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The Cartographer

This bundle is marked as high quality. It exceeds standards and is highly desirable.
The Cartographer

  • Join the Traveling Companion on a quest to explore disparate worlds, fending off diverse ecosystems of dangerous creatures.
  • Choose from 6 character archetypes, each with their own distinct flavor and style.
  • Customize your character with specialized active and passive skills.
  • Focus Arcane Knowledge, gathered through adventuring, into incremental passive abilities like Lifesteal, Totem Area of Effect, and Evasion.
  • Find items that benefit your character's specialization.
  • Advance to more difficult and complex worlds, which become more difficult the more frequently you visit them.
  • Encounter challenging Titans at the end of each region run, testing your reactions and tactical awareness

This is a Solo ARPG, definitely a a grinding simulator. For now, this game is solo-only. If there's interest, I could fanagle a 1-3 player version, I'm sure.

Features

Changelog

Credits


  • Custom damage system with combat text and flexibility for stats like armor piercing and magic resistance
  • Procedural creature spawning methods allowing for incremental increases in creature spawn density
  • Flexible content progression system
  • Custom passive skill system
  • Near-endless variety of ability and passive skill choices

No changes as of yet - my first time posting!

Thanks to:

Buster for "AeriePeaksRockOutCrop", "RuinHead"
HappyTauren for "grass", "treefern", "smoke", "City Building 1", "City Building 2", "Tree0", "FootmanRevised_squished"
JetFangInferno for "SpiralAura"
Callahan for "Stonespear"
Herio-san for "Barrens Large Rock"
Pelsen for "LoadingScreen"
spong3bob for "agave"
Kitabatake for "BallistaV2",
assasin_lord for "GeneralHeroGlow"
takakenji for "ArathiRock"
sPy for "s_RunningFlame Aura"
tobyfat50 for "Island Rock"
Fingolfin for "Halo Tree Dead (small)", "Halo Tree Dead (Large)", "Halo Tree (Snowy 2)", "Reach Tree (Red)", Reach Tree (Red 2)", "Reach Tree (Green)", Reach Tree (Yellow)", "Pine (Snow)", "Birch (variation 1-3), "Oak (variation 1-3)
Narandza for "City_LowWall_ShortEndCap", "City_LowWall"
Blood Raven for "Snow Pile"
Mythic for "HighElvenArrow"
Radagast for "Clay Wall"
Direfury for "Dwarf Footman & Bandit"
Deolrin for "Blood Elf Arcane Huntress", "BTNArcaneHuntress"
Hermit for "Empathetic Bond"
Avatars Lord for "4 Bars"

alfredx_sotn for the air elemental
Blizzard Entertainment for the icons
CR for an icon
Felipe Gormadoc for desert pillars
Sunchips for Mithril Sword
Weep for damage detection system
Godfry Mgcina for the music
House of Spiritual Awakening for the musuic


If you see a resource in here that isn't credited, please let me know! (I cannot for the life of me find the author of the tileset(s) I am using - sorry!)



This game is a labor of love that I started when I was in the Peace Corps. Without stable internet access, I was forced to create a game for myself that I would enjoy. It quickly became a larger process. I taught myself about 3D arrays, modular systems construction and iterative testing. Hundreds of hours of playtesting and trigger editing over the past four years have resulted in a game I am not altogether happy with, nor consider finished. But I do want to put this out there for other people to enjoy, play with, and give me feedback. It is of course heavily inspired by Grinding Gear Games's Path of exile, though it doesn't even approach the complexity and ingenuity of that product. Credits for all the resources I relied on are included in the in-game Quest apparatus. I intend to do much more work here. Please enjoy and tell me what you think.
Previews
Contents

The Cartographer (Map)

Reviews
Kino
This map is certainly a labour of love, of above average quality and definitely a deserving map for approval in its current state. Far worse things in this genre of map have been approved in past. That said, I think there are 2 major flaws in this...
Level 23
Joined
Oct 12, 2008
Messages
1,783
This map is certainly a labour of love, of above average quality and definitely a deserving map for approval in its current state.
Far worse things in this genre of map have been approved in past.

That said, I think there are 2 major flaws in this map.

1) UI and Presentation is rough/confusing to the point of making the map difficult to figure out.
- Dungeon progression is based on "charged travelers journals" and how to manage them (ie. it is your main resource). Its never explained on how/in what quantity you receive them.
I just played enough rounds to conclude that 'you get some at the end of each map vaguely based on difficulty; with some variance'.
Because it is not obvious how to manage your main resource; you often feel lost at how to best progress and excess the content you want. Am I being penalized for farming easy-areas? should I rush the highest zone possible? Im not asking you to hand-hold the player toward "the most optimal strategy"; but it would be nice to see what rewards you are getting and leaving the player to plan out their route from there.

- Don't see the logic behind the current shop layouts/the point of why certain features are accessed via dialog buttons and some via shops. It would be a lot simpler/cleaner if everything was accessed via shop interface, (eg. instead of having to go through dialog interface to access 'way of the warrior/mage/rogue' stat upgrades, you simply had 3 shops that sold the respective bonuses). Its also not clear that the transient merchant sells randomized loot at the end of each map.
Personally, I would design the hub area to have the Navigational Array central, item shops on side, hero/map related shops on the other.

- Similarly, don't understand why you are offered ability choice via dialog button. You have no idea what an ability is going to do before you select it.

2) The gameplay systems undermine themselves.
- A lot of the game feels very similar. Due to there being limited maps (just 2 per difficulty tier), limited monsters and the boss being the same every time. Sure, the areas do increase in mob density and there are modifiers that appear over time, these come in very, very slowly.

- Same with character abilities, it takes way too long for any sort of 'build' to appear to take shape.

- The combined effect of poor information and extremely similar maps (not knowing what skills are, what your'e getting into, the same-ness of maps etc.). You put all of those things together and you end up with a game where you end up blundering around with no plan, build or strategy; not heading toward any goal/objective you can aim for, which just isn't fun.

Nitpicking Stuff
- Hero glow vanishes when you attack
 

deepstrasz

Map Reviewer
Level 68
Joined
Jun 4, 2009
Messages
18,706
Author and username difference. And the author has a ? at the end of the letters. Does that mean, you're not sure that's the author?

  1. Are the hero, armour and attribute types changed at all? If not, I see no reason for different icons than in the original game. It creates confusion than anything.
  2. Would be nice to either have a different icon for each region selection or a varied hue of the same icon. These programs can help you for the latter:
    Button Manager v1.8.2
    BLP Lab v0.5.0
  3. Mana should be restored when using abilities on test dummies.
  4. Same with activate-deactivate transmutations. You could either change the hue of the icons or turn them passive looking when activated or deactivated.
  5. The terrain has many parts where you'd say you can't go through but it's possible, from high raised terrain to tiny space between doodads (e.g. rocks). Fix the pathing issues. Make proper pathways. Press P in the editor to see the pathing.
  6. So, bought the first 100g book and now just wondering to the west where it's lifeless. No creatures on the map at all... used iseedeadpeople to make sure. Started the game as player red and chose the spirit walker (druid of the talon model hero). Intro and tutorials on. Same with the Imperial Warrior.
I've no idea how you're supposed to play this map...
 

deepstrasz

Map Reviewer
Level 68
Joined
Jun 4, 2009
Messages
18,706
(previous review: The Cartographer)

Finally figured it out.
  1. Well, every hero has Blink so, I don't see a reason why it should be called differently for each class since it's the same spell. Basically teleportation or something the like would do.
  2. Heroes should stop moving during cinematic mode if they were ordered right before a scene.
  3. Again, you should not be able to do this: cartographerPathingBug.png
  4. I concur with @Kino choosing a spell from a dialog button list is not a good idea especially when clicking a button doesn't bring you any information about what you are clicking.
  5. Right after the Wildkin boss died, green spiders appeared and the hero was ported back to the base. The second time I fought the boss, the first time the spiders appeared, I suddenly died after a few seconds. Are they that strong? Or, do they explode? Well, loaded the game and just left the totem near the owlbear and ran away from the spiders until the boss died, in a few seconds :D Actually, most bosses are weak against this spell.
  6. Combining items is kind of a gambling waste of time since you might get one worse item than three of the inferior type. And it's pretty much a vicious circle since you can't sell items and you have to spend gold on mixing them. Well, you can transmute them instead so it's fine.
  7. It said I've gathered 750 gold but had 670. Did it count the spent one too?
  8. After the third or fourth or sixth(?) round (swamp), the Transient Merchant got an Activate Ordinary Item Transmute while there also was a Deactivate Ordinary Item Transmute. I activated the option before or some rounds before going to the swamp. Once you deactivate it disappears and only the activate remains and you can properly activate it again. Sometimes you have to reactivate the transmuters as they automatically deactivate (at least in the shop). So, I'm activating them again after each round.
  9. No arcane knowledge upon finishing the pyramid zone (the one with the voidwalker boss)? Or you gain them after achievements only?
  10. Weakening Presence reduces damage of nearby enemies by how much?
  11. I've chosen Stone Hurlers but where does it appear since all ability spots were filled beforehand? Wait, are they an upgrade for the treants?
  12. Not sure if any of the items you can buy in the shop are useful aside the scrolls for melding.
  13. Purple items can't be transmuted and you have to leave some of them in the base while you go on trips.
  14. No mixing enchanted items :D?
  15. What's with the sudden unclickable and passive Shades?
  16. Upon choosing the last ring (30 charges), the hero was teleported somewhere to the west but the camera was somewhere in the east where some treants were moved. Every time you get to this place, the camera pans to that region in the east.
  17. The camera can be reset during the ascent of the Spine. If you select an item while it rotates to position itself it stops. There are issues with the camera system in this place which needs to be addressed. Del'Norah can come one floor down and ranged units can attack from upper floors while treants from the lower ones.
  18. How much further can you play and for what, level up and ancient knowledge points? I had 54/54 tome charges and I still got to the Pinnacle.

It's a nice farming simulator but it's pretty much that. You can take your time killing stuff, waiting for regeneration and so on. Boss fights aren't extraordinary. Basically, they're stronger normal units with some trigger spice.
Too bad it doesn't have any story at all.
This would be so much fun in multiplayer and you'd not need to increase the number of units necessarily but their strength with some upgrade or aura techniques depending on the number of players.
Some sort of end-game wouldn't be bad or at least revisiting places to be more rewarding and monsters being tougher.

Approved.

However, I want to know why there is a difference between the username and author.


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  • A credits list in the map thread description is required where the names of the resource (models, skins, icons, spells, sound etc.) authors are mentioned along with the specific resource. It would be a luxury to have links leading to the used resources. Credits in the Quest Log would be appreciated too.
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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:
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Level 4
Joined
Aug 1, 2013
Messages
54
Time sure flew away while I played this map and I enjoyed every moment of it.
This grind is quite entertaining and challenging a bit.

A multiplayer option would be perfect if you ever decide to implement in the future.
 
Level 1
Joined
Jan 6, 2019
Messages
2
This is exactly what i am looking for in a solo map, absolutely love it! only hope from me is a bit more info on what i choose when i decide on a character or a skill. right now it'S really hit or miss with those blind picks

4/5 stars from me!
 
Level 3
Joined
May 29, 2017
Messages
22
Couldn t find a version appropriate to this map in the description or in the comments so if u could tell me would be great cuz its not working on 1.26 :p
 
Level 3
Joined
Mar 6, 2015
Messages
11
This is a great map. It's been awhile I've had this much fun. Personally, I like casual maps (or maps with casual difficulty) where you don't worry about dying and losing the game.

- Skill system is great with different options coming slowly not immediately overwhelming you.
- Bonuses such as crit chance or spell damage given as options.
- Itemization is amazing and very progressive. Even if you screw up by dying you still gain.
- Difficulty of last boss is a bit hard but that's okay.
- Spells scale with stats which is very good.
- I love when the numbers are not crazy high immediately. Damages and hp numbers are well balanced and from early on hp regen is high enough so you don't waste for long times to regen up.

I would want the maker to make another map or campaign like founding of durotar.
 
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