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Map Reviewer
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- Feb 19, 2011
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Review - Rotwood
(Version November 28th 2022)
Description: Rotwood is a small melee map for two players featuring an uncommon Dalaran Ruins tileset with grim thematic visual aspects that carry well with the tileset.
Terrain: The Dalaran Ruins tileset is lovely to look at and the cruelty of the terrain does justice to the tileset. There's some room for improvement, especially with the placement of some obstacles that partly block pathways that are not very desirable for melee maps. Lovely usage of the Raise / Lower tool that enhances the environment's rugged look. The map features a lot of terrain not often seen on melee, but reminds me rather of Campaign maps, with narrow passages behind tree lines or tiny chokepoints. I'd like to see you get rid of those gaps and spots that units can access awkwardly, especially in the vicinity of the starting locations and expansion sites.
Layout: The map layout is not perfectly mirrored, but a few minor tweaks should take it to a level that doesn't give considerable advantage for any player: Remove the / slightly move the burned houses on the middle passageway, as they are now the only place on one players' side. More importantly, open the pathway from the left player's Goblin Merchant to the expansions equally as it is open for the other player as this is a clear error of layout fairness. The layout itself is clean and the direct central way to the enemy base will offer a path for a direct attack, especially considering there is a Tavern half-way, that can lead to early contests.
Creeps: The creeps fit the map theme nicely, good job on that. There could be more easy creep camps to offer an early objective/objectives to fight and contest, as right now there is little to do on the map other than direct attack on the enemy, considering the expansion gold mines are so heavily guarded. The item drops need to be improved: You typically want to stay close to the ordinary item drop types, and randomize them with both, defining the level and the item class. Dropping items by only their level leaves open too much randomness and a lot of the items are not balanced or intended to be dropped by the creeps: take for example Gem of True Seeing, which is a Level 2 item. I'd recommend you take a look at some melee mapping tutorials or look at other melee maps to get an idea of a good item drop balance in relation to creep camp strength. I'd also recommend you to reduce the power level of the expansion gold mines, as for such a small map it makes little sense to have them guarded so heavily.
Gameplay: The gameplay is not complex, as the routes to the enemy are limited and few strategic points are given. The Felwood Mercenary Camps were very strong (unbalanced) before the latest patches that they were tweaked in. I'd recommend updating the map version number. For the gameplay very strong items are dropped by the Mercenary Camp and Goblin Laboratory creeps, giving abnormal strength to heroes very fast, without giving the chance to level them up as there are very few creeps. As a result of this the red camps are a little too big of a jump in power level, giving a heavy incentive to fight the opposing player instead.
Recommendations:
Firstly I'd focus on fixing the creep camp strength and adjust the item drops accordingly. I'd heavily encourage you to use a later (more modern) version of Warcraft 3 as the map's marked version is very old (15+ years). A proper map mirroring is also expected from standard melee maps. The mirroring does not need to be pixel perfect but avoid giving an unfair advantage to any one player.
(Version November 28th 2022)
Description: Rotwood is a small melee map for two players featuring an uncommon Dalaran Ruins tileset with grim thematic visual aspects that carry well with the tileset.
Terrain: The Dalaran Ruins tileset is lovely to look at and the cruelty of the terrain does justice to the tileset. There's some room for improvement, especially with the placement of some obstacles that partly block pathways that are not very desirable for melee maps. Lovely usage of the Raise / Lower tool that enhances the environment's rugged look. The map features a lot of terrain not often seen on melee, but reminds me rather of Campaign maps, with narrow passages behind tree lines or tiny chokepoints. I'd like to see you get rid of those gaps and spots that units can access awkwardly, especially in the vicinity of the starting locations and expansion sites.
Layout: The map layout is not perfectly mirrored, but a few minor tweaks should take it to a level that doesn't give considerable advantage for any player: Remove the / slightly move the burned houses on the middle passageway, as they are now the only place on one players' side. More importantly, open the pathway from the left player's Goblin Merchant to the expansions equally as it is open for the other player as this is a clear error of layout fairness. The layout itself is clean and the direct central way to the enemy base will offer a path for a direct attack, especially considering there is a Tavern half-way, that can lead to early contests.
Creeps: The creeps fit the map theme nicely, good job on that. There could be more easy creep camps to offer an early objective/objectives to fight and contest, as right now there is little to do on the map other than direct attack on the enemy, considering the expansion gold mines are so heavily guarded. The item drops need to be improved: You typically want to stay close to the ordinary item drop types, and randomize them with both, defining the level and the item class. Dropping items by only their level leaves open too much randomness and a lot of the items are not balanced or intended to be dropped by the creeps: take for example Gem of True Seeing, which is a Level 2 item. I'd recommend you take a look at some melee mapping tutorials or look at other melee maps to get an idea of a good item drop balance in relation to creep camp strength. I'd also recommend you to reduce the power level of the expansion gold mines, as for such a small map it makes little sense to have them guarded so heavily.
Gameplay: The gameplay is not complex, as the routes to the enemy are limited and few strategic points are given. The Felwood Mercenary Camps were very strong (unbalanced) before the latest patches that they were tweaked in. I'd recommend updating the map version number. For the gameplay very strong items are dropped by the Mercenary Camp and Goblin Laboratory creeps, giving abnormal strength to heroes very fast, without giving the chance to level them up as there are very few creeps. As a result of this the red camps are a little too big of a jump in power level, giving a heavy incentive to fight the opposing player instead.
Recommendations:
Firstly I'd focus on fixing the creep camp strength and adjust the item drops accordingly. I'd heavily encourage you to use a later (more modern) version of Warcraft 3 as the map's marked version is very old (15+ years). A proper map mirroring is also expected from standard melee maps. The mirroring does not need to be pixel perfect but avoid giving an unfair advantage to any one player.
