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This ('KiLL3R') is my take on the current 'Hide and Seek KILLER' map in popular circulation ('KILLER'). In my own opinion I thought KILLER was fairly mediocre and was getting a bit old, despite being an incredibly successful gameplay type and being unrivalled in terms of other maps.

I admit I have not changed the outline of the game at all, so everyone that knows KILLER should be easily ready to play KiLL3R with very little getting used to. I suppose this works in my favour as people might see this as an update - I did start the map from scratch but I suppose I went with the mentality of recreating KILLER with only a few adaptations, creating some more interesting terrain, spawning systems etc. but largely taking out what I thought were the bad bits of KILLER and putting in what I expected would be good.

Outline of play:

Players (6 in total) are split into hiders and seekers. There are 2 seekers and 4 hiders with a minimum of one player on each team (naturally). The seekers reside in their base in the top-right of the map, from which they will explore the wilderness where the hiders are hiding. The hiders have nothing but one custom hero each, which (if they have any sense in them) they will train up using the lairs on the map and hide (details of tactics to follow) and hope that the seekers will not find them. The seekers play normally (they can access all units rather than just their hero).

The game begins (after a short intro) with 5 minutes in which to prepare for the hunt (train up heroes or build seeking units), after which the hunt will begin. The hunt for the heroes is the time left in which to find and kill the hiders - 30 minutes to search-and-destroy 4 targets - and if the hiders can avoid detection for those 30 minutes then they will win.

Detailed comparison with KILLER:

Changes to gameplay

Hiding heroes no longer die when they enter the seekers' base. When a hiding hero trespasses into the base they will automatically run back across the bridge and get damaged a little as a warning. This can be defied by repeatedly clicking to move inside the base, for which the hero will receive continuous damage while it is inside the base (though the damage is not enough to kill very quickly). When the hero trespasses a certain distance into the base they will be teleported outside the base to one of three locations (randomly selected) a short distance outside the base. The effect of this is that the base cannot be damaged by hiding heroes at all and the hiding heroes which are teleported (against their will or otherwise) or force their way into the base will not die nor be teleported to safety to such an extent that repeatedly doing so would be a particularly effective escape tactic against a skilful and reactive opponent seeker. I find this system to work very nicely, though most people assume their hero will die so don't even try it.

After the introduction, the wilderness is shrouded. This is just when the unexplored map is blacked-out until it has been explored. Once it has been explored you will be able to see buildings and trees and stuff as it was when you last looked. When you are present and can actually see it with an ability or unit, you can see everything (units in real time etc.). This means that hiders have 5 minutes to explore the wilderness and the seekers start from scratch when the hunt begins. I find it helps create a nice edge to gamplay as it adds in a tension - an uneasiness - about not having the map scouted out for you. This is less of an obstacle the more you know the map so first-time players are at a little disadvantage here (so what? It's good to reward the loyal, right?).

Lairs are no longer indestructible. I decided that it was not realistic enough that players would be unable to kill lairs, but clearly there would still need to be the possibility for creeps to exist even if the lairs were all destroyed (explained in additions to gameplay). In short, heroes may now kill lairs as well as the creeps in order to boost XP levels.

Additions to gameplay

Built-in lairs
In certain areas, built-in spawning systems are active during the hunt. These basically mean that even if all creeps are purged from the wilderness, more can still be found, though it can be a little dangerous. Let's make a sub-sub-sub list:

Shelob's Lair
Shelob and some of her children are poised to strike if hiding heroes dare to venture close to her lair to the north of the map. Shelob is particularly deadly to lone heroes and is present during the preparation for the hunt. If a hero dies in the preparation for the hunt, it is most likely her doing. Take care when heading her way, though it is an excellent area for levelling up.

The Fire Pit
The fire pit is a small corner of a dwarven ruin, which was destroyed by a volcanic eruption, which is still evident as you go in - lava creeps past in the north-west corner of the lamp. Be very wary when lingering here too long as you may fall victim to the fire drakes patrolling thier lairs (there are 2) or the Balrog which may appear during the hunt. This area is quite distinctly the most damaging of all areas, yet it is relatively easy to escape if you are quick on your toes. The Balrog will not stray from the fire pit unless lured out and once chasing a unit is easy to shake loose.

The Ent Moot
The Ent Moot is not a good place to trespass during the hunt, particularly if your hero needs to avoid detection to survive. The ents themselves are not all too damaging and provide a nice boost to experience for heroes of a certain capability to damage (usually level 6 and above). This area of land is to the south of the map, heading east, and is only active during the hunt. It is mostly threatening to the hiding heroes because all players can see when the ents attack and gather where or whereabouts the hiding hero is at that point.

The Wight Ground
To the east of the map you will find some wight lairs, which are particularly good for experience for a low-level hero. When the hunt starts, lingering here will summon 6 wights. They are more deadly than those from a lair and it is a bad idea to get stuck in the middle of them, but they are fairly easily picked off one-by-one (especially at range) which is good for low-level ranged heroes and slightly higher level (or good attack/health) melee heroes.

The Dragon's Lair
Central to the map, slightly north-west, is the entrance to the dragon's lair. The dragon will fly down to prevent any units trespassing further. She is the most deadly of all the lair creatures, being faster than the balrog and her fire breath able to purge a level 10 hero of a third or so of its health, she will guard a large area once summoned and will go a long way to chase off potential threats to whatever is kept unseen in her cave. Despite this, units will have to specifically head towards to lair for the dragon to be summonned - it is unlikely that a unit will summon her as the unit is moving elsewhere and just passing by.

Guardians of the Wilderness
Perhaps not quite exciting as the title suggests, there are four ents which guard the wilderness from their positions. When they attack, the hiders will be able to see them so be careful not to let them give away your location when it matters. These ents are rather hard to kill so don't even bother trying to attack them until your hero is decently-levelled up. Once you are level 10 they become easy prey. It is best for the hiders to have them taken down before the hunt begins.

Varied topography (terrain) and other features

Exploring the map, you should notice it is much more interesting and detailed than KILLER, and I hope it is more exciting to hide in. The trees in the wilderness are scaled up (this also helps reduce lag because bigger trees means fewer trees), there are more water features and hiders can interact with a range of hills, plateaus and raised passages (ok well basically one of each). Quite close to the fire pit there is a high plateau with goblins and snow troll lairs, while near the bridge into the seekers' base there is a hill feature with a cave troll lair at the lower end and a hill troll lair at the top. There is also a raised passage hugging a lake (well it's a kind of whirlpool of a lake made out of two circling rivers because the water colour for a lake was really odd and bright and wrong - I think I pulled it off). It is a nice area for hiding but also a major choke point if anyone passes through so you do need to be cautious. There are also a couple of smaller rivers/streams (as well as the little lava one in the fire pit) and the river which cuts off the base from the wilderness also looks really nice (even if it's me saying so).

The map hosts two outposts (near Shelob's Lair and in the derelict centre), two signal fires (in the south-west corner and on the snowy plateau), two inns (in the derelict centre and on the edge of the whirlpool-like lake) as well as a shipwright (on the other side of the lake in the south-eastern corner) which makes for some interesting tactics and balance of priorities.

Inapplicable Strategies/Other Changes

There are no islands of passibility within impassible areas (like on the steep cliffy hill thing in the south-west of KILLER which some heroes would teleport to and hide in), so no heroes can take advantage of careless mistakes of leaving such islands of passibility.

As mentioned, seekers can not use the tactic of teleporting hiders into their base to kill them because it will teleport them out rather than kill them.

All players can now see the seekers' base as if they had units in it. This means hiders can always teleport into the base to escape if they have the ability. It also means the hiders should have more of a heads up as to what the seekers are up to.

KILLER had an ini file to stop the hiders from having starting builders. That was all it did, while this could have been achieved in scripts alone. KiLL3R has no ini file, so you can naturally expect fewer out of synchs (mainly for games you play following the map). The host should still check that no players have been on a map with an ini file since last starting the game.

New Strategies

Hiders:

Hide
This is best done with a haradrim or elven archer because of the cloak which makes them invisible.

Fight
This can be done effectively with pretty much any hero type, but the important thing for the hiders is that they work together to resist the seekers.

Run
This is a risky strategy used by most wizards (though it comines different strategies), which usually involves teleporting to safety, teleporting enemy troops away or other hiders (/creeps) to attack the seekers, coercing to your team/turning into livestock the seeking forces and generally running about.

Attack
Hiders can actually defeat the seekers before the hunt ends if they gather a force of units from the inns and invade the seekers' base. So far I have never seen this accomplished, but I would imagine it would take a generous command point factor and hiders to make their own armies and attack with them together when the seekers are unprepared and undefended, perhaps using the heroes to guard the bridge from returning forces.

Ships!
Hiders may use the shipwright to great effect, making battleships or the siege-type ones with a massive range to defend the area and perhaps a transport ship or two to harbour hiders (be careful as these die quickly so should probably be used to escape as the enemy attacks.

Seekers:

Men/Ivory Tower
This is an unpopular strategy so I would expect most sessions would not agree to play if a seeker were to use the ivory tower. This strategy is simple and effective and it makes Men the race with the greatest advantage for this map. Even though I have imposed a penalty to the starting resources of seekers with Men as the race (i.e. the seeker who is Men will be fined and the other seeker will get a small fine as well, fines accumulate), but this penalty does not effectively balance out the advantage of the ivory tower's ability.

Mordor/Fellbeasts
Mordor is a good race for this map and the fellbeasts and witchking can fly about seeking out hiders without the invisibility cloak.

Goblins
Goblins are the third most advantageous race as shelob can tunnel and inflict a damaging strike, as well as Azog with his high damage and the Goblin King with Drakes and poison strike.

Bats
Goblins and Isengard can both make bats on their fortress to see further. For the first few seconds of buying them, them can see invisble units within a certain distance. It is a very effective strategy if you make fortresses in the wilderness and upgrade with bats.

Outposts/Inns/Signal Fires/Shipwright
All of these serve a purpose and make seekers all the more deadly to the hiders.

Cavalry
Horse-mounted units and those like snowtrolls with a 'crusher' level of 2 are able to run around the map knocking down trees and knocking over invisible heroes (breaks their cloak).

Teleport Trap
Seekers may scout around the map building fortresses and using bats and so on, and upon finding an enemy they may use their level 10 wizard to teleport enemy heroes into a trap where their units are lurking. This is best done if the wizard is also there so he can curse/fireball (etc.) the enemy heroes to help them die.

Other races
Dwarves, in particular, is probably the least useful race, so at the start money is awarded to seeking teams with Dwarves, though again it is perhaps not enough to balance out their disadvantage.

Additional Information:

I've pretty much said everything I can possibly say, but clearly words can't quite give the same effect as pictures, so be sure to take a look at the attached screenshots. I would have taken off the UI but I forgot the shortcut which does it.

The screenshots give you an idea about the look of the map (quite dark, big trees, nice textures ) but clearly they don't give quite the same effect as actually playing the map, so be sure to download it and play to your heart's content :

Download the attachment and extract the contents. Put the folder called 'Hide and Seek KiLL3R by Puzzler33' into your Maps folder. Hopefully you know where this is but if not just search for 'Application Data' using Search on your computer (it is a hidden folder so make sure you are enabling search in hidden files and folders as you do this).

In the folder you put into 'Maps', you should find:

Hide and Seek KiLL3R by Puzzler33.map
Hide and Seek KiLL3R by Puzzler33_art.tga
Hide and Seek KiLL3R by Puzzler33_pic.tga
map.str

One very important thing about hosting the map is that you close slot 2 (just under the host) and open another slot to make it 6 players. This is a slot 2 error thing which is quite common. Basically if someone is in slot 2 the game will say the map didn't transfer or they dc or something. Unavoidable.

Glitches
There is a glitch which happened when I did the wrong thing trying to force teams which makes it possible for hiders to attack each other. This is alarming but I've tested it out and attacking fellow hiders does absolutely no damage (though it announces that you are under attack).

Workers
I have taken the liberty of killing any workers that come into the wilderness, mainly to protect the trees. This means your woodcutters if you are Goblins or Isengard will die if they go in and if you make a fortress in the wilderness, the expansions will fail unless you confuse the scripting by making several at once. All other units (builders included) are free to venture into the wilderness.