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Review - Tarancor
(Version August 19th 2023)
Synopsis: Tarancor is a 4v4 melee map featuring narrow pathways guarded by extremely strong creeps. Practically everything in the map is gated behind creep camps blocking the corridors and the map revolves around very slow-paced power ramping until the strong objectives in the middle can be reached.
Map Aesthetics: The map has a very synthetic look due to the rectangular shapes and absence of height variation. Everything looks very symmetrical, even too much so, and decorative doodads have been placed schematically. Some areas on the map are quite nicely decorated and there's pleasantness, but the few decorative props placed often obstruct the pathways in a bad way due to the lack of contrast between the objects and the ground below.
Map Layout: Maps for many players typically get this strong mirroring and rather blocky look. In this map, the blockiness and mirroring are quite extreme however and it gives the map a little unpleasant layout. A lot of area is used for restricting the player movement and the map consists of only corridors that connect. The creeps are gating practically everything and I think the creeps are also extremely strong which can lead to a rather frustrating gameplay. I'd recommend the approach where, if a pathway is gated by creeps, they are either weak/medium creeps or strong creeps but the pathway is optional. This way you don't force players to fight the creeps that heavily. The layout overall is not very intuitive and the usage of ramps makes some spots in the map very annoying mechanically: Eredar camp (Level 19) is placed on top of a ramp, similarly to the Overlord camps. While restrictiveness can be used as a gameplay element in a map this implementation is a very extreme example of it and it makes the gameplay very frustrating: to route through the map you need huge armies (of 8 players) yet the corridors are narrow and long.
Neutral Objectives: As mentioned some creep camps (and neutral buildings) are placed awkwardly on top of ramps, preventing vision while the creeps already aggro on you (due to not camp mode). The neutral buildings are not placed fairly either. One side has Tavern closer to them, while for example, the Dragon Roost can be a lot more powerful than a Goblin Laboratory. It seems like you wanted to place a different building on the amount of empty spots you ended up and that's just bad practice. It would be a better idea to diagonally mirror the neutral buildings. The creep camps are strong - too strong. Even for an 8-player map an Eredar camp of level 19 as a second creep camp is just too strong, especially since every player has their own one of those - having one or two shared camps of high strength works, but even then challenging them should be optional. Due to the high power of creeps and the unusual game flow of the map, it's hard to judge the item drop strength - they seem to align quite well but the creeps are not very practical themselves.
Map Gameplay: The gameplay is very linear yet gated. The long corridors and most unbuildable map leave little room for maneuvering and moving large armies through the corridors becomes frustrating - especially if the layout is used against you. While the map can be fun to play with a bunch of friends there are still a lot of elements in the map that are simply unfun. The slow-paced gameplay also creates a conflict with the linear layout. Usually, linear maps are fast-paced due to the simple reason that they are indeed - linear.
Recommendations:
Fix the improper mirroring of neutral buildings (they should be fairly positioned for both teams).
I'd also encourage you to re-evaluate whether it is a good idea to have such strong gating creeps in this linear map. The map is playable, but I'd rate it simple at best. Even if the layout and game flow remain the same, there are few other aspects that improve it (visuals, uniqueness).
(Version August 19th 2023)
Synopsis: Tarancor is a 4v4 melee map featuring narrow pathways guarded by extremely strong creeps. Practically everything in the map is gated behind creep camps blocking the corridors and the map revolves around very slow-paced power ramping until the strong objectives in the middle can be reached.
Map Aesthetics: The map has a very synthetic look due to the rectangular shapes and absence of height variation. Everything looks very symmetrical, even too much so, and decorative doodads have been placed schematically. Some areas on the map are quite nicely decorated and there's pleasantness, but the few decorative props placed often obstruct the pathways in a bad way due to the lack of contrast between the objects and the ground below.
Map Layout: Maps for many players typically get this strong mirroring and rather blocky look. In this map, the blockiness and mirroring are quite extreme however and it gives the map a little unpleasant layout. A lot of area is used for restricting the player movement and the map consists of only corridors that connect. The creeps are gating practically everything and I think the creeps are also extremely strong which can lead to a rather frustrating gameplay. I'd recommend the approach where, if a pathway is gated by creeps, they are either weak/medium creeps or strong creeps but the pathway is optional. This way you don't force players to fight the creeps that heavily. The layout overall is not very intuitive and the usage of ramps makes some spots in the map very annoying mechanically: Eredar camp (Level 19) is placed on top of a ramp, similarly to the Overlord camps. While restrictiveness can be used as a gameplay element in a map this implementation is a very extreme example of it and it makes the gameplay very frustrating: to route through the map you need huge armies (of 8 players) yet the corridors are narrow and long.
Neutral Objectives: As mentioned some creep camps (and neutral buildings) are placed awkwardly on top of ramps, preventing vision while the creeps already aggro on you (due to not camp mode). The neutral buildings are not placed fairly either. One side has Tavern closer to them, while for example, the Dragon Roost can be a lot more powerful than a Goblin Laboratory. It seems like you wanted to place a different building on the amount of empty spots you ended up and that's just bad practice. It would be a better idea to diagonally mirror the neutral buildings. The creep camps are strong - too strong. Even for an 8-player map an Eredar camp of level 19 as a second creep camp is just too strong, especially since every player has their own one of those - having one or two shared camps of high strength works, but even then challenging them should be optional. Due to the high power of creeps and the unusual game flow of the map, it's hard to judge the item drop strength - they seem to align quite well but the creeps are not very practical themselves.
Map Gameplay: The gameplay is very linear yet gated. The long corridors and most unbuildable map leave little room for maneuvering and moving large armies through the corridors becomes frustrating - especially if the layout is used against you. While the map can be fun to play with a bunch of friends there are still a lot of elements in the map that are simply unfun. The slow-paced gameplay also creates a conflict with the linear layout. Usually, linear maps are fast-paced due to the simple reason that they are indeed - linear.
Recommendations:
Fix the improper mirroring of neutral buildings (they should be fairly positioned for both teams).
I'd also encourage you to re-evaluate whether it is a good idea to have such strong gating creeps in this linear map. The map is playable, but I'd rate it simple at best. Even if the layout and game flow remain the same, there are few other aspects that improve it (visuals, uniqueness).
