Stone Scissors Paper Tower Wars 1.3

[Moderator]

StoPCampinGn00b 01:31, 9th May 2015 [TD]

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[TD]

Comment - My Review​

Verdict - Approved, 4/5​

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Map Moderated - Stone Scirssors Paper Wars 0.49​

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[Mech_Warrior]

Hey Buckelwal,

I will write an in-depth review later. I have only played the map once, but it looks really good! I'm impressed overall.

One thing to note: "Choosed" should be "Chose," it's the correct way to modify the tense of the verb "to choose." Since it appears every round, it was semi-annoying.

 

[Eikonium]

Hey Buckelwal,

I will write an in-depth review later. I have only played the map once, but it looks really good! I'm impressed overall.

One thing to note: "Choosed" should be "Chose," it's the correct way to modify the tense of the verb "to choose." Since it appears every round, it was semi-annoying.

Thanks for the correction!
I am very sure (since english is not my mother tongue) that there are several other spelling mistakes. Don't hesitate to correct me, as I am thankful for every single hint

I will wait a few days, until I got some feedback and bug reports, and then fix the "Chose" misspelling asap

 

[Mech_Warrior]

Hey Buckelwal/Eikonium,

Wow, I'm really impressed with this map!

Terrain is fine for a TD, the only suggestion I could think of is to add the "Portal" doodad (or maybe a dummy unit with its model file) in every place where the enemies will cause you to lose a life, as a visual indicator of where exactly they cost you a life.

The gameplay seemed to work just great. Because the rock/paper/scissors method of selection for each round is pretty random, the only criticism I have is that you can end up getting screwed by the bosses early on, before you've locked a lot of towers into position. The lock feature itself was great; I found there was a tower I could not lock, I'm not sure if this was intentional or not (it was the Sniper tower from Scissors).

I assume the map was protected/optimized, so I didn't actually look at the triggers, but I would assume they were pretty well made, since there were no noticeable leaks, either during the game or post-game.

One bug I noticed was that when I used the teleportation item on one of my own creeps right as he was about to pass through the barrier, he was not issued a new order upon arrival in the next enemy's maze. I had to manually order him to move, after which it seemed to fix itself.

Overall, this map is very well done! Good job! The next step imo would be to explain the features of the map a little bit better in-game. Let's face it, most people don't want to sit around watching a tutorial, but the "tower lock" and "alchemist conversion" features were not being widely used until I explained them about halfway through the game. Also, you might want to make the rewards for the really hard jail creeps better, as I saw nobody using them late-game (since the stakes were so high just from other players and their creeps).

Rating 5/5 from me, and voting for approval.

 

[Eikonium]

Thank you for your constructive review. I was really glad to hear such positive feedback!

I've made some changes based on your criticism, and release a new version of the map The only thing that I couldn't change is the small possibility of getting destroyed by bosses early on. But I guess, luck is a natural phenomenon that is forced to happen when playing Stone Scissors Paper, so I am ok with that

I have some questions remaining about the bugs that you mentioned.
Let's go through your steps:

Hey Buckelwal/Eikonium,

Wow, I'm really impressed with this map!

Terrain is fine for a TD, the only suggestion I could think of is to add the "Portal" doodad (or maybe a dummy unit with its model file) in every place where the enemies will cause you to lose a life, as a visual indicator of where exactly they cost you a life.

Do you mean the exact place in each players maze, where creeps will steal a life from him? Currently, a gate represents this spot. It looks like this:

Show Image

Probably, I am mistaking you here. Please correct me, if I am wrong!

I found there was a tower I could not lock, I'm not sure if this was intentional or not (it was the Sniper tower from Scissors).

I am worrying about this one, because I could not yet find the mistake. Sniper Towers definitely should be able to get locked. When I tried today to lock a Sniper Lookout myself, I succeeded at it with all three of Stone/Scissors/Paper as my current type, making it hard for me to understand what happened to you
Did you get any kind of error message on the screen, or did you try again to lock it? Or, did the tower actually get locked, but the locking animation was missing?

One bug I noticed was that when I used the teleportation item on one of my own creeps right as he was about to pass through the barrier, he was not issued a new order upon arrival in the next enemy's maze. I had to manually order him to move, after which it seemed to fix itself.

Did you target a Weirdo (the gnoll-like unit) with your Planar Portal? If yes, it's now fixed If not, I am confused, and have to seek again for the mistake

Overall, this map is very well done! Good job! The next step imo would be to explain the features of the map a little bit better in-game. Let's face it, most people don't want to sit around watching a tutorial, but the "tower lock" and "alchemist conversion" features were not being widely used until I explained them about halfway through the game.

This is so true. I added some magenta-highlighted text messages popping up for players that didn't yet use Lock Tower, Hire Alchemist, the Jail building or their Investment Center, indicating that they didn't yet read or find them. Most of them appear ~30 seconds after the beginning of a certain round (e.g. 2 for Alchemist, 4 for Lock Tower), and are repeated in following rounds, if necessary.
It's only a small improvement for now, but it should do the work in combination with the tutorial. If you have any further suggestions, I am glad to hear them!

Also, you might want to make the rewards for the really hard jail creeps better, as I saw nobody using them late-game (since the stakes were so high just from other players and their creeps).

The reason why I didn't let the big Jail creatures granting that much more bounty, was just that you could send every kind of smaller Jail creep at the same time, adding their money to the overall amount.
Nonetheless, I had to sadly agree that the motivation of sending a big one during the late-game was not high enough, as you could always send many smaller ones without getting risky.
The solution that I finally decided to take, is that Jail creeps now give more bounty in general, but share a cooldown with each other, so that you are enrouraged to decide for the biggest possible (or low-risky) creep at a time.
This was an important feedback for me, because I wanted the Jail to be a crucial part of your income

Thanks again for your feedback

Version 0.91 changelog

Content:

• Added four new items to the game, adding up to a total of 12, including gold coins:
  Stone of Jordan (Tower Equipment, increases damage against bosses and alchemists by 50%.)
  Webspinner (Tower Equipment, ensnares enemy units on hit for 3 seconds. Can only occur once every 30 seconds.)
  Flame Trap (Place in your maze to damage all passing creeps for a small amount.)
  Ice Trap (Place in your maze to freeze all passing creeps for a short time.)
• Hints will now sporadically pop up for players who didn't use their workers abilities, the Jail building, or their investment center so far.

Balancing:

• Jail units now have a shared cooldown, but grant increased bounty.
• Increased Pikachus (Jail) health to 120 from 110.

Bugfixes:

• Weirdos can no longer become user-controllable after been targeted by a planar portal, and should now continue their movement properly
• Planar Portal can't be cast on rallied/waiting units anymore and not on units that are between two players mazes
• Fixed several bugs concerning players making their Stone/Scissors/Paper decision too early after the end of a round. This regards: camera stuck on the Stone/Scissors/Paper Chooser, Infoboard showing Players to be pending who actually chose already, Round not starting though the Infoboard showed all players to have chosen already
• High Rollers with the item Electro Lacrima will no longer have a chance to throw multiple boulders at the same time
• Blowing up towers will now remove them from the game properly (simply exploding them sometimes caused the game to mess up the graphics of the creep spawn at the very beginning of each round)

 

[Mech_Warrior]

Re: The portals/gates. Oops. I totally overlooked that.

Re: The locking glitch. I tried to replicate it, and I think it's when you cancel the casting animation with the Stop command before it activates. I'm not entirely sure if it's just the animation that glitches or the code itself. I would have to double check. I know that in the game when it happened, I tried to re-do it over and over, and the animation never occurred, at least.

Re: The Planar Portal. Yeah, I think that was what happened.

 

[Eikonium]

Ok, now I got it. That was by far the most stupid mistake I ever made
In earlier stages of the map, locking a tower happened coding-wise by first giving enough gold to the player, then upgrading the tower to a locked one (costing gold, unknown to the player), and then reseting the players gold to the prior amount. Because that made no sense, I removed the gold adjusting and changed all locked towers gold costs to zero. All, except the Sniper Tower
I am sorry (but thankful) for your time-investment in this matter.

Updated the map to v0.92. At least, the list of known bugs is now empty again

 

[Kino]

Do you mean the exact place in each players maze, where creeps will steal a life from him? Currently, a gate represents this spot. It looks like this:

IMO a portal would be a far better indicator considering your spawns simply phase out into nothing as they pass the threshold.

As for the game itself, I think its concept is brilliant. Though the execution is quite rough in some areas.

For example, I think you could run much further with the "mad alchemist" idea. Instead of being a single unit type spawned from the builder, you could have whole tier of units of perform the same function. Or just have more ways to gain and consume lumber.

One of the major gripe I have with the map, is you word things to make them seem a lot more complicated than they actually are.
For case in point; see the alchemist.
You basically summon an extra spawn whose stats depend of lumber, you also gain gold per lumber converted.

The tooltip could easily be worded as follows;

Consume all lumber to gold, summon a mad alchemist down lane.
The alchemist's stats are based on lumber consumed

Basically, give a bare explanation in the first few lines, save the details for separate lines after.

The other gripe is about how I don't think you are using the Rock/Paper/Scissor concept to its fullest.
As it stands, what you have is luck of the draw. You roll rock paper scissors and hope that the creeps spawned conform with the attack type you chose.

The game would probably be a lot more tactical if you could have all three tower types and set up various chokepoints along the maze, each built to handle a different enemy type.

 

[Eikonium]

Hey Kino, thanks for your feedback!

IMO a portal would be a far better indicator considering your spawns simply phase out into nothing as they pass the threshold.

Answer

There are some different spots that you probably mistake (or I do mistake you ). The first one is right at the first gate, where enemy creeps will cause you to lose a life. The second one is short before the second gate being the entrance to the next maze, where creeps phase out, when the mazes owner is already defeated. I made these crappy pictures to clarify the things for us

Show Pictures

In the case that the next player is defeated already, a portal would be more intuitive at the second spot, because creeps are getting teleported here.
But when the next player is yet playing, an open gate would be better, because creeps will just walk along, not phasing out.
I felt like the second case is the more normal one. I am interested in your opinion here

For example, I think you could run much further with the "mad alchemist" idea. Instead of being a single unit type spawned from the builder, you could have whole tier of units of perform the same function. Or just have more ways to gain and consume lumber.

Long Answer :)

During the mapping progress, I decided against having a bunch of lumber-minions for the following reasons: First of all, I saw no upside in it. Wouldn't having more such creeps just make it more complicated to spend your lumber?^^
Secondly, because all dying creeps (except Jail ones) are revived for the killing player, it could (but not necessarily always would) heavily increase the overall creep load in later rounds, leading to a great balancing problem. Thirdly, all creeps, weak or strong, are revived as something depending on the killing tower. Sending thousands of small lumber-creeps to the next player would probably not pressure him (let's say, he kills them easily with some aoe tower), but immediately take the one after him out of the game, who is suddenly facing a flood of strong-revived creeps in his maze.
Of course, I could disable reviving for lumber-creeps to handle the second and third problem. But wouldn't that lead to confusion? (beside slightly decreasing the creep load in comparison to now)

In general, I also liked the idea of having more options for something to do with lumber, but I always ended up saying "this would not make the game better".
Please tell me, if you have any thoughts on that. I am very interested in that!
One idea that I currently have and think about, is to be able to buy a random item for lumber, probably restricted to 1 per round.

One of the major gripe I have with the map, is you word things to make them seem a lot more complicated than they actually are.

I guess, I agree I will work on that. Maybe, regarding the alchemist text, I could take your wording here. Did you think of the Alchemist, and Rally Units description only? Or tower descriptions as well?

The other gripe is about how I don't think you are using the Rock/Paper/Scissor concept to its fullest.
As it stands, what you have is luck of the draw. You roll rock paper scissors and hope that the creeps spawned conform with the attack type you chose. The game would probably be a lot more tactical if you could have all three tower types and set up various chokepoints along the maze, each built to handle a different enemy type.

The luck part is definitely there, as the player located prior to you always has a 1/3 chance to counter you for a round. But you always have the option to lock towers into position, significantly decreasing the luck-dependance since the late early-game. That way, you can clearly have all three tower types at once, countering every different enemy type.
I think, I am probably mistaking you here. You are welcome to clarify it for me

 

[Kino]

There are some different spots that you probably mistake (or I do mistake you ).

I do realise the arch defines where your personal lane "ends". However, I do also feel that a more tangible effect should be used to show where each lane ends and begins.

I guess, I agree I will work on that. Maybe, regarding the alchemist text, I could take your wording here. Did you think of the Alchemist, and Rally Units description only? Or tower descriptions as well?

The tower tooltips are okay.
Not great, but not unnecessarily confusing either.
Given a choice I would word Towers as follows.

Tower Description
Damage: (Damage Value)
(SPACE)
Spawn - (Spawn Name)
Life: (Spawn Life)

- Basically compress spawn and spawn name into 1 line.
- Leave a space between the tower stats and spawn stats.

In general, I also liked the idea of having more options for something to do with lumber, but I always ended up saying "this would not make the game better".
Please tell me, if you have any thoughts on that. I am very interested in that!

If I was the creator of this map, Id have two buildings. One being the upgrade building (which you have) and the other to manage lumber related things.
- For example you could spend lumber to bestow an aura upon on one of your spawns.
- Perhaps you could spend lumber to warp an enemies armour type to one favourable to you?

The luck part is definitely there, as the player located prior to you always has a 1/3 chance to counter you for a round. But you always have the option to lock towers into position, significantly decreasing the luck-dependance since the late early-game.

Which is kind of what I meant by "making things seem more complex than they really are". You have no shortage of tower types, its not like all 12 UI slots are used up by a tower. Hence its not unfeasible to have different attack type towers on the builder without having to swap.

For example, you could have different clusters of towers each specialised in dealing with a certain defence type. Hence there would be still weaknesses in your defence as you cant fully cover every section of your defence to able to deal with all defence types.

The big thing here, is that how this will turn out is very subjective to balance, and I can understand if you do not want to pursue this.

 

[Eikonium]

However, I do also feel that a more tangible effect should be used to show where each lane ends and begins.

I will add some graphical effects to the arch to make it clearer.

The tower tooltips are okay.
Not great, but not unnecessarily confusing either.
[...]
- Basically compress spawn and spawn name into 1 line.
- Leave a space between the tower stats and spawn stats.

These points are a good idea. I will do that.
Will the tooltipps reach the "great" state with that additional space? When you say, the tooltips are ok, but not great, it sounds as they could be significantly improved. What are these improvements that you thought of?

If I was the creator of this map, Id have two buildings. One being the upgrade building (which you have) and the other to manage lumber related things.
- For example you could spend lumber to bestow an aura upon on one of your spawns.
- Perhaps you could spend lumber to warp an enemies armour type to one favourable to you?

Answer

Having a lumber related building clearly makes sense, when having multiple things that you can do with lumber. There is no such one yet, because a single ability (hire alchemist) doesn't justify its existence^^ I'll think about your ideas. The aura one could be interesting, though difficult to balance, as it can be either very strong (if the aura creep survives for long) or very weak (if it dies too fast). In any case, it should distinguish enough from the global creep upgrades (such as movement increase etc).
Regarding your second idea (altering the enemies armour type), I am not yet convinced. It would decrease the necessarity to lock enough towers into position which I believe to be a tactical aspect of the game. Furthermore, the motivation of using a given advantage in some round (e.g. by hiring an alchemist that you longer saved lumber for, or by researching some creep upgrades) would drop significantly, as the next player can easily counter it with changing your armour type for a round.

But I definitely got your point. Do more things with lumber. I will brainstorm about it

By the way, did you find the Jail building? I have no doubts you did, but because you said you would have two buildings, not mentioning the third one (the Jail), I just wanted to be safe^^

Which is kind of what I meant by "making things seem more complex than they really are". You have no shortage of tower types, its not like all 12 UI slots are used up by a tower. Hence its not unfeasible to have different attack type towers on the builder without having to swap.

For example, you could have different clusters of towers each specialised in dealing with a certain defence type. Hence there would be still weaknesses in your defence as you cant fully cover every section of your defence to able to deal with all defence types.

Answer

The need to swap your type in order to build other towers is very intentional, as well as the current way of dealing with different defence types (by locking towers) is. I don't see the game becoming more complicated by that^^ It's just, if you want to have any paper tower (lets say, you want to lock a tower in its paper state), you have to swap to paper for a round.
A reason, why I don't like the idea of having towers of each attack type avaible at all times, is that it sounds somewhat boring. The early-game would be like "oh, he chose Paper. I will build Scissors towers and be clearly safe..", leading to every player countering the prior one, and no one being in danger at all. No more need to strenghten up your defense to survive an unlucky round, and no more rejoice about a lucky round, where you can invest some money (as it currently goes).
I prefer the current system, but am always open for discussion

Thanks for your feedback again!

 

[Kino]

Having a lumber related building clearly makes sense, when having multiple things that you can do with lumber.

Well yes, I made that comment in the context having more things to do with the lumber.

Regarding your second idea (altering the enemies armour type), I am not yet convinced. It would decrease the necessarity to lock enough towers into position which I believe to be a tactical aspect of the game.

It has to handled with care and balanced well.
I totally understand your worry that the player would be able to swap and adapt too easily.

By the way, did you find the Jail building? I have no doubts you did, but because you said you would have two buildings, not mentioning the third one (the Jail), I just wanted to be safe^^

I did.
TBH income scaling buildings are pretty much expected of the genre, so I don't have anything to say here.

Will the tooltipps reach the "great" state with that additional space? When you say, the tooltips are ok, but not great, it sounds as they could be significantly improved. What are these improvements that you thought of?

To me, yes.
Readability and a simple/clean aesthetic is king in my book.
Spaces when describing different things, use 1 (at most 2) colours for text highlights.

That said, don't take my word as fact. If you think you can do better, go ahead. Id love to see what you come up with.

 

[Eikonium]

I took some time now to think about the given feedback and implement some new stuff. Finally, I come up with version 0.93.

I do realise the arch defines where your personal lane "ends". However, I do also feel that a more tangible effect should be used to show where each lane ends and begins.

I realised that the lane-end-point was a little displaced in the mazes of player 3,6,9 and 12 (in fact only for normal creeps. Not for jail ones and bosses). This probably explains yours and Mech_Warriors confusion about this topic. Beside fixing this issue, I added some graphical effect to the arch, so it should be more clear for now.

TBH income scaling buildings are pretty much expected of the genre, so I don't have anything to say here.

It's important for me to state that this is not income scaling. It's just flat gold. And it differs hugely from the normal way of gaining gold in other Tower Wars maps. You send in your own maze, making the art of capacity-evaluation a great part of the game. And you don't fight these stupid income battles being regular for all Tower Wars I've ever seen. In the end, the player who was least pressured by his antecessor, and could most concentrate on scaling his income, won the game most of the time. I never liked that.

Readability and a simple/clean aesthetic is king in my book.

I reworded some things to make them clearer and easier to understand Hope you agree, as you are the native speaker


Regarding your feedback to lumber management and type-adaptability:
The new version contains a building (the Lumber Mill) being responsible for all lumber-related things. Instead of adding a bunch of different lumber creeps (leading to gameplay problems that we discussed earlier), I decided to add upgrades for the only one, i.e. Alchemist Upgrades.
-Lumberjack lets your alchemist generate lumber, when passing through enemy mazes.
-Forbidden Transmutation lets your alchemist sporadically transmute enemy creeps into gold.
-Biotechnology lets your alchemist clone himself, when passing through the first enemy maze.

Furthermore, you can now buy a restricted amount of random items for lumber (only being a for-fun aspect, but certainly not a very tactical one), and (to adress your complain about lacking type-adaptability) an Emergency Swap. Emergency Swaps are non-regular type-swaps during a round that each player may use only once during the game. They don't destroy the tactical aspect of locking towers into position or the portion of luck that currently brings some fun to the early-game, because they are restricted to one-time use. On the other hand, they should decrease the risk of getting destroyed by bosses early on, and be a trumph card in your hand that you can take when being in danger. Furthermore, because you have to do it wisely and early enough to take advantage from it, it should be a high-tactical decision.
I believe this to be a good solution for both your and my wishes

Changelog Version 0.93

0.93
Content
Added the Lumber Mill with some possibilities to spend lumber:

• Alchemist Upgrades (Lumberjack, Forbidden Transmutation, Biotechnology)
• Create Items for lumber
• Emergency Swap your type (usable once per player)

Balancing

• Changed the way of dealing with defeated players creeps (before: made that players creeps unable to steal lives, but retained them in the total maze circuit. now: additionally removes nearly all creeps in that players maze, up to a maximum of his towers total plus the ones he blew up this turn)
• Reduced Dubious Discs (item) attackspeed-increase from 30% to 25%
• Reduced Webspinner (Item) cooldown from 30 to 15 seconds
• Increased Exploding Towers (tower) exploding damage from 2x to 3x base damage.
• Reduced Mortar Porters (creep) teleport chance from 50% to 30%
• Changed Electro Lacrimas (item) damage from flat 100 to 15*Roundnumber

Bugfixes

• Rallied units can no longer be released by ordering them to do something
• Mad Alchemists can't be summoned anymore, when having zero lumber (summoned an 1-health alchemist before)
• The items Dubious Disc, Stone of Jordan and Webspinner can no longer be sold (for no money, but anyway..) to the Jail
• Already exploded level 2 and 3 Explosive Towers can now be locked properly
• Players can no longer prevent a tower from type-switching by upgrading it in the second of the very beginning of the round (actually this was never possible on purpose, because you had to do it exactly when the last other player chose his type)
• adjusted the end-of-maze-points of player 3,6,9 and 12 for passing normal enemy creeps (Jail minions and bosses were coded properly).
• Towers will now correctly spawn a new unit, when blown up in the second of making a kill
• Lava Lord (creep) will now correctly spawn a new unit, when dying in the second of making a kill
• Clicking on a unit in the Jail building while having to choose Stone/Scissors/Paper will no longer be mistaken with re-picking your current type
• High Rollers no longer roll two boulders when manually attacking with them up to 0,3 seconds after an auto-attack
• Mortar Porters (creep) ability does work now
• Electro Lacrima (item) can now actually be spawned

 

[Eikonium]

Made some bug fixes and balancing changes.

Version 0.94

Balancing

• Reduced lumber cost of Alchemist Upgrades
• Gold gained by Alchemist Forbidden Transmutation increased to 4 from 2

Bugfixes

• fixed a possible cause of a Fatal Error
• fixed the Paper Plane Missile Model
• fixed the Worker infinite channel animation bug
• Workers will no longer auto-close their build menu (damn, this bug made me sick. and it turned out to be a warcraft 3 bug in the end, lol)
• Desynchronizing the shared Jail cooldown by using it between two rounds is no longer possible
• Players can now properly vote while being in a votekick
• Players can no longer adjust their handicap in the pregame-lobby (lol)
• Traps should no longer be displaced in certain situations
• High Roller Level 2 [tower] will now correctly spawn a creep on kill as intended
• Level 2 and 3 Murlocs [creep] now get their evolution health bonus as intended
• Mogg Fanatics [creep] will now spawn the proper unit on kill
• Level 2 Treasure Goblins [creep] will now grant increased item drop chance as intended
• Players will no longer get messages asking them to lock some towers, though they already did

 

[StoPCampinGn00b]

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[TD]

GENERAL Stone Scissors Paper Tower Wars 0.49 is a unique take on competitive tower wars maps, or even tower defense maps themselves. With a batch of popular and unseen features spread uncluttered throughout the game, this easily could become a Tower Defense player's favorite. Though slow to medium paced most of the time, the pacing in a player's mind would be filled with their strategic planning plus an average amount micro.​ GAMEPLAY Thankfully, the author strove to ensure the first time player to understand the game on the first go. With a thorough quest log, short and sweet looking optional cinematic tutorial, and an elaborate description also in the comments, I'd be dammed if one who read two out of three would complain about not understanding the game. Sure, there are a lot of new things to take in and it will take some time reading over a plethora of tool tips (which are quite neat and clean), but that's to be expected. As the title might suggest, the concept of the map would be based of off the zero sum concept, and that's partly true. Although that's one of the base features, players will notice a plethora of newfangled features including gold and items flowing through the maze at moments, being able to swap tower types (with attack types being a main factor in that decision), and a not-so-generic currency system. Playing this map on singleplayer though is, to be blunt, not entertaining in my opinion. Doing so takes away the intent to outwit opponents which could most definitely be entertaining in a TD map, because doing something like that in TD maps, is rare. Since your map's core features revolve around the competitive gaming scene, adding AI might be worth your time, as many of Hive's users play single-player more than multi-player. No major problems were spotted, but there are two inconsistencies to note. ➤ The build and blow up tower ability both have the letter B emphasized suggesting that's their hotkey. Whether or not they both use B, this being... a thing causes confusion. ➤ I experienced this before round five and another player another time. Nothing on the chooser grid to choose paper, stone, nor scissors shows up unless the player clicks something else. ​ AMBIENCE & AESTHETICS The map looks satisfactory visually speaking. Although there is a lack of miniscule aesthetic decoration such as doodads, what makes up for it is the consistent theme of simplicity and organization. Keep in mind that this category is weighted lower as a factor determining the rating due to the fact that this is a TD map and an ambience of a TD map matters much less than maps of other types.​ MISCELLANEOUS Perhaps it would be a good idea to update your description or screenshots with the ones you posted in the comment section. They're looking spiffy!​

[/TD][/tr]

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MODERATOR RATING

PERSONAL USER RATING

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[Eikonium]

Thank you for your constructive review!
I am glad to hear that there are still people hosting maps on bnet

Playing this map on singleplayer though, is to be blunt, not entertaining in my opinion. [...] Adding AI might be worth your time, as many of Hive's users play single-player more than multi-player.

You are definitely right. At the current moment, the map is multiplayer-only, with a suggested amount of 3+ players, although it can be played with 2 players as well.
I will take some thoughts on AI and the time it would consume. I agree, it would definitely be an enrichment for the map
However, that would be a future project, as I am currently busy with my studies (what does not mean that I won't do it).

The build and blow up tower ability both have the letter B emphasized suggesting that's their hotkey. Whether or not they both use B or not, this being... a thing causes confusion.

Oops, I totally forgot to think about standard hotkeys in other languages than my own one (such as english ). Thanks for pointing that out. Will fix it in the next version for sure

Every so often, I experienced this before round five and another player another time, nothing on the chooser grid to choose paper, stone, nor scissors shows up unless the player clicks something else.

That has been a known bug since early stages of the map, and I think I found out its reason today. It just happens, when a player is in his workers build menu, when the current round ends. Will fix it, thanks!

Perhaps it would be a good idea to update your description or screenshots with the ones you posted in the comment section.

I'll try to make some more general screenshots during my next play


By the way, what is the difference between a Moderator Rating and the Personal User Rating which you gave both? I'm really interested in that one

 

[StoPCampinGn00b]

The personal user rating represents my personal opinion of the map. The moderator rating represents the more objective overall quality of the map compared to other maps.

Glad you found the review helpful :]

 

[Eikonium]

The personal user rating represents my personal opinion of the map. The moderator rating represents the more objective overall quality of the map compared to other maps.

Glad you found the review helpful :]

Indeed, it was helpful! Keep up the good work!

The map is leaving beta state now.
I fixed both issues you mentioned in your review, being the bad hotkey and the "empty interface" bug.

1.0 Changelog

Content:

• Added the -zoom command to swap between the normal and a distant camera height

Bugfixes

• Fixed the "empty interface" bug, where the Chooser building didn't show up Stone, Scissors and Paper, when a player was in a workers build menu immediately before the game auto-selected it

 

[Eikonium]

Releasing version 1.1

1.1 Changelog

General

• Added sound effect for spawning items (you can test-hear it with -playitemsound)
• added the -bossdif x command to adjust boss difficulty at the beginning of the game. old default (1.0 and prior) is 1, new default (1.1) is 3.
• corrected the rally point for the Rally Units ability for player 3,6,9 and 12
• corrected player color for Player 3 (Teal)

Balancing

• Increased Boss Health during late-game. You can still change it to its old values by typing -bossdif 1 at the beginning of the game.
• Changed Anti-Sniper Health from 15 to 8+Roundnumber
• Added effect to Alchemist Upgrade: Lumberjack. Now additionally generates lumber, whenever your alchemist is transmuting an enemy creep (with Alchemist Upgrade: Forbidden Transmutation)
• Changed Alchemist Upgrade: Biotechnology: Now creates a clone upon summoning the alchemist, not upon walking through a maze. Lumber costs increased to 250 from 200
• Changed Healthy Defense from 4 levels to 3 levels. Health Bonus from 30/30/30/30 to 30/120/DoubledBaseHealth and Gold Cost from 20/30/40/50 to 20/80/140
• Increased Gold Cost for Weapon Reinforcing to 400/600 from 300/500
• Reduced Emergency Swap Cost from 10*Roundnumber to 5*Roundnumber
• Changed Lumber Costs for Create Item from 20/30/50/80/120 to 20/30/40/50/60

Bugfixes

• Traps can't get misplaced anymore when cast on a walking unit
• Dead players creeps can no longer steal lives
• Anti-Sniper can't get the full Round Bonus anymore, when the spawning Sniper Lookout wears a Heart Container (now gets an additonal +Roundnumber Health instead)
• fixed a very rare bug, where Mortar Porters could port twice at a specific point in the maze of player 1

 

[JenkovAA]

lol nice map, i'm only one who has been defeated first in this map....

 

[Light]

map's pretty fun! tried it a couple of times with friends. somehow it feels more satisfying to pick scissors like in the actual rps (maybe it's just me though)

 

[Eikonium]

Ha, thanks for playing guys
Of course, I designed all Scissors Tower to be completely overpowered to compensate its psychological weakness.
Only kidding (not kidding?)


Updated the map description with more detail and more screenies

 

[Eikonium]

Made a new version with the most important changes being:
-an autocast function for the Rally Units ability (because I noticed that newbies had a hard using it, or didn't use it at all)
-a bugfix that should prevent trap displacement in certain mazes

1.2 Changelog

General

• Advanced Jail units now need Investment Center upgrades to become avaible. This should newbies prevent from sending them to early.
• the Rally Units ability now can be set on autocast

Balancing

• Reduced gold cost of all level 3 tier basic tower cost to 90 from 100
• Reduced Immolation Tower Damage to 20 from 25
• Increased base health of tier 3 basic creeps to 350 from 300
• Reduced Mortar Porter teleport chance to 25% from 30%
• Reduced Mortar Porter base health to 150 from 220
• Reduced Advanced Weirdo base health to 50 from 70
• Reduced Expert Weirdo base health to 100 from 150
• Anti-Sniper is now immune to immolation and other spell damage like electro lacrima and mogg fanatic explosion

Bugfixes

• fixed a pathing map issue that led to Trap displacement for some players
• the Jail cooldown won't be activated anymore when using it in illegal situations (such as between two rounds, or during boss runs)
• fixed an issue, where leaked Jail creeps could also steal lives from other players.

 

[Eikonium]

Here comes a next major update for this map.

While playing with friends, I noticed some pretty bad things that urgently needed to be fixed

First of all, the minions of Player 3,6,9 and 12 often stopped moving after leaving their maze, making the game literally unplayable, if one of these slots was actually filled by someone.
Second, the game lacked end-game content. It happened quite often that someone was in the lead, and suddenly reached the end of gold-spending options, making the game for him just a wait for the end, and letting the other players catch up in an unnecessary way.
And last, the boss difficulty was not balanced dynamically enough, being too hard for groups of new players, and too easy for experienced players, especially in late-game.

The current version adresses all of these issues, and also makes many more minor, and cosmetical changes.

Changelog Version 1.3

General

• Added the possibility to upgrade the Investment Center to level 5. It offers additions to your enemies boss rounds for money. This level is designed for ultra-lategame which may often not be reached at all.
• Added floating texts at the end of the maze to show whether your units are waiting or not.
• Added two items to the game (Timeshift Trap, Divine Shield).
• Added hero shortcuts for the Investment Center, Lumber Mill and Jail (F1-F3) and a visual indicator for the remaining Jail cooldown.
• Removed the bossdif command due to the changes to boss balance.

Balancing

• Reworked the boss health system to change dynamically. Good groups will now get harder bosses so that they should be a challenge in every game.
• Reduced Emergency Swap cost from 5*roundnumber to zero. It should now fulfil its role better than before.
• Increased the minimum time between two item finds of the same player to 40 seconds from 20 seconds.
• Buffed the Ironman Schooling upgrade to give 20%/33% damage reduction instead of 10%/18%.
• Increased Level 4 Scissors Shooter, Stone Slinger and Paperplane Thrower damage to 80 from 70.
• Reduced Evolution Tower base damage to 30 from 35 and made his bonus evolution damage profiting properly by Weapon Reinforcing, instead of just giving him a higher base damage bonus.
• Increased the charges of certain items (Stone Shot, Scissors Strike, Paper Plane Pistol, Planar Portal) from 1 to 2.
• Increased lives given by the green mushroom item from 1 to 2.
• Mortar Porters now have a maximum number of 3 jumps that they can perform.
• Reduced Bobby Car (High Roller minion) health from 150 to 100 and Expert Bobby Car health from 400 to 300. Increased both unit's movement speed from 270 (standard) to 315.
• Reduced the Alchemist Biotechnology lumber cost to 200 from 250.

Bugfixes

• fixed a crucial bug, where creeps did stop after leaving the maze of player 3,6,9 or 12.
• fixed that you could not pick up gold coins and 1 up mushrooms, when having a full inventory.
• fixed a bug, where Angry Chicken was always on cooldown for some players in the first round.
• fixed random movement behaviour that sometimes occured for rallied units.
• fixed that rallied units were sometimes user-controllable.
• fixed a bug, where players could do several things in the first 20 seconds of the Stone/Scissors/Paper choose time that they shouldn't be able to do, like spawning Jail units or the Mad Alchemist.
• fixed a possible crash that could occur, when a living player left the game during the round.
• fixed a possible crash that could occur, when several players watched the tutorial simultaneously.
• Planar Portal can no longer be cast on Jail units
• fixed that the multiboard showed the name of computer players that were enabled in the pre-game lobby instead of player names.
• fixed that Jail units were sometimes treated as stone-type units, when being attacked by certain towers.
• out-zoomed camera doesn't reset to the standard distance anymore, when choosing an element and at the beginning of each round.
• Stone Shot/Scissors Strike/Paperplane Pistol now lets the player gain gold and can be cast on bosses, as intended.
• fixed that the first unit spawned by an Evolution Tower had 10 health missing

This patch was really necessary, and it definitely made the game much better.
Try it out!