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Karachay's Castle

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Reactions: deepstrasz
After at least 10 long years I am BACK! This is the first map I've made in at least a decade and I literally skipped sleeping making it. I've forgotten how addictive this is. But less about myself, what is this map exactly? Well it plays a bit like a normal game of Warcraft III. Except there are twists here and there.

Normal features :
  • 12 players map using teams (suggested team composition : 3v3v3v3 or 6v6).
  • Massive size and carefully crafted terrain.
  • Works with computers but they may jump into hazards.
Special features :
  • Hazards!
    • Every 2 minutes the gates to the main corridors close and the 4 quadrants of the map are effectively separated for 10 seconds. Toxic and corrosive gas leak in the main corridors and kill pretty much anything unlucky to have been caught in it.
  • New creeps!
    • None of the creeps in the map are made by Blizzard. They're all custom made.
    • Some of them have new terrifying abilities!
    • Their high power will make you want to team up with your allies to take on the strongest ones.
  • New neutral buildings!
    • Goblin Merchant, Taverns and Goblin Laboratory are here but...
    • A Goblin Factory, a Marketplace, a Research Facility and strange Fountains are there also! What could they do? Only one way to find out!
  • Raid Boss
    • What is the most terrifying thing inside of Karachay's castle? Well it lies at its very center. A creep camp specifically designed to be perhaps too difficult to take on alone, pair up with your allies to defeat it before anyone else can and reap its rewards.
    • Be conscious that this is still a PvP map, beware of losing your army in a battle that would put you at a disadvantage to your REAL enemies.
Made with love~
I seriously hope that those who love altered melee maps will enjoy this one. I've put a lot of effort into it and I must admit that while it's perhaps a bit foolish for my first map in 10 years, I feel like I've outdone myself and am pretty proud of this map.

Have fun playing it and please, give me your comments on it. I'm actually a bit worried about creep balance and how it will play in proper multiplayer (BattleNet). So far I played bot and LAN, and everything went super smooth!

Thank you for reading this and thank you even more if you plan on playing it. Good bye!
-DanmakuUmineko


Special thanks :
assasin_lord for his "Hero Glow" model which is the only imported resource in this project, always a handy model.
HerrDave for his "WotK Scientist" model which is admittedly much better looking than the villager model.

Edits (latest : 2020-01-25) :
2020-01-25 :
Nerfed the portal gem's cooldown.
Nerfed the spellbook to reduce CC effectiveness.
Changed models for scientists (now custom made).
Nerfed scorching rays (both the spellbook version and the Burning Spirit version, their damage burst will be less intimidating).
Fixed the tooltips for scorching rays and anti-magic shell.
Added a 3 minutes duration timer to Karachay's Final Experiment reborn rune and a global warning displaying which players claimed it.
Minor bug fixing regarding summoned units being conferred a glow.
2019-12-30 : Increased trees lumber limit from 70 to 90. Reduced the Burning Spirit HP from 700 to 680.
2019-12-28 : Gold Mines for main base went from 12.5K gold to 50k gold. Added 2 easy creep camps per quadrant.
2019-12-25 : Added neutral passive creeps like Rats and Frogs.
2019-12-24 : The neutral heroes (Tinker, Firelord and Alchemist) now properly count in the limit of heroes per game.
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Karachay's Castle (Map)

Reviews
deepstrasz
I suggest some custom skins/models for some units like the Mad Scientist. RGB recolours look bad. To be able to play this map with less players, you could use the triggers from this map so that enemy players won't spawn near you: Skeletal Coast v1.3...

deepstrasz

Map Reviewer
Level 69
Joined
Jun 4, 2009
Messages
18,808
  1. I suggest some custom skins/models for some units like the Mad Scientist. RGB recolours look bad.
  2. To be able to play this map with less players, you could use the triggers from this map so that enemy players won't spawn near you: Skeletal Coast v1.3
  3. The map is utterly flat and many parts of it only have one tile (=no variation).
  4. I think you should find a proper FX for the toxic gas because it's not that visible.
  5. I'm not sure about the balance. There are some weird things like the Amulet of Recall which is permanent and the book of spells which could be too effective and everyone would use these in every game. Well, at least the amulet is not permanent. That's good.
  6. Scorching Rays is Chain Lightning.
  7. Hurl Boulder from the book would create issues in that it's a stun spell and stops channeling abilities like Earthquake, Starfall etc. Same, Cyclone which requires more mana so it won't be used as much.
  8. The Nuke doesn't say what AoE it has.
  9. The Portal doesn't have an expiration timer. You can add one via triggers. Unit-Make Unit Expire.
  10. Not sure how helpful the Defense System is when it's pretty far from your base.
  11. Final Experiment also has Chain Lightning and its Magic Shell has no tooltip.
  12. The items from the middle along with the reborn experiment kind of seal the fate of the other players who didn't get there first.
It's a really nice concept. Soft altered melee though.
Work on balance has to be done.

Approved.


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If you're not satisfied with the review and wish another opinion, contact the other reviewers or use the staff contact:
Paillan
eubz
https://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/staff-contact.692/
 
Level 2
Joined
Nov 9, 2019
Messages
9
  1. I suggest some custom skins/models for some units like the Mad Scientist. RGB recolours look bad.
  2. To be able to play this map with less players, you could use the triggers from this map so that enemy players won't spawn near you: Skeletal Coast v1.3
  3. The map is utterly flat and many parts of it only have one tile (=no variation).
  4. I think you should find a proper FX for the toxic gas because it's not that visible.
  5. I'm not sure about the balance. There are some weird things like the Amulet of Recall which is permanent and the book of spells which could be too effective and everyone would use these in every game. Well, at least the amulet is not permanent. That's good.
  6. Scorching Rays is Chain Lightning.
  7. Hurl Boulder from the book would create issues in that it's a stun spell and stops channeling abilities like Earthquake, Starfall etc. Same, Cyclone which requires more mana so it won't be used as much.
  8. The Nuke doesn't say what AoE it has.
  9. The Portal doesn't have an expiration timer. You can add one via triggers. Unit-Make Unit Expire.
  10. Not sure how helpful the Defense System is when it's pretty far from your base.
  11. Final Experiment also has Chain Lightning and its Magic Shell has no tooltip.
  12. The items from the middle along with the reborn experiment kind of seal the fate of the other players who didn't get there first.
It's a really nice concept. Soft altered melee though.
Work on balance has to be done.

Thank you for the feedback. Balance is something I was especially worried about. I thought some camps might be too hard. I'm glad it didn't show up in your review.

1. I agree, I tried to do as much as possible without including any custom skin/models so that it would still work in Reforged without clashing in style. Perhaps I should change them.
2. That's very interesting, I'll have to look into that.
3. Every starting areas are elevated, the rest is flat (no terrain deformation). Maybe I should do something with other bases (lower them or make them higher). For the tileset I was under the impression it was pretty diverse, I had a particular reason as to why I wanted the corridor to be uniform in its tileset. I'll look into it.
4. It's true that weather effect for the toxic gas is not always very visible. Maybe I can do something about it. Another thing I'll look into.
5. Item balance is another thing I was worried about, I was thinking about increasing the cooldown of the Portal Gem. I don't understand your point, "Amulet of Recall which is permanent" and then "Well, at least the amulet is not permanent". Did you mean the Portal Gem in your first quote? As for the book of spells, I wasn't aware that giving abilities with CC in them (cyclone or hurl boulder) would be such a problem, I'll have to change that.
6. Forked lightning actually. Is it a problem?
7. As said in 5, I agree I need to change that. I will switch hurl boulder and cyclone for custom made earth type / wind type elemental spells.
8. You mean instead of a "build structure" type of spell, it would work better if it was an AoE type spell like Blizzard/Healing Spray/Inferno? I absolutely agree, good point.
9. This is odd, the portal has an expiration timer and it does disappear eventually. Did yours stay up permanently? If so it might be a bug I need to look into.
10. I wasn't sure either, I included them as a way to give vision on the main entry points of the quadrants and serve as stalling. Perhaps the time they're active is not very generous. Perhaps I need to make them more useful in some capacity.
11. Chain lightning was so it could deal against air units in some capacity (it only targets air). The magic shell needs tooltip, that's clearly an error on my part.
12. I was afraid the intelligence item might be a bit busted, I wasn't so sure about the agility and the strength item. As for the Final Experiment, it's not as strong on it's own as it is as a boss (because of all the support it gets from the 2 other units). I've been told while testing that it was pretty balanced for its food cost. I may be wrong here. I wanted the reward to be influential on the game, maybe even a game changer but I didn't want it to make it a clear victory. I'm absolutely open to any balance tip.

Thank you again for the review!
 

deepstrasz

Map Reviewer
Level 69
Joined
Jun 4, 2009
Messages
18,808
I thought some camps might be too hard. I'm glad it didn't show up in your review.
well some are early on.
6. Forked lightning actually. Is it a problem?
No, just not unique.
I don't understand your point, "Amulet of Recall which is permanent" and then "Well, at least the amulet is not permanent".
An error. The amulet isn't but the other item is, the book.
You mean instead of a "build structure" type of spell, it would work better if it was an AoE type spell like Blizzard/Healing Spray/Inferno? I absolutely agree, good point.
That's also an idea but the description does not mention so you don't have a mental image beforehand.
9. This is odd, the portal has an expiration timer and it does disappear eventually. Did yours stay up permanently? If so it might be a bug I need to look into.
I mean it's not visible like for water elementals/summoned units.
I've been told while testing that it was pretty balanced for its food cost. I may be wrong here. I wanted the reward to be influential on the game, maybe even a game changer but I didn't want it to make it a clear victory. I'm absolutely open to any balance tip.
You could make it temporary.
 
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