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[Note: versions 2.1 - 2.28 have been released. See the change logs in this thread.]

Hello everyone,

Hero Attack version 2.0 has been released! It is available on the North American server and European server. Here is a video of version 2.0:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHigg3MFqy4

What is Hero Attack?

Hero attack is an MOBA or AOS style game similar to dota. Players work in teams, control heroes and their goal is to destroy the enemy team's main building. Heroes can gain experience, buy items and learn special abilities.

However, this is not a dota clone and there are a number of features that make Hero Attack unique from other games of this genre. Most noticeably each team chooses a race (Terran, Protoss or Zerg), and each race has a unique set of items, heroes and units. There are also 4 playable maps that players can choose from by voting at the start of the game and each map is very different. Some of the maps have special types of terrain such as mud (which reduces the movement speed of ground units by 50%), ice (which is slippery and prevents ground units from turning or slowing down) and lava (which damages ground units periodically). All heroes and items are based on sc2 units and abilities so it should be fairly strait forward how to use each hero. Each team has computer player that harvests minerals and vespene gas from its base and gives it to the allied players on its team. The computer player builds workers and constructs buildings throughout the game and as the game progresses additional unit producing structures will be constructed that will bring additional units and unit types to the lanes. There are also neutral hostile critters that you can kill for additional minerals and experience.

Currently Hero Attack has:
- 3 playable races.
- 4 playable maps.
- 45 playable heroes.
- Over 100 items.
- Team upgrades.
- Over 200 different abilities.

That is a ridiculously large amount of content and far more than other SC2 custom games of this genre.

If you want to play Hero Attack, but have difficulty finding players, please join the chat channel “Hero Attack” or check out the website www.heroattack.net .

A video of Hero Attack version 2.0 has been added. Go to the link in the first post to view it.

No Comments?

The different race-themed bases is a very interesting concept. I think that it helps encourage players to try new units and items.

Although, I would like to see more diverse and interesting items in this game. Permanent items with skills attached seemed to be lacking, but maybe I missed them somewhere.

You should mess a bit with the lighting.

"Although, I would like to see more diverse and interesting items in this game. Permanent items with skills attached seemed to be lacking, but maybe I missed them somewhere."

There are a few items with skills, about 5 per race (For Zerg: burrow item, scourge, frenzy, razor swarm and spawn aberration. For Terran: protective shield, grenade, lockdown, seeker missile, defensive matrix. For Protoss: psitrous oxide, plasma surge, soul channel, disruption web and energy nova). However, I do agree that something does seem lacking with the items and that I could use more interesting skill items. Unfortunately, I'm pretty much drained for item ideas and will probably need a large number of suggestions for awesome item ideas from other people.

"You should mess a bit with the lighting."

Will definately do that (though maybe I should buy a new computer that can run better graphics settings first). Any tips on what I should do with the lighting specifically (make it brighter? make it darker?)?


To Sidd if you are reading this, thank you for your advice on how I can improve Hero Attack and how I can make it more popular. I just want to say that I did not mean to diss SOTIS in any way. SOTIS is a very well made map and that map definately deserves its high popularity.

Hello everyone,

After version 2.0 pretty much completely failed to attract enough players to gain enough popularity for Hero Attack to be playable (i.e. it is still impossible to get enough players to get a game going at any given time), I have taken a short break from map making. I needed a break because it is extremely frustrating to continuously work on a map and to continuously fail to get results despite attempt after attempt. Anyway, I'm going to continue developing Hero Attack and will try to update Hero Attack every week (starting next weekend). I'll also try to buy a new computer this month as well as start a website for Hero Attack.

Sorry to hear that, seipi. It's the popularity system - it makes it so hard to even get a map off the ground. I'm sure that if it were not for the popularity system, there would be plenty of takers interested in playing your map (in part because then they could reasonably expect enough people to show up to play with, but mostly because the popularity system really kills map visibility).

It's a struggle almost every mapmaker and serious custom game player faces.

Sorry to hear that, seipi. It's the popularity system - it makes it so hard to even get a map off the ground. I'm sure that if it were not for the popularity system, there would be plenty of takers interested in playing your map (in part because then they could reasonably expect enough people to show up to play with, but mostly because the popularity system really kills map visibility).

It's a struggle almost every mapmaker and serious custom game player faces.

Yeah, tell me about it, you can play my map solo and it still gets zip players.

Hello everyone,
Sorry that I have not updated hero attack in nearly a month, I promise I will be much more frequent with my updates from now on. Version 2.1 has been released on the North American server. It includes a number of changes that hopefully makes things better. Here is a changelog:

- The lighting has been changed and each of the 4 maps has a different lighting setting. A few people suggested that I change the lighting a bit, so hopefully things look better.
- The sizes of some dialogs such as the in game timer and the periodic message that have been reduced so that they take up less space. This was done because some people complained that the dialogs objects were too large.
- Removed a large number of triggers that were made obsolete by patch 1.2. As a result the file size for hero attack is significantly smaller.
- The ‘leaver bonus’ or bonus that a team with less players receives when someone leavers the game has been significantly increased. Hopefully the result is that a team with less players still has a very good chance to win the game.
- Units spawned by the computer now deal 50% less damage to heroes. This was done partly because the units did a bit too much damage to heroes and partly because I want to make melee heroes like the zealot hero or the zergling heroes more viable.
- Players now have push priority over the computer player, so you can now push aside computer controlled units with your hero.
- The vitalities of the main buildings (command center, nexus, hatchery) have been increased to 2000 so that it is harder to sneak into the enemy team’s base and kill it.
- Changed the victory conditions slightly so that if the enemy team has 0 human players left (i.e. they all left) then your team wins and you don’t have to kill the enemy team’s main building.
- Made it so that your screen moves to the location of your hero whenever your hero respawns. However, I have intentionally made it so that this does not work if you have either the zergling heroes or the baneling heroes (since you may be busy controlling your one hero when the other respawns).
- Increased the energy cost and cooldown of the mutalisks hero’s summon mutalisks ability by 33%. This was done because the ability was too strong.
- Fixed a really annoying actor bug that was caused by patch 1.2 and prevented the zergling hero from playing his cliff jumping animation properly. Also fixed actor bugs for the spine crawler and the spore crawler that were caused by patch 1.2.
- You can no longer use a teleport item (Nydus worm, drop pod, warp out) if you have taken damage in the past 2 seconds. This was added to prevent abuse of teleport items.
- The computer controlled marauders that are in the computer controlled bunkers no longer attack the enemy base when the bunker dies and instead they hold their position.
- The Nydus canal item now costs 25% less minerals and can be casted with a range of 12. This item wasn’t used very much so it needed a buff.
- Fixed an Issue where ursadak sounds would play from half way across the map if someone is killing an ursadak.
- The siege tank hero now takes 20% less time to siege and unsiege and has 1 more range in siege mode. This was done because the siege tank hero was a bit weak.
- The spore crawler hero now has less life but more armor (so has the same amount as the spine crawler hero), to compensate the spore crawler always has detection.
- Added range actors to the spore crawler hero and the spine crawler hero similar to how the siege tank hero has range actors to indicate its attack range.
- Hopefully fixed an issue where tomes sometimes do not work.
- Tinted the defiler hero buttons because someone requested that I tint them. If you prefer them un tinted or would like me to tint other buttons imported from SC1 please let me know.
- Several other minor changes that are not worth mentioning.

Version 2.2 has been released. It includes mostly balance changes and a few bug fixes. I would like to thank those who have played games with me over the past week because their advice definitely influenced the content of this patch. Here is a changelog:

- Reaper Hero no longer has the Stimpack ability. Instead the Reaper Hero has a new ability called Berserk. Berserk is a spell that causes the Reaper Hero’s attack speed to drastically increase for a short period of time. Also, while the Reaper Hero goes berserk you lose control over the reaper hero and the reaper hero attacks any nearby enemies so be careful with this ability.
- Reaper Hero’s Jet Pack ability has been improved. In addition to providing passive cliff jumping you can now actively use this ability (hotkey T) to jump to a nearby point within a radius of 5. You can use this ability to jump over units, buildings or cliffs so it is very useful if you get surrounded.
- Similar to the Reaper Hero, the Zergling Hero’s wings ability can also be used to jump to a nearby location in addition to providing passive cliff jumping.
- The Colossus Hero’s cliff walk ability now provides a small movement speed increase (10%) in addition to providing cliff walking.
- Hopefully fixed an issue where the reaper hero’s actor would sometimes disappear when the reaper hero jumps over a cliff leaving the reaper invisible. (this was caused by patch 1.2)
- Fixed an issue where the medic hero would sometimes heal at a rate of over 100 life per second with her heal ability.
- The medic hero’s heal ability and the scv hero’s repair ability now cost slightly more energy.
- The medic hero now deals 20% more damage had has a slightly increased movement speed.
- Fixed an issue where the medic hero would sometimes not play her attack animation. (this was caused by patch 1.2)
- The rate at which the team’s beacon heals nearby heroes has been doubled.
- The high templar hero’s psionic storm ability no longer affects allied units and its AOE has been increased significantly.
- The defiler hero’s dark swarm ability only provides a 95% damage reduction from ranged damage rather than a 100% damage reduction from ranged damage because it was a bit over powered.
- Fixed an issue where the queen hero could not unburrow.
- Fixed an actor issue where the Thor Hero’s actor would not be created if the Thor Hero uses immortality protocol. (again, caused by patch 1.2)
- The Baneling Hero’s quick death ability has been decreased to a 75% reduction in respawn time rather than a 100% reduction.
- The energy cost of the probe hero’s photon cannon ability has been increased by 33% for balance purposes.
- The SCV hero’s missile turrets now provide detection at levels 1 and 2.
- Fixed an issue where the Ursadak Critters would get stuck on the fire map.
- Critters now provide 25% more experience and minerals so hopefully killing critters is more worth while.
- Fixed an issue where the Nydus Worm’s Leap ability would damage units before impact. The Nydus Worm Hero now has a slightly increased movement speed to make this hero stronger.
- The detection range of sensor towers have been increased significantly from 12 to 20. Hopefully this makes it easier to detect enemies as terran.
- The cost of the overseer has been decreased to 35 minerals from 50. This is to make it easier for the zerg team to detect enemies.
- Reduced the ‘Leaver Bonus’ to a value halfway between version 2.0 and version 2.1. In the last version the team with less players generally had a slight advantage so hopefully things are more balanced now.
- Added text messages that indicate that when a player leaves the game and the teams become even then no team benefits from the leaver bonus.
- Increased the amount of time players have to vote on the game settings.
- Removed parts of my triggers on items that become obsolete since patch 1.2 fixed a bug where heroes would drop items on death. Items are no longer randomly permutated when a Hero respawns as a result!
- Various other changes that I have forgot to add.

<-- Still waiting on an improvement of terrain's aesthetic quality. ;D

<-- Still waiting on an improvement of terrain's aesthetic quality. ;D

I would love to to this but I can't do anything about that until blizzard releases a new patch that allows map makers to use more than 8 textures, increases map size beyond 10 mb and increases maximum number of doodads. :( I'll try to focus on other aspects of Hero Attack until Blizzard releases patch 1.3.

Version 2.3 and the creation of the hero attack website/forums are going to be delayed a bit since some issues came up. However, I'll try to get these two things done as soon as possible.

Version 2.3 has been released! It includes balance changes, bug fixes and some new features. I tried to release this version sooner but I was busy with midterms and assignments. Here is the changelog:

- Readded some triggers that I removed in version 2.1 that prevent the energy, shields and life of heroes from being reset when morph abilities are used. I originally removed it because I thought blizzard fixed this issue in patch 1.2 since they claimed they did. But apparently they didn’t fix it properly because vitals were being reset when morph abilities where used when multiple players were playing the game.
- Fixed a large number of issues that were caused because the game was applying too many behaviours to a single unit. Apparently there is a maximum number of behaviours that a single unit may have (max is somewhere between 128 and 256) and if you try to apply a behaviour and you have reached this maximum it does not get applied. I solved this problem by significantly reducing the maximum number of behaviours that should be applied to a single unit at any given them. This problem caused a number of bugs including (but not limited to) the bug where tomes and items would sometimes not work on your hero and the bug where the siege tank hero would sometimes not use artillery barrage.
- Fixed an issue where the leveling bonuses of some items such as weapon items, energy items and the personal shields item were not removed when I player lost the item.
- Fixed an issue where a player would not respawn if they died to a critical strike hit.
- (Hopefully) Fixed a bug where the actor of the dark templar hero’s void prison ability doesn’t get destroyed if the unit dies or the behaviour ends. I fixed this issue before but patch 1.2 likes to screw up actors and remake old bugs. :(
- Fixed a bug where the stalker hero’s actor would freeze if the stalker hero used evasion too many times in a short period of time.
- The number of tomes that your hero has bought is now shown on the command card of your hero. This was added because a player requested it.
- The cooldown of the thor hero’s immortality protocol has been increased to 60 seconds from 30 for balance reasons.
- The mothership’s planet cracker no longer works on air units and now does double damage to buildings (down from 475% damage to buildings) since planet cracker was too powerful, especially against buildings. The damage per second of the planet cracker has been added to the tooltip on the command card.
- The timed life of mutalisks summoned by the mutalisks hero has been decreased from 60 seconds to 50 seconds and the energy cost and cooldown of the summon mutalisks ability has been increased by 33% (or rather I forgot to do this in version 2.1).
- The infestor hero’s peristalsis ability now allows the infestor hero to cast spells while underground.
- The ghost hero can now cancel his nuclear strike ability.
- The razor swarm item and the grenade item no longer deal damage to friendly units.
- Sensor tower’s radar radius has been decreased to 20 (which is the same as the detection radius).
- The zergling hero’s devour ability and the defiler hero’s consume ability now start with autocast on when you learn them.
- The roach hero’s corrosive acid ability now works on buildings.
- Buildings constructed by the probe hero and scv hero now have an ability that you can use to destroy them. This was added to prevent players from accidently trapping themselves in a corner while using these heroes.
- The siege tank hero’s siege mode ability as well as the spine crawler and spore crawler abilities of the drone hero have been changed slightly. Instead of these being an instant abilities where you click the morph ability and morph at your location, these abilities are now target abilities where you click the location you want to morph at and then your hero will move to that location and then morph. Furthermore, range and placement actors have been added to these abilities such that you can see the attack range of the hero when you are deciding where to morph the hero. This means that you no longer have the issue where you siege up, realise that you are slightly out of range, unsiege, adjust your position slightly and then have to siege up again. Note: when you are deciding the morph location 3 range actors are shown, one for each level of your ability, so if you have siege mode level 1 then use the smallest radius range actor and if you have siege mode level 3 use the largest radius range actor. Unfortunately unit validators do not work with placement actors so I cannot show only the range actor that corresponds to the current level of the ability. I’ll try to find a work around to this issue however.
- Added a tooltip to the loading screen that explains how to sell items (right click on item them left click on shop) since many players did not know how to do this.
- Various other changes that aren’t worth mentioning.

Yuss, some good updates :D

Is that a reaver?! Sweet! This looks pretty good. Going to see if I can find some people to play it with tonight.

edit: No sc2mapster link?

03/03/2011 6:55 PMPosted by Lazengann

edit: No sc2mapster link?

Not every custom map is affiliated with mapster.

03/03/2011 7:12 PMPosted by Chirus

edit: No sc2mapster link?

Not every custom map is affiliated with mapster.

Either way he should post a link to d/l the map from somewhere.