22:50, 5th Aug 2009
ap0calypse: Approved

Changes made, approved

19:14, 26th Jul 2009
Ap0calypse:

In general: no originality at all: illidans as skaters, normal skate-terrain (of course: the mortar teams are present), the triggering is very bad (1950 leaks with 3 triggers per minute), the description is lacking and the replay value is very low.

Yet I have set it to "Rejected until updated", because I expect the next version to blow my mind.
Meaning that everything I have said will be changed... this is a challenge for the creator to test his patience.

a maze game. sounds like fun

Freeze Escape [v1.0.0] is a maze map by cazador where a unit must reach a certain destination in order to accomplish the game.

To begin with, the description at hive site are well written and organize but isn't very encouraging and leave user with doubt regarding the quality with such a statement.

This map is a BETA and I need as many reviews as I can to fix it.

Click to expand...

Such a message would not convince user of this map quality, hence rendering them from any mood to download this map and even try it at all; knowing the fact it could possibly be just another cheap brand of maze map.

Next comes the scripting/triggering of this map. The map scripting isn't well develop as it full of inefficiency such as memory leak and unnecessary trigger like Do Nothing. Due to the tremendous among of inefficiency scripting, this map certainly isn't net friendly. Such a heavy memory leak would cause this map completely lagging shall it be hosted at LAN/Internet under the full house condition.

It even possible for it to be lagging despite being hosted and play by a small margin of player considering how heavy the leak was.

Next comes the terrain, it isn't necessary for a maze genre map to have awesome terrain. Then again, a good terrain is certainly a bonus to enchances the visual and encourage user to play it all over again.

As for the ingame detail, it certainly was very weak. It does not have quest log to indicate the objective or neither tell us the specific command that are available inside the map such as -wild. This certainly kill the joy of the game as user have absolutely no idea what it was all about.

Next comes the gameplay, there is absolutely no ability at all. All you got to do was to use your mouse to click around until you reach your destination and good timing is all what you need.

To make matter even worst, the ice path was extremely narrow and the unit change direction speed was too slow; this render the unit impossible to dodge the cannon attack and rampaging bull as you would surely dies if you turn your back. That's mean the moment your unit was sliding at the ice, you just got to move forward and if the cannon was trigger or the rhino was walk right over you at the same time; you are as good as dead meat.

Overall, this map lack of originality, the replayability values was almost zero as there is almost nothing interesting on it and it was full of inefficiency scripting that cause plenty of bug. This map need to gone through tremendous improvement before it could even been accepted to the database.

You got to

1) Widen the ice patch tiles, it was impossible to turn back.
2) Fix the scripting, it was extremely poor.
3) Provide detail, the detail ingame was 0.

1/5 (Unacceptable)

Yay, I already know that this map needs A LOT of fixes and improvements but that's the cause to be a Beta, this map is under development.

Thank you so much for the reviews, new version coming in little time, with MANY, fixes.

Yay, I already know that this map needs A LOT of fixes and improvements but that's the cause to be a Beta, this map is under development.

Click to expand...

This is alpha, not beta. A beta stage map would have a minimal error, not maximum.

Honestly enough, you do not read this fine print and if you know there is a lot of thing need to be fix. You should not have upload this at map section at the beginning. This section are reserves for complete work, not a utter disaster work.

If I am the staff, I have half the mind to give you infraction for the constant ignorances of the site rules.

Use

The maps section should not be used as a pastebin or testing area, but rather for map distribution. If you wish for an advertising, testing, and more public place for early stages of your map, please use the Map Development forum.

Click to expand...

Please do not upload uncompleted maps here.
I can understand you want to share your recourses with the world, but... not here.

Note before reading:

I'm in the mood to write a very long review about this map... so be sure to read this when you've got nothing to do.

Where shall I start?
Well, the first thing that comes to mind:

the triggers!

This was awfully done, here are a few examples:
Let's count:

• Leak 1: "(Random point in Region 022 <gen>)"
• Leak 2: "(Position of (Last created unit)"
• Leak 3: "offset by 9999.00 towards 180.00 degrees"

Every 0.40 seconds, thats 2.5x/second.
That's 150x/minute, or 450 leaks/minute, with this one trigger.

But do not fear: there is more! (ohh, wait... you are allowed to be frightened).
Same leaks as the first trigger, but now every 0.30 seconds, or 600 leaks/minute.

Whew, after counting this I've noticed there were 30 leaks every 2 seconds (or 15 leaks every second, or 900 leaks/minute).
Now let's say I want to play this game for 20 minutes, with these 3 triggers alone I've got 39k leaks.
Hold on... 39.000? In an escape-map? With only 3 triggers? That's bad...

These aren't the only triggers that create leaks... I would advise reading a tutorial for that, since lag in an escape is deadly.

Seriously?!

Do I still need to say what you've done wrong here?
NO: it's not about the leaks (yes, there are leaks, no that isn't my point).

Dude... you only need 1 and only 1 trigger with the event "Map Initialization".
If you think "it doesn't look nice", add some comments or something, but this is lame -.-

Objects/terrain

Whohoow, we've got some half-assed triggers that are supposed to be for an escape-map, now we need objects and a terrain.

My first reaction: ohh fuck, those damn illidans again... is everybody really that lame to copy even the frigging unit-models of polar escape?

Seriously... use whatever the hell you want, but don't use illidans.
Use some damn treants, or something... what's wrong with them? If you want, you can even use flying units that fly in force-fields instead of skating illidans! That would be completely different and... ey... I like that idea.
No, really... I just came up with it to say something and I like it, it's completely the same... but different.

Anyhow, remove the illidan model.

When I saw the creeps had locust, I was really happy (can you imagine the bliss that I must've felt after all those fails?).
But oww, then another fail... the turn rate was too slow, why on earth did you choose to set the turn rate this slow?

If those Illidans have to skate through a suspiciously geometrical terrain where snow instantly kills you, filled with mammoths which are stampeding across the path for no reason, Mortar teams who like to bomb paths in icy areas and zerglings that... zerglings? Pretty cool to see that zerglings (a futuristic race) are living happily together with mammoths (an ancient, extinct race) and sharing the same habbits (in this case: stampeding across paths).
Erm, where was I?
Ohh, right: you would expect that those Illidans have at least some experience at skating - which also includes turning.


About the terrain: did you ever hear of a tool called "Apply height: smooth"?
I bet you didn't, this is what it does: it makes the terrain more smooth, instead of those "bumpy hills", like in whats-the-name escape.

And erm... it doesn't look original to me... the same, old-fashioned skate-terrain.
Though this isn't necessary, a terrain is often very useful to make players go "yay".

The Description/Misc:

Right... so you have managed to find the color-/font- and B-I-U-tags.
Congratulations, but why didn't you find the list-tag then, for the "rules"?

And where is the command-list?
How do I know what "-lol" does? Even when I use it, I wasn't sure, because it isn't really funny.
Yeah... "wild", another original command... a few years ago, when some map (Polar Escape? Are there any earlier maps with that command?) released it.

This may sound... weird, but some players actually like to know what to do without reading it on the maps-section of the hive.
That means: add quests! (no, don't make other loltriggers with 1 quest/trigger, add it in the existing Map Init-trigger -.-).

Have fun mapping ^^

Ap0, thank you for your criticism (seriously), I'm reallly fixing a lot of things and a new version will be update in some days (2-3).

All the lol problems are fixed, and there's a complet remade of the trigger organization, the leaks from the periodic triggers are removed, a minimap preview image is added, some changes on the levels and on the enemies, (no demon hunters..., I was seriously not going to keep them in the final.)

And a lot of new changes, I'll make a changelog when updating the map.

PD: The frst ever Escape/Maze map using the demon hunters as escapers were the series of "Maze of Skill" (15 maps), by Tylerbelan.

I know a lot of freaking things about escapes...

That is... freaky indeed
I've got "a lot of" escapes and know a few things about it, but I don't know where the original illidan came from
In any case: that means it's been used countless times before, that gets boring - just like the stupid AoS-terrain gets boring after seeing millions of DotA-rip-offs.

I'll be waiting for that version... 1 more piece of advice: don't hurry, patience is a virtue.
(Remember my challenge? If not, read the moderator-message).

Beta 002 RELEASED!!! a lot of fixes...

Please check it ap0 ^^

EDIT: And seriously, I've re-read the rules of map submision, and:

Completion
All maps must be close enough to completion to allow for a good experience by the player. This does not limit beta maps that are near completion, but does limit alpha and other under construction maps that are not significantly playable.

Click to expand...

This map is close enugh to completion to allow a good experience by the player. (Beta 002)

There are still a lot of leaks, try to fix them all (there's still a trigger with 540 leaks/minute), though it's really... organized and it's a lot better since the last time I've checked it.
That's good, I actually know what I'm looking at ^^

The first thing I noticed was obviously the model of the skater, it's a marine :O
Yay at no freaking illidans.

You were actually able to create something more annoying than guys wearing pink T-shirts (no offense if you're wearing a pink T-shirt right now...): the mirror ice.
If highly trained marines are skating on ice and want to turn, no matter what the color is, they turn in the right direction.

I love it.

The turn rate has been changed, making it possible to turn (obviously).
Now the first level is pretty simple (as it should be!), it becomes hard from the moment you introduce the white ice.
I wanted to have a little 'tutorial' with it first (well, just a level that is really easy once you understand the white ice, but is hard for beginners, just to get used to the mirror clicks...).

The description has been improved, with 2 remarks: in-game: "Objectives", on the hive you forgot to end the quotes for the lol-command

Changes made, approved... without a rating :X

Yay, I'll try to fix all the leaks as fast as possible, but the ones that make the bombers shoot every 2 secs will need A LOT of freaking work...

I know that is hard to get used to slide on mirror ice, first time I played in a map with it I simply die in the first turn xDDD, but when you take it, it becomes more easy, just tricky.

Sorry about the grammar errors, I'm spanish,

I supose that rating should wait until the map is officially finished.

Thank you a lot for attention!