills will focus more on realism.

At first I thought about making this towards a bunch of OP skills, but War3Source already has that covered. What your talking about, I like those ideas much more. It will also help players understand what is really going on, instead of guessing.

So, if teleporting, have the player need to "charge up" instead of instant, like a 3 second wait ..with maybe some special effects that lets others know the player is about to teleport? Sounds fair enough.

As far a reacting to slow, do you mean by slowly increasing its effects or not to slow a person down so much?

These concepts will have to be worked in as it goes, but currently these skills are OP and will need to be reworked.

[Leonardo]

hold on, I lost my glasses somewhere...

[El Diablo War3Evo]

Having levels, xp, currency, creates a unbalance in the game. It makes the good "Great / OP" and the not so good players have a extra hard time trying to level and ends up either not playing or complaining about balance all day long. War3Evo has 3 War3Source based servers. I've been an admin for over 3 years now, and I've heard complaints from players on War3Source. We are always, always, trying to balance stuff out. It's seems to be never ending. I've tried to add a system that keeps players in check by punishing players whom have a very high KDR as it seems to be the only answer to keep it "balanced." And yes, you have to create this KDR system in order to prevent the really good players from being too Godly over everyone else. Eventually we began to figure out the real reason for an unbalanced game. It is allowing players to "level up, have lots of gold, diamonds, platinum." Having it where one player can be of a higher level than the other players creates unbalance, and there is no real solution to fixing this problem that I can figure out from the past 3 years of being a developer / admin.

The unbalanced system allowed players to pretty much "steam roll" the players. Once we added in the KDR system, in some respect, players whom could steamroll no longer could steam roll. Eventually we figured out the steam rollers by the ones whom complained most about the KDR system.

Disgusted with trying to do the "impossible", I'm determined to create a balanced game. SkillCraft will hopefully be the answer!



We are adding a "Point" system, even though it is xp-less. The Point system would allow players to strive for the Top 10/100 position. It has not been added yet, but we are working on that part and it will be added.

At this time it is for TF2, and if someone wants to add code to support any other game system, they are welcome to do so.

But as far as why you have taken a screenshot of what I'm saying? *shrug*

I do edit the above as I go along, because it is still underdevelopment, it can be influenced with other information from more people.


If anyone has input on balancing our current skill list from SkillCraft, we would like to hear from you. Thanks for your time in giving us input!

Someone had given us the idea that every skill should have 1 positive and 1 negative effect. What do you think of this?

[necavi]

As I told you on the war3source forums, the players who play the most will find the most overpowered combinations that you never thought of and still steamroll other players, if you're expecting to stop that, you're really going to be in for a surprise.

Not to even mention that that is (to a fair number of people) an enjoyable/addictive quality of war3source (that would be less easy to replicate in an environment without levels) - you get steamrolled your first day (mainly on servers with terribly-written and balanced races, but still!) and then you work and you work and you work until you can do the same to others.