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Map Reviewer
- Joined
- Feb 19, 2011
- Messages
- 1,956
Review - Mushroom Forest
(Version October 3rd 2022)
Description: Mushroom Forest is a 2-player melee map featuring the Lordaeron Summer tileset. This map does not meet standard melee criteria or quality.
Terrain: The terrain is lacking. No height (raise/lower) tool has been used, leaving the ground looking synthetic and poor. Tile variation also leaves a lot of room for improvement. I recommend you look up some terraining tutorials or other melee maps for reference for proper tile usage. Also, avoid placing invisible barriers (Pathing Blockers) without any visual indication of their existence to the players. Still, at times, the terrain looks somewhat pleasant and playable, but by utilizing height variation and better tile variation it can be greatly improved.
Layout: The layout is quite open, which can work for a map of this size. The map seems to be quite nicely mirrored, though there are some areas of issues: the top and bottom expansions are not equally shaped, giving the other side an advantage by having a deeper socket, giving a better chance of protecting it. On the bottom side, the gold mine creeps can also aggro players passing by, an issue that does not exist on the opposite side of the map. On the top side, the expansion is also positioned on top of a ramp from a low ground, giving an unfair advantage. Please fix these issues.
Creeps: Some creep camps are placed too close to one another, marking two green camps as an orange camp instead. Please fix this as it gives players false information through the mini-map. Overall, the number of creep camps in a map this size is high: both players have 13 creep camps for themselves, none of which are positioned so that they could be naturally contested. The creeps themselves seem of quite an appropriate power level and fit the thematics of the map, good job on that. The item drops are mostly okay, but perhaps a little too often the creeps drop a Permanent item, leading to overflowing hero inventories. Some weaker camps also drop equally strong (Level 2) items as harder camps, giving a little inconsistent reward. You might want to take a second look at the item drops and make adjustments. The bottom-right Goblin Laboratory has different creeps guarding it compared to the top-left Goblin Laboratory.
Gameplay: Player 1 (Red) has pre-placed custom units. This must be fixed before the map meets standard melee criteria or quality.
Recommendations:
Fix the melee-rule-breaking issues of the map (no pre-placed player units). Also fix issues related to Pathing Blocker usage (they can be used, but not in a way that comes as a surprise to the player) and creep camp placement (camps too close to one another) as well as proper mirroring of the layout. Also, make sure each creep camp is correctly mirrored.
The author's name does not match your name, please, clarify this issue.
The map's file name is different than the map's actual name, please fix this issue as well. Also, why is the name Mushroom Forest? I don't quite get the connection to the actual map - there are no mushrooms making up a forest.
(Version October 3rd 2022)
Description: Mushroom Forest is a 2-player melee map featuring the Lordaeron Summer tileset. This map does not meet standard melee criteria or quality.
Terrain: The terrain is lacking. No height (raise/lower) tool has been used, leaving the ground looking synthetic and poor. Tile variation also leaves a lot of room for improvement. I recommend you look up some terraining tutorials or other melee maps for reference for proper tile usage. Also, avoid placing invisible barriers (Pathing Blockers) without any visual indication of their existence to the players. Still, at times, the terrain looks somewhat pleasant and playable, but by utilizing height variation and better tile variation it can be greatly improved.
Layout: The layout is quite open, which can work for a map of this size. The map seems to be quite nicely mirrored, though there are some areas of issues: the top and bottom expansions are not equally shaped, giving the other side an advantage by having a deeper socket, giving a better chance of protecting it. On the bottom side, the gold mine creeps can also aggro players passing by, an issue that does not exist on the opposite side of the map. On the top side, the expansion is also positioned on top of a ramp from a low ground, giving an unfair advantage. Please fix these issues.
Creeps: Some creep camps are placed too close to one another, marking two green camps as an orange camp instead. Please fix this as it gives players false information through the mini-map. Overall, the number of creep camps in a map this size is high: both players have 13 creep camps for themselves, none of which are positioned so that they could be naturally contested. The creeps themselves seem of quite an appropriate power level and fit the thematics of the map, good job on that. The item drops are mostly okay, but perhaps a little too often the creeps drop a Permanent item, leading to overflowing hero inventories. Some weaker camps also drop equally strong (Level 2) items as harder camps, giving a little inconsistent reward. You might want to take a second look at the item drops and make adjustments. The bottom-right Goblin Laboratory has different creeps guarding it compared to the top-left Goblin Laboratory.
Gameplay: Player 1 (Red) has pre-placed custom units. This must be fixed before the map meets standard melee criteria or quality.
Recommendations:
Fix the melee-rule-breaking issues of the map (no pre-placed player units). Also fix issues related to Pathing Blocker usage (they can be used, but not in a way that comes as a surprise to the player) and creep camp placement (camps too close to one another) as well as proper mirroring of the layout. Also, make sure each creep camp is correctly mirrored.
The author's name does not match your name, please, clarify this issue.
The map's file name is different than the map's actual name, please fix this issue as well. Also, why is the name Mushroom Forest? I don't quite get the connection to the actual map - there are no mushrooms making up a forest.
