Ancient Hydra (REWORKED)

[[iWin]Vanarchy]

Ancient Hydra

«Three pairs of eyes staring at you from the darkness. That's the last thing most scouts saw in their lives, approaching through Marshes of Despair. Veiled by thick fog, this place seems totally uninhabited, but those few who survived it will never dare to come back. Their stories tell us, that it's impossible to get rid of the feeling that you are not alone, you constantly sense someone's threatening presence. You can fool yourself thinking that this is just a fear of the unknown, but when you notice an unreal silhouette in front of you, when you hear heavy breathing of separate creatures, when your eyes finally meet the glare of this ancient being, the fear becomes truly insuperable...»

Stats and Skills








Skill palette sample






Detailed information

Model
Three-headed Hydra, similar to the one from Warcraft 3, but on four legs. Large, muscular creature, body size a bit smaller then Devourer's, but Hydra is taller cause of heads. Plus don't forget about the tail. Due to the ultimate, Hydra's model should instill fear in the mind of those who dare to look.

Animations
As a programmer, I say that this is the hardest part of this hero. Most important, Hydra can attack with any head. When she (yes, she, female Hydra) attacks, one head is chosen randomly and this head's attack animation is played. For next attack another one chosen randomly (it's better if no head attacks two times in a row). Ancient Hydra attacks via spitting acid projectiles.

Soundset
Most of Hydra's soundset should constist of roars, but some of them can resemble mangled phrases. Letter 'R' should sound like a growl, letter 'S' should sound like in the Snake language... I think you get what I mean.

• Memorable quotes:

* WEEEAAAKLINGSSSSSSSSS! *
* SSSSSSSSSSURRRENDA. *
* Sounds similar to the flying black fog creature's sounds from the Lost series *

• and especially

* MOAAARRRRRRRTALSSSSSSSSSS! *

Ofcourse only few roars should resemble speach, others should be just roars.

Juggernaut

• While Juggernaut is active, Hydra's movement speed is set to a constant 250/290/330 MS, this speed can neither be increased, nor reduced.
• Hydra becomes a "walking bastion" and every head becomes a "tower" with 450 attack range, that can only attack units in a cone area (about 90 degrees cone) infront of it.
• Priority of attacking: Enemy Heroes > Summoned units and Gadgets > Ancients and Kongor > Enemy creeps > Neutrals.

RIGHT.........MIDDLE.........LEFT

.\\|//............\\|//............\\|//
(O_O)..........(O_O)..........(O_O)
..\W \...........\ W/............/ W/
...\ ` \..........| ` |........../ ` /
....\ ` \.........| ` |........./ ` /
.....\ ` \........| ` |......../ ` /

Controling the Hydra during Juggernaut, examples:

1. We order the Hydra to move from point A to point B.
2. Enemy creep enters the "attack cone" of the right Hydra's head: head starts attacking the enemy, but Hydra doesn't stop moving to point B.
3. We order the Hydra to attack that creep: Hydra stops moving, faces the creep and from now own middle head is attacking the creep instead the right one.
4. We order Hydra to move somewhere else: when the creep is no longer in the "attack cone" of the middle head, a check occurs - if another head can still attack the creep, it does.

Another example:

1. Hydra comes close to the enemy creep wave: Hydra's heads pick their targets and start attacking them.
2. Enemy hero enters the "attack cone" of one of the heads: head stops attacking the creep and starts attacking the hero due to the priority.
3. We order Hydra to attack one of the creeps: Hydra faces that creep and starts attacking him with the middle head. Even if unit with higher priority enters the attack cone of this head, it will not automatically change the attack target due to the priority. Giving the Hydra an order to attack something guarantees that this target will be attacked untill the new attack order is executed or untill Hydra's movement results in loosing the target from the attack range.
4. Up to three main (guaranteed) targets can be chosen at the same time via right clicking them (via attack orders). Every time Hydra is given a new attack order, she faces the new target with the middle head, but if the previous attack target (or 2 targets) is still in the attack cone of the right or left head, it will keep being attacked.

Alternative Skills


The main reason for alternative skills to exist is the "Juggernaut" ultimate beeing difficult to implement technically. So here's the alternative skill palette Hydra can have:





For these skills Hydra's stats need rebalancing cause of more manacosts.




Conclusion


To support this idea leave a comment, please. You can also see the original Ancient Hydra suggestion here.





Viva la Hydra!

[[Cool]NinjaPants]