Battle Royale maps for Age of Empires
By @Henkdesupernerd
Content:
These maps are modded to have the effect of a damaging storm like in the popular Battle Royale games (Fortnite, PUBG,etc..).
The maps are RMS files (random maps) and do not require an additional mod.
The maps DO require userpatch 1.5 to work, which makes them non-functional on Age2HD (steam-version)
Download the Voobly mod containing all maps here
Once the mod is approved, all future Battle Royale maps and any updates to the old maps will automatically download when you are subscribed to the mod.
>status: approved<
In each of these random maps a storm will appear after 30minutes. Slowly it starts to advance to the middle, damaging everything on it's way.
On the AOC variants there are 6 waves of storm advancement. they all start at 30minutes and every 10 minute it advances further to the middle.
On the WK variants there are 14 waves of storm. The storm advances one terrain-step every 5 minutes. Concentric rings of terrain indicate the reach of each storm level.
For more information about each map read below:
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If you want to see this map in action check out these videos:
Flower
Land Nomad
Nomad
Forest Nothing
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Technical Information concerning the map design (for whoever is interested):
The concept is to have decaying dead animal bodies that tick down in food resources (the timer-animals). Different animals will trigger different onsets of waves. Once the food resource of such timer-animal reaches zero, the timer-animal turns into the 'explosion-animal'. This explosion-animal also has a decaying corpse, which serves as a small countdown for each damage tick. Once the resources on the dead animal drop to 0 the animal respawns and deals damage in a wide radius. For each different wave one set of timer-animal and explosion-animal with a specific explosion radius and damage output is created. Each of these animals spawn at the map's edge.
With a large number of animals, each with a set blast-radius, a zone of 'storm- damage' is created, which forms a dangerous storm area in concentric rings around the middle. Each wave (when a new timer-animal reaches 0 food) will add a level of the storm, increasing the storm's damage output and blast-radius. This will result in the storm's front to advance in steps towards the center of the map.
The damage done by the explosion-animal is caused in two ways:
- directly by the animal itself
- by turning the explosion animal into a secondary exploding-unit which then turns back into the explosion animal
When the animal itself causes the damage, a suicide attack is added for this animal. The blast radius and blast damage are altered. The animal spawns with 0 hp, causing it to die instantaneously when spawning. It does damage before turning into a decaying corpse. Once the food on the corpse reaches 0 the dead-id of the animal is updated to a new clone of this 0-hp animal, this causes an endless loop of damage dealing ticks.
Some side effects of the animal directly causing the damage:
- most animals are Gaia-only which is convenient since no player can 'capture' the explosion animal to turn the source of the explosion to his control, and thus gaining immunity to the explosion's damage.
- most animals only have one damage-class (melee damage) which prevents buildings from taking additional damage.
- when a villager is hit by the damage of a dead animal it immediately will walk towards the corpse to try and harvest the food from it (just like when vills kill a boar, or a jaguar/wolf that contains food). This causes the villagers to be "pulled" into the storm when the damage is caused by an animal with harvestable corpse - a funny side-effect.
To have more control over the damage output of the animals I added a second unit to the explosion loop in the more recent WK-variants of the Battle Royale maps.
The 'explosion-animal' spawns with 0 hp and leaves a corpse that ticks down in food resource. The animal itself does not deal damage, however once the corpse reaches 0 food, it's new dead-unit will be a Gaia hero unit. The hero unit is altered to spawn with 0 hp and to deal damage upon death (suicide attack). Since many hero units have multiple damage classes I was able to select a few that have anti-building and anti-wall damage. The hero unit will suicide attack immediately after spawning, and it's dead-unit is changed to the earlier explosion-animal which acts as a mini countdown to the next damage tick of this storm level.
Some side effects of this 2-unit damage loop:
- since it takes a moment for the units to die the time between damage ticks is slightly longer. To counteract this the amount of food on the decaying animal is reduced to a minimum.
- the Gaia hero units have multiple damage classes and could have bonus damage against specific types of objects. In this case the anti-building damage is very useful for damaging the bulky buildings.
- the Gaia hero units ARE CONVERTIBLE. So, any player-object that gets near one of these Gaia units upon time of spawning could convert this unit to his own control. To prevent this, I only put this kind of spawn-loop as a later wave. Because earlier wave's explosions remain, the unit you send to capture the Gaia hero unit will most likely die, before reaching it, thus it will be very tough to reach the Gaia objects at the time of spawn.
- the number of units available to alter was limited. Only a handful of hero units were suitable as anti-building melee attackers, and even fewer also have the anti-wall damage bonus. Standard units such as a petard or battering ram were not used, to prevent units being altered in normal gameplay (we don't want players to be able to create exploding battering rams with huge blast radius from their siege workshops!)
Since the damage of the waves of storm are caused by suiciding animals there is no visual that shows the actual explosions. If you watch the corpses at the map's edge you can see the units decay, die, and respawn, and some units do have an explosive death-animation, but the visual effect of this is very limited and does NOT INDICATE the reach of the explosion. As of today, I haven't found a successful way to visualize the explosions.
However, with the newest uploads of the WK-variants I did design the map to have concentric rings of terrain that match the reach of the explosions. With each new advancement of the storm's front, a complete step is affected. This way players can predict how far the storm will reach, and by combining this knowledge with the in-game timer (F11 to activate the timer) players can know exactly when and where the storm will hit.
With a large number of animals, each with a set blast-radius, a zone of 'storm- damage' is created, which forms a dangerous storm area in concentric rings around the middle. Each wave (when a new timer-animal reaches 0 food) will add a level of the storm, increasing the storm's damage output and blast-radius. This will result in the storm's front to advance in steps towards the center of the map.
The damage done by the explosion-animal is caused in two ways:
- directly by the animal itself
- by turning the explosion animal into a secondary exploding-unit which then turns back into the explosion animal
When the animal itself causes the damage, a suicide attack is added for this animal. The blast radius and blast damage are altered. The animal spawns with 0 hp, causing it to die instantaneously when spawning. It does damage before turning into a decaying corpse. Once the food on the corpse reaches 0 the dead-id of the animal is updated to a new clone of this 0-hp animal, this causes an endless loop of damage dealing ticks.
Some side effects of the animal directly causing the damage:
- most animals are Gaia-only which is convenient since no player can 'capture' the explosion animal to turn the source of the explosion to his control, and thus gaining immunity to the explosion's damage.
- most animals only have one damage-class (melee damage) which prevents buildings from taking additional damage.
- when a villager is hit by the damage of a dead animal it immediately will walk towards the corpse to try and harvest the food from it (just like when vills kill a boar, or a jaguar/wolf that contains food). This causes the villagers to be "pulled" into the storm when the damage is caused by an animal with harvestable corpse - a funny side-effect.
To have more control over the damage output of the animals I added a second unit to the explosion loop in the more recent WK-variants of the Battle Royale maps.
The 'explosion-animal' spawns with 0 hp and leaves a corpse that ticks down in food resource. The animal itself does not deal damage, however once the corpse reaches 0 food, it's new dead-unit will be a Gaia hero unit. The hero unit is altered to spawn with 0 hp and to deal damage upon death (suicide attack). Since many hero units have multiple damage classes I was able to select a few that have anti-building and anti-wall damage. The hero unit will suicide attack immediately after spawning, and it's dead-unit is changed to the earlier explosion-animal which acts as a mini countdown to the next damage tick of this storm level.
Some side effects of this 2-unit damage loop:
- since it takes a moment for the units to die the time between damage ticks is slightly longer. To counteract this the amount of food on the decaying animal is reduced to a minimum.
- the Gaia hero units have multiple damage classes and could have bonus damage against specific types of objects. In this case the anti-building damage is very useful for damaging the bulky buildings.
- the Gaia hero units ARE CONVERTIBLE. So, any player-object that gets near one of these Gaia units upon time of spawning could convert this unit to his own control. To prevent this, I only put this kind of spawn-loop as a later wave. Because earlier wave's explosions remain, the unit you send to capture the Gaia hero unit will most likely die, before reaching it, thus it will be very tough to reach the Gaia objects at the time of spawn.
- the number of units available to alter was limited. Only a handful of hero units were suitable as anti-building melee attackers, and even fewer also have the anti-wall damage bonus. Standard units such as a petard or battering ram were not used, to prevent units being altered in normal gameplay (we don't want players to be able to create exploding battering rams with huge blast radius from their siege workshops!)
Since the damage of the waves of storm are caused by suiciding animals there is no visual that shows the actual explosions. If you watch the corpses at the map's edge you can see the units decay, die, and respawn, and some units do have an explosive death-animation, but the visual effect of this is very limited and does NOT INDICATE the reach of the explosion. As of today, I haven't found a successful way to visualize the explosions.
However, with the newest uploads of the WK-variants I did design the map to have concentric rings of terrain that match the reach of the explosions. With each new advancement of the storm's front, a complete step is affected. This way players can predict how far the storm will reach, and by combining this knowledge with the in-game timer (F11 to activate the timer) players can know exactly when and where the storm will hit.
AOC/vanilla variants:
These are the original Battle Royale maps I made.
They do not require any mod to play. Each of these maps could be played on regicide or King of the Hill, or any other game mode you like. To play regicide+King of the Hill or Regicide select LOW RESOURCES to enable regicide and pick the game mode 'King of the Hill' in the game lobby.
- BR_Flower
This Battle Royale map is compatible with AOC/vanilla, and thus does not require any Mod.
The storm starts at 30minutes, and advances one level every 10minutes afterwards (30min, 40min, 50min, 1h, 1:10h, 1:20h)
The middle island is rich with gold and berry bushes.
NOTE: since this is an earlier version interaction with the animals at the map's edges can negatively influence the storm's mechanics.
Click here for more screenshots
- BR_LandNomad
This Battle Royale map is compatible with AOC/vanilla, and thus does not require any Mod.
The storm starts at 30minutes, and advances one level every 10minutes afterwards (30min, 40min, 50min, 1h, 1:10h, 1:20h)
Players start without any villagers in the barren center and must spread out to find a suitable spot to build their town.
NOTE: since this is an earlier version interaction with the animals at the map's edges can negatively influence the storm's mechanics.
Click here for more screenshots
- BR_Nomad
This Battle Royale map is compatible with AOC/vanilla, and thus does not require any Mod.
The storm starts at 30minutes, and advances one level every 10minutes afterwards (30min, 40min, 50min, 1h, 1:10h, 1:20h)
The map is very similar to regular nomad, but one can only find sheep (no boar or deer). Fish is abundant, but fishing ships will be destroyed by the storm once the storm reaches further land inwards.
NOTE: since this is an earlier version interaction with the animals at the map's edges can negatively influence the storm's mechanics.
Click here for more screenshots
- BR_Arena
This Battle Royale map is compatible with AOC/vanilla, and thus does not require any Mod.
The storm starts at 30minutes, and advances one level every 10minutes afterwards (30min, 40min, 50min, 1h, 1:10h, 1:20h)
Players start with no Town Center but within a walled area. In the middle additional golds and berries can be found which provide essential resources for the late game.
NOTE: since this is an earlier version interaction with the animals at the map's edges can negatively influence the storm's mechanics.
Click here for more screenshots
WK variants
By making use of the additional units from the DLC I was able to improve the mechanics of the storm by quite a bit.
These maps that Require WololoKingdoms (WK), now have more frequent advancements of the storm's front. By making use of the many animals there are I was able to achieve 14 waves, and still be left with some animals as food sources. Deer and Boars can be found, as well as Llamas (I had to swap sheep for Llama’s because Llamas as exploding animal would cause trouble for the Incas who start with a Llama.)
Also, I started experimenting with map designs that have concentric rings to help visualize the advancement levels of the storm. Each ring would indicate one wave.
The width of each ring can be variable, fitting the map design (for example on migration the outer rings are much wider)
Also, other improvements were implemented such as:
- map revealers in the middle areas, to show which players start to fortify the middle.
- clever placement of resources: often food resources will be abundant on the outer rings which motivates players to build town centers here, while he center would provide additional wood and gold for late game.
- The width of the zone at the edge with all animal corpses has been reduced to a minimum, to provide a larger 'playing field'. It is also separated from the 'play field' by impassable rocks.
SPECIAL NOTE FOR FOREST NOTHING
This map is very different from the other maps, and requires some special settings:
THIS MAP DOES NOT WORK WHEN SELECTING REGICIDE. Instead, the map comes with a build-in regicide-game mode, where the king is replaced by an Axe-yielding unit. If this unit dies, you will be defeated. Also, do not pick King of The Hill for this game mode.
Since it is very difficult to escape the storm in a map filled with trees the time between each storm advancement has been doubled. Also, the amount of wood on trees is halved (50wood instead of 100wood)
The storm on the Forest Nothing Map will advance every 10minutes starting at 30minutes.
- BR_Migration(WK)
A straight-forward map design.
Players start on a tiny island which is rich in resources. They have the option to migrate to the larger island in the middle straight away, although the abundance of wolves might deter players from moving there before researching loom.
The middle area is revealed to all players and contains gold piles that provide resources for the very late game.
The outer rings are large, resulting in the storm to reach the mainland at 50minutes game time.
Click here for more screenshots
- BR_LN(WK)
The improved version of Land Nomad. Concentric rings show the reach of each storm advancement. Instead of starting at the middle, players now start spread around the map.
The middle area is surrounded by an impassable wall of dead hunting wolf bodies, that will disappear after 40 minutes. One can find gold-ores (rocks) and Baobab trees that have both been adjusted to contain 999! gold or wood, to provide the players with resources for the very late game.
Click here for more screenshots
- BR_ForestNothing(WK) (SPECIAL MAP)
recommended settings: STANDARD game mode. FAST speed.
This special map has a unique start where each player must use a special airplane (a modified sharkatzor) to drop his villager and axe-yielding king to a safe location in the forest. YOU HAVE 3 MINUTES TO FIND A GOOD SPOT FOR A TOWN CENTER. after 3 minutes game time the airplane explodes and drops the units inside. To unload the units prior to this, click on the individual units in the aircraft to drop them.
Don't bother building a TC or lumber camp in the middle or one of the smaller spots near the middle. you won't be able to fit those buildings there!
Due to the slow start and limited space to build the players must chop towards the middle to escape the devastating storm quickly. Since the regular 5minutes per wave from 30minutes onwards is a bit tough for such a map, the intervals between each wave advancement are increased to 10minutes (30min, 40min, 50min, 1h, 1:10h, 1:20h, 1:30h, 1:40h, 1:50h, 2h, 2:10h, 2:20h, 2:30h, and 2:40h)
Click here for more screenshots
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