Load code of the map: 0lax9
Number of players until autostart: 6 (same value as current Uther Party autohost)
Why the map should be autohosted: The current version being autohosted contains a few bugs and has a lot of room for improvement.
Special notes: This new version has been edited by me. I took liberty to download Uther Party vUltima-X, extract its script and edit it to improve the game.
Why I think it is OK to edit this map although I don't own it:
- The map is very old and nobody maintains it.
- The original map maker (TheZizz) has moved on and even made another map (Uther Map 2, which is old too).
- The map has already been edited by someone else other than the original creator (Ancannus).
- The map is a classic and is still enjoyed by many players, so why not improve it?
Below is the list of changes I have made:
Spoiler!
[Introduction Scene]
Added subtitles to Uther's speech (purely cosmetic). Also added at the end of the game, when someone wins.
[General]
Added a vote system that allows players to choose how many minigames they are going to play. Originally, Uther Party consists of 8 competitive minigames + 8 free to choose games. With the new system, it is possible to play 8/12/16 competitive games + the 8 free-to-choose.
[General]
After all initial competitive games have been played, players have their name changed to show which position they were placed based on their points (it was already like that on original Uther). In the original uther, after the first free game was chosen, players would lose that reference to their place. In this fix version, the name stays until the game finishes.
[Gameplay]
Added locust to various creatures in many games. Short explanation: locust is an ability that renders an unit unselectable, unclickable, invulnerable and with an invisible HP bar. Various games (like "Wheel of Fire", "Kaboom Goblin", "Salamander Sizzle", "Sheep Shearer", "Titanic Panic", "Troubled Waters" etc) have units that have dummy roles, i.e. usage of Wisp as a fireball that kills someone who comes close to it. The problem is that many of those minigames require the players to dodge those units. Since they are selectable and clickable, right clicking that dummy unit will give the order to follow it, which could be adverse to the player's intention.
[Game Specific: The Salamander Sizzle (minor bug fix)]
Game description: You have a unit with a spell that spawns a fireball that will move in a straight line based on the facing direction of the caster. The fireball will damage other salamanders in its way. If it hits a tree, the tree will be destroyed.
Changes made: Original Uther Party had a problem with this minigame, because the fireball shot by players destroyed trees, but if the tree was already destroyed, the fireball will stop and "destroy" it again instead of just continue moving.
[Game Specific: Tornado Naga Madness (gameplay improvement)]
Game description: You control a Naga and you have to dodge the tornadoes.
Changes made: When unselecting your main unit, it will be automatically selected back again for you, so you can't lose track of yourself now.
[Game Specific: Assassin's Cove (gameplay rework)]
Game description: You have to cast the assassin ability you have on other players. The spell will only damage if you are standing behind the target and facing its back.
Changes made: Major rework on backstabbing detection, with different levels of accuracy. Previously, it was very imprecise and players would usually complain about "lies" of the game. The collision size of the unit has been reduced, so there is more freedom of movement and the math behind the angle calculation was reworked. When you hit your opponent, your hit can be "Great" (deals 60% ~ 99% of target max. HP), "Good" (35% ~ 60%), "Ok" (20% ~ 35%), "Weak" (1% ~ 20%), "Miss" (0%) or "Perfect" (100%, or instant kill). Also, removed the possibility to kill yourself (you can still use the assassin ability on yourself, but it is no longer suicidal), but the text "-failed-" will still display if you do that. The game mechaninc isn't perfect, but it is much more enjoyable right now.
[Game Specific: Stomp of Doom (gameplay improvement)]
Game description: Everyone controls a unit that is permanent invisible and has a spell that will kill other players nearby.
Changes made: Players' units now have an alpha (RGBA) value of 0, which means that even if someone is using map hack, they will have some difficulties locating the invisible enemies. This hasn't been tested, so it could not work at all.
[Game Specific: A Taxing Situation (bug fix)]
Game description: Everyone starts with 100 gold and each round you have to give away some of your gold. After every round, the player that paid the least amount of gold will be punished (by death).
Changes made: Fixed a bug that would make players invulnerable, leading the game to never end (since it is turn based, not countdown based). The bug took place when two or more players tied with the amount of gold they paid in that round. All of them are supposed to die, but original Uther Party bugs when this happens, so some of the players (supposed to die) would stay alive and the entire minigame would be corrupted, possibly never ending, or if the players are lucky, the game won't be stuck be players would die in a seemingly random order.
[Game Specific: Wheel of Fire (gameplay improvement)]
Game description: Players have to constantly move their main unit in a circular manner dodging some fireballs that form a cross and keeps spinning.
Changes made: The game actually becomes more difficult with time, so there is no such thing as two PRO players making this game last a very long time.
[Game Specific: Obey Archimonde (bug fix, gameplay improvement)]
Game description: Players have to cast the same spell that Archimonde is casting each round.
Changes made: Sometimes this game would bug and all players would die together (especially when he casted "Cripple"). I believe I may have fixed this one, but I don't really know. Also, on original Uther, Archimonde would cast "Bloodlust" only after 5 rounds, and "Cripple" after 10 rounds. I changed it so he would start casting "Bloodlust" after 3 rounds and "Cripple" after 5 rounds. In the original Uther, after the 10th round, the time to cast spell is really low, so basically all players lose quickly and "Cripple" is mostly a useless spell. Making it possible to happen in early rounds seemed interesting to me, since its hotkey ("C") is a little misplaced in relation to others ("R", "T" and "B") and actually requires skill.
[Game Specific: Stop and Go (gameplay improvement)]
Game description: Players have to reach the other side of the terrain, but they are only allowed to move when towers are green/yellow colored. Any moving player while towers have a red color will be killed.
Changes made: The game can have some unexpected events now, like towers going from red to yellow and back to red again, or yellow going back to green.
[Game Specific: Minotaur Maze (gameplay improvement)]
Game description: Players have a top view of a maze and they have to fetch an item that spawns randomly on the maze, while avoiding contact with Minotaurs.
Changes made: The camera will return to the normal state in case you accidentally change your camera settings in-game (by pressing delete, insert or moving mouse wheel). Original Uther won't make the camera go back to normal and the game will become much harder.
[Game Specific: Typing Terror (gameplay improvement)]
Game description: Players must type the text exactly as it appears in the screen.
Changes made: The problem with this minigame in the original version is that if someones leaves the game when the text was being displayed, it would be cleared from the screen, rendering other players unable to see what they have to type. Now the text is redisplayed in case someone leaves.
Added subtitles to Uther's speech (purely cosmetic). Also added at the end of the game, when someone wins.
[General]
Added a vote system that allows players to choose how many minigames they are going to play. Originally, Uther Party consists of 8 competitive minigames + 8 free to choose games. With the new system, it is possible to play 8/12/16 competitive games + the 8 free-to-choose.
[General]
After all initial competitive games have been played, players have their name changed to show which position they were placed based on their points (it was already like that on original Uther). In the original uther, after the first free game was chosen, players would lose that reference to their place. In this fix version, the name stays until the game finishes.
[Gameplay]
Added locust to various creatures in many games. Short explanation: locust is an ability that renders an unit unselectable, unclickable, invulnerable and with an invisible HP bar. Various games (like "Wheel of Fire", "Kaboom Goblin", "Salamander Sizzle", "Sheep Shearer", "Titanic Panic", "Troubled Waters" etc) have units that have dummy roles, i.e. usage of Wisp as a fireball that kills someone who comes close to it. The problem is that many of those minigames require the players to dodge those units. Since they are selectable and clickable, right clicking that dummy unit will give the order to follow it, which could be adverse to the player's intention.
[Game Specific: The Salamander Sizzle (minor bug fix)]
Game description: You have a unit with a spell that spawns a fireball that will move in a straight line based on the facing direction of the caster. The fireball will damage other salamanders in its way. If it hits a tree, the tree will be destroyed.
Changes made: Original Uther Party had a problem with this minigame, because the fireball shot by players destroyed trees, but if the tree was already destroyed, the fireball will stop and "destroy" it again instead of just continue moving.
[Game Specific: Tornado Naga Madness (gameplay improvement)]
Game description: You control a Naga and you have to dodge the tornadoes.
Changes made: When unselecting your main unit, it will be automatically selected back again for you, so you can't lose track of yourself now.
[Game Specific: Assassin's Cove (gameplay rework)]
Game description: You have to cast the assassin ability you have on other players. The spell will only damage if you are standing behind the target and facing its back.
Changes made: Major rework on backstabbing detection, with different levels of accuracy. Previously, it was very imprecise and players would usually complain about "lies" of the game. The collision size of the unit has been reduced, so there is more freedom of movement and the math behind the angle calculation was reworked. When you hit your opponent, your hit can be "Great" (deals 60% ~ 99% of target max. HP), "Good" (35% ~ 60%), "Ok" (20% ~ 35%), "Weak" (1% ~ 20%), "Miss" (0%) or "Perfect" (100%, or instant kill). Also, removed the possibility to kill yourself (you can still use the assassin ability on yourself, but it is no longer suicidal), but the text "-failed-" will still display if you do that. The game mechaninc isn't perfect, but it is much more enjoyable right now.
[Game Specific: Stomp of Doom (gameplay improvement)]
Game description: Everyone controls a unit that is permanent invisible and has a spell that will kill other players nearby.
Changes made: Players' units now have an alpha (RGBA) value of 0, which means that even if someone is using map hack, they will have some difficulties locating the invisible enemies. This hasn't been tested, so it could not work at all.
[Game Specific: A Taxing Situation (bug fix)]
Game description: Everyone starts with 100 gold and each round you have to give away some of your gold. After every round, the player that paid the least amount of gold will be punished (by death).
Changes made: Fixed a bug that would make players invulnerable, leading the game to never end (since it is turn based, not countdown based). The bug took place when two or more players tied with the amount of gold they paid in that round. All of them are supposed to die, but original Uther Party bugs when this happens, so some of the players (supposed to die) would stay alive and the entire minigame would be corrupted, possibly never ending, or if the players are lucky, the game won't be stuck be players would die in a seemingly random order.
[Game Specific: Wheel of Fire (gameplay improvement)]
Game description: Players have to constantly move their main unit in a circular manner dodging some fireballs that form a cross and keeps spinning.
Changes made: The game actually becomes more difficult with time, so there is no such thing as two PRO players making this game last a very long time.
[Game Specific: Obey Archimonde (bug fix, gameplay improvement)]
Game description: Players have to cast the same spell that Archimonde is casting each round.
Changes made: Sometimes this game would bug and all players would die together (especially when he casted "Cripple"). I believe I may have fixed this one, but I don't really know. Also, on original Uther, Archimonde would cast "Bloodlust" only after 5 rounds, and "Cripple" after 10 rounds. I changed it so he would start casting "Bloodlust" after 3 rounds and "Cripple" after 5 rounds. In the original Uther, after the 10th round, the time to cast spell is really low, so basically all players lose quickly and "Cripple" is mostly a useless spell. Making it possible to happen in early rounds seemed interesting to me, since its hotkey ("C") is a little misplaced in relation to others ("R", "T" and "B") and actually requires skill.
[Game Specific: Stop and Go (gameplay improvement)]
Game description: Players have to reach the other side of the terrain, but they are only allowed to move when towers are green/yellow colored. Any moving player while towers have a red color will be killed.
Changes made: The game can have some unexpected events now, like towers going from red to yellow and back to red again, or yellow going back to green.
[Game Specific: Minotaur Maze (gameplay improvement)]
Game description: Players have a top view of a maze and they have to fetch an item that spawns randomly on the maze, while avoiding contact with Minotaurs.
Changes made: The camera will return to the normal state in case you accidentally change your camera settings in-game (by pressing delete, insert or moving mouse wheel). Original Uther won't make the camera go back to normal and the game will become much harder.
[Game Specific: Typing Terror (gameplay improvement)]
Game description: Players must type the text exactly as it appears in the screen.
Changes made: The problem with this minigame in the original version is that if someones leaves the game when the text was being displayed, it would be cleared from the screen, rendering other players unable to see what they have to type. Now the text is redisplayed in case someone leaves.
I give my word that no cheats have been added.
That can be easily checked if one has knowledge of warcraft's scripting language and would explore the game's script.
