Customizable Raiding Game?

[LISeru]

First, I had no where else to post this, so I figured this forum would be appropriate. This board is full of former raiders, so I was wondering if anyone here could answer this question:

Does anyone know of a game that has an easy-to-use map creation tool which would allow for mini raid-like encounters to be designed?

I've been making maps for years using the map creator from Starcraft and WC3, and I was thinking it would be neat to get a community together which would create "raid" encounters for 5-10 people which would be supportable either through WC3 or some similar game's map creation tool. My first instinct is just to use WC3.

Basically, someone would create a standard map which would allow for easy customization of raid encounters. Then people would create these encounters and it would be a challenge to see if anyone could beat them. First group to defeat the encounter would have bragging rights, much like in EQ, WoW, etc.

There would be no need to grind, just grab a group of friends and attempt a given encounter. Further, the messageboard would (hopefully) promote a community where you could meet other people interested in raiding. The map could allow for multiple encounters in a row with or without regeneration, time pressure, etc.

The only problems I see with using WC3 is that each character has at most 6? abilities available at any given time, and customizing things like adds, knockbacks, etc are not totally trivial. If anyone has any suggestions, I'd love to hear them, discuss them, etc.

Sorry if something like this already exists/this is not the right forum for this post.

[tanjo]

Neverwinter Nights comes to mind. The map creation program is probably perfect for something like this. There's also a NWN2 coming out in September.

[gavinrad]

Neverwinter Nights, but DnD is incredibly hard to balance for groups larger than 5 or 6. Warcraft 3, but its pretty basic and wouldnt allow for much.

[Zaniel]

Hmmm, Dungeon Seige 1 & 2 have map and level editors but I've never played with them to see if they're any good. Not sure on the number of players per map limit either, might be 8, might be higher. I think the players per map issue is going to be a common problem you'll run into in most built-in game editors other than NWN.

NWN V1 looks easy to start with but if you're trying to script stuff then it becomes pretty programming intensive. If you just want a stand up fight then it might be easier. When I was writing NWN modules I never found any scripting that would allow mob scripts such as "mob gets to half HP and spawns hatchlings", though maybe I didn't look hard enough. DS might have a spawn ability based on script seeing as quite a few mobs in that game are spawners.

NWN is awesome for mob customisation though in terms of what looks/gear/abilities/stats you give them.

[findar]

battle for middle earth2 could have some truely epic stuff going on. dunno how well the map editor works tho.

[Zaniel]

In NWN adding spell effects is really easy and heavily customisable. For example, after having only used the editor for an hour or two I was easily able to add stuff like a demon that roared with anger when you spoke to him which knocked all your characters off their feet plus stuff like AoEs that threw people all over the place. You can literally link any spell effect from DnD to any other spell activation and therefore turn knockdowns into AoEs or hits or DDs etc etc.

Plus on top of this you can give it almost any cool look you like by simply changing the link between effect and graphic, so for example make up the spell "Nurgle's Beam" by adding taking the lightning bolt spell, turning it yellow and green and changing the damage type from lightning to disease or poison or other quick stuff like this. Poison clouds that trail after mobs and all sorts of other cool effects are possible.

Also plenty of scope for trapped areas and items. You could easily simply make trapped areas where if you stepped there, adds or events simply occurred. I had this castle where the wall had been breached in a previous battle against an enemy necromancer. The players could wander through the busted up wall section and every so often they'd have zombies "spawn" as dead soldiers left behind animated out of the wreckage. I could make it random and time based so they could come back later and still find a few corpses ticking over.

I guess the hardest part about NWN is the layered scripting, if you're satisfied with only a single linked event (touch egg and alien bursts out to attack) then you'll be fine.

The terrain is good and bad, very plateau'd like you'll see in the game. You could do some cool stuff and then be restricted in an annoying way. It was pretty quick to use though. I layered down an entire army camp complete with walls and moats and gates and buildings and knick knacks and more complex stuff like sound actors with the horns and gongs but minus NPCs in less than an evening.

Be warned though, it's easy to drop down terrain but to have a fully developed scenario with scripts and stuff is going to be a lot of work (much more than WC) and not something everyone can do quickly. Luckily once someone develops something its easy to pillage each other's work for custom mobs/traps/scripts.