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Sand Storm Arena v4.1.0 AI - Shores of Remorse

Sand Storm Arena v4.1.0


Description


This is a PvP/Defense co-op hybrid map between hero arena and melee play styles for up to 6 players with endless strategies to win. The map also includes "capture the flag" and "take and hold" elements. In order to be victorious in a PvP game, players have to capture enemy flags, located in their bases and then take control of the 4 points in the middle of the arena. When a player has all the 4 points under control, the carried flag is destroyed.

If played solo or all players are in the same team, then you need to protect Krugg the Hermit from constantly incoming invaders. They will try to capture the 4 points in the middle so they can summon their leader - Wogg the Unforgiving - who will try take Krugg down. The goal in this mode is to kill all enemies, or if Wogg is summoned, to kill him.


Heroes can purchase potions, weapons and armor, which have tiers (you need to have several lower quality items to buy them), explosives and additional spells. Armor and weapons have 1 or 2 sockets, to which you can attach a gem that you find around the map for extra stats.



In addition players can train naga units and upgrade their life and damage.



A worker unit can be trained to harvest gold from mines or to build defensive towers and unit nests, which allow to send reinforcements to a target location.



In the west the east of the map are naga spawning grounds, which train hostile naga units that roam the map. Each of these spawning grounds can be captured by a player by killing all of the defending naga units and staying there for 30 seconds. After successful capture, the naga from that site become friendly and the nearby shipyard and monument grant the ability to build battleships and buy legendary items and incantations.



As heroes are killing enemy heroes they gain higher ranks. Each rank brings to the hero 5 to all stats and 1 skill point that can be spent for one of four bonus skills(physical damage, spell damage, critical strike and damage reduction). When a hero gains 10 kills, an ultimate bonus is added to the unit.



The banking system ensures you don't lose your armor and weapons when you drop them to free space in the inventory by sending the dropped item to the Bank, located at the base. You can also deposit gold or take a loan with interest paid every minute.



Each hero, which hasn’t been selected by a player, may be summoned as a Shadow Hunter. A Shadow Hunter is summoned once per 6 minutes and has superior stats. Upon death it awards the killer with gold and drops one of its spells, which means every hero can have a mix of spells from other heroes.



An Oracle is spawned once per 16 minutes, then starts praying for a Divine Glyph. It takes 10-30 seconds for one to appear. A Divine Glyph is an item, which gives a large bonus and a chance to recover health, mana or spell cooldowns, while carried. It also gives a chance based effect while carried along with top tier armour



A Bombs Dealer is spawned once per 8 minutes. He sells throwable bombs, land mines, car-bombs, global homing missiles, detonators and devices, which give the ability to resurrect heroes or teleport to enemy units.


A Lucky Frog critter is spawned each minute. When a hero kills a frog, he gains 1 str/agi/int.



Krugg the Hermit is a giant, who is roaming the map and gives quests. Completing them brings gold and reputation with him. The more reputation you gain, the more reputation your opponents lose. Krugg loves to help friends.



The map has a chat system, a show damage and healing system and AI. The spells hotkeys are: Q, W, E, R, F.



The map works on Classic and Reforged.


Enjoy and leave your feedback, Thank You!


Gameplay Videos



PvP mode:


DEFENSE mode:



Screenshots



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- v4.1.0 - Added a new victory condition in PvP mode - if Krugg the Hermit get killed, all players' base buildings become vulnerable. A player gets defeated if lose the Temple of Tides. Fixed an issue with capturing Spawning Grounds - when a defending unit leaves the area, the capturing player now must have presence in it. Fixed War Mage's and Death Guard's summoned units' early dismiss. In defense mode: Added Lady Sorona - when the invaders capture a control point, she gets summoned to aid the defenders once per 10-15 minutes. Invaders now periodically build unit nests and send reinforcements. Invaders' intensity now scales down after a player leaves. Noobstermod command now also decreases the invaders' to kill count by half. Increased Wogg's damage and Sea Giants' HP.

- v4.0.4 - Necromancer’s Spreding Plague no longer causes the players to stop level up in Defense mode. Slightly increased naga units production of AI players in Defense mode. Added messages, indicating the life of Krugg is falling below a given value.

- v4.0.3 - Fixed Bank services failure after some of the heroes learn their passive skills. Reduced the invaders' upgrade interval by 2 minutes. Increased the damage of Sea Giant's Pulverize skill. Fixed the AI movement in Defense mode. Improved AI flag taking from the ground.

- v4.0.2 - Krugg can no longer be healed by players and doubled his armor. Increased Arcane Tower’s damage. Removed the upkeep and gold tax. Bug fixes.

- v4.0.1 - Fixed various bugs.

- v4.0.0 - Introduced Defense game mode, where the players protect Krugg the Hermit from invaders.

- v3.9.2 - Fixed Vindicator's Holy Infusion attack-stop spam damage exploit. Elementalist's Fire and Ice Synergie no longer continues after caster's death. Flamebinder's Fire Fury no longer destroys destructibles. Added loading screen.

- v3.9.1 - Fixed Vindicator's Crusader Strike damage timing and changed his voice. Fixed the winds removal while Krugg is dead. Increased the healing amount of Glyph of the Tide, while carrying Inscribed Divine Blessing by 100.

- v3.9.0 - Added gold deposits and loans to the bank with 10% interest rate per minute.

- v3.8.1 - Fixed the Blademaster's Heroic Strike effect after cooldown reset. Reduced Blademaster's spell damage scaling. Fixed the Marksman's Fire Trap triggering by non-organic units.

- v3.8.0 - Added Incantations at the Monument of the Eternal Oracle and the Vault of the Doomed Warrior. Incantations are purchaseable buffs that last until the death of the hero. General fixes.

- v3.7.1 - Fixed the population gain after taking a control point. Fixed the eventual worker gold return in wrong direction. Fixed the symmetry of the Sand Storm. Increased the damage over time of Shaman's Flame Shock.

- v3.7.0 - New hero: Marksman - uses long range rifle attacks and a trap.

- v3.6.5 - Added Death Pact spell to Reanimator item and removed the spell damage bonus. Added Spell Immunity to the Water Elemental. Tinted the Rune of Speed. Increased the camera height. Improved Shaman's Earth Shock movement speed reduction and slightly increased his stats.

- v3.6.4 - Fixed the population increase while naga units use Submerge. Increased the radius and activation time of Doom Ship's mines. Eliminated the chance for units to get stuck after Soul Weaver casts Barrier Strike on them. Decreased the damage reduction of Resilience by 1% per level. Fixed Death Guard’s Shadow Essence permanent spell damage and miss chance loss. Fixed the Fire Mage's Pyro Blast scaling.

- v3.6.3 - Added Sacrifice ability to the Worker, allowing it to be sacrificed in a Sunken Shrine in order to restore HP and Mana of nearby units. Decresed the gold cost of Naga Royal Guard by 50. Increased the regeneration rate of Naga Royal Guard and Naga Myrmidon during Submerge by 100%. All bomb, missile and land mine explosions now have 100% chance to hit.

- v3.6.2 - Reduced Mind Control's cooldown from 16 to 10 seconds. Tranquility now scales with Intelligence level. Towers and Doom Ship now have 100% chance to hit. Reduced the healing bonus of Health Potion, gained by Resilience from 15% to 12% per level.

- v3.6.1 - Increased War Mage's attack speed and damage and Arcane Missiles spell damage.

- v3.6.0 - Reduced overall heroes' survivability: decreased the mana gained from items by 33%, decreased Frostguard's HP bonus by 200, reduced HP and Mana regen, the Health Potion now heals based on hero's highest attribute and level of Resilience. Fixed Blade Dancer's Focus healing and reduced the bonus crit chance by 5%, Eviscerate and Assault now ignore armor.

- v3.5.4 - Sunken Shrine can be built in the water. Improved Soul Weaver's charge ability.

- v3.5.3 - Fixed Krugg's quests returns, when the game has started after time out. Increased the weapon damage bonus of Strength upgrade by 5.

- v3.5.2 - Dream Weaver's mana drain now scales with intelligence level. Decreased max life of the Warrior by 50 and reduced Slam's ability stun duration by 0.5 seconds. Decreased Warrior's and Paladin's armor by 1. Fixed Warrior's Charge double damage issue. General fixes.

- v3.5.1 - Restructured the center of the map. Fixed the AI flag taking. Added custom names to heroes. Flying units no longer pass through objects.


- v3.5.0 - Restructured players' islands. Added terrain detail. Fixed Krugg's attacking. Added wind weather effect 10 seconds before the Sand Storm. Reduced the gold carried by workers from 20 to 15. General fixes.


- v3.4.1 - Added XP tracking. Added terrain detail. General fixes.


- v3.4.0 - Added Krugg the Hermit and repeatable quests. Decreased the spell damage scale of the Flaming Raven. Decreased the cost of Tidal Defense and Naga Intelligence upgrades. Assassin's Blade damage now scales with Intelligence level. Fixed the Glyph of the Typhoon effect activation. Changed the effect of the Staff of the Eternal Oracle. Increased the bonuses of Gem of the Earth by 1%.


- v3.3.4 - Fixed Dark Ranger's spells. Increased the damage of Destruction Bomb. Mana Burn and Mana Flare now scale with Intelligence level. Doom Ship is now repairable.


- v3.3.3 - Fixed time based spell effects leaking, causing them to stop working after some time. Fixed the reduction of Bank slots after taking power up items. Naga units can no longer transfer armour to other units, fixed the stats miscalculations when an attempt is made to transfer armour to an ally Naga.


- v3.3.2 - Reduced the point capturing time from 12 to 8 seconds. Creeps can no longer appear inside the stones. Tinted the player flags. Improved the worker’s Camouflage ability. Reduced the Paladin’s Divine Shield and stun effects duration. Reduced the Warrior’s Mortal Strike duration. Increased the damage output of the Necromancer.


- v3.3.1 - Fixed Holy Shock casting by other heroes than Paladin. Fixed eventual duplicationg of Shadow Hunter with already playing heroes. Fixed the Warrior's spell descriptions. Reduced the max stock of all bombs from 10 to 5. Added info about the chances to crit/avoid damage in the attribute descriptions. Renamed the Quests tab to Info.


- v3.3.0 - Added Bombs Dealer and usable bombs and devices. Added Lucky Frog critter. Fixed the Paladin’s Holy Shock cooldown reset. Dark Ranger's Rapid Fire now heals at half rate. Fixed an error regarding the chance to avoid damage. Fixed absence of crit chance for some spells. Fixed the early first cast of the Sand Storm. Workers can no longer repair organic units.


- v3.2.0 - New hero: Voodoo Master - a summoner and a healer, having a total of 8 spells.


- v3.1.4 - Tinted the Divine Glyphs and added additional effects to them, related to the Inscribed top tier items. Fixed a bug, causing the game to crash on lower versions. Increased the default camera height.


- v3.1.3 - Fixed Fire Mage's Conflagration spell. Reduced the damage area of the Sand Storm. Reduced the mana cost of Dreamweaver's spells and increased their damage.


- v3.1.2 - Fixed various bugs. Removed the "Flags Taken" column from the multiboard. Slight AI optimisation.


- v3.1.1 - AI now builds structures and sends reinforcements. Increased survivability of Workers to discourage camping. Fixed miscalculation of Priest's Force Barrier. Fixed Spawning Grounds capturing and Naga training.


- v3.1.0 - Added Shadow Hunters and learning spells of other heroes. Added Oracles and Divine Glyphs. Added top tier weapons and armour. Added Sunken Shrine building to the Worker, which can temporarily protect nearby units from damage. Fixed spell descriptions and bugs. Added detailed documentation in the INFO section.


- v3.0.0 - Added worker unit that can harvest gold and build war structures. Added gold mines. Doom Ship can now summon a scout plane that can prevent ships and towers from firing. Added siege attack type to Naga Royal Guard and Naga Myrmidon. Added flying form to Naga Siren. Coral Bed can now hide workers. Added extra Tidal Guardians. General fixes.


- v2.5.0 - New Hero: Death Guard. General fixes.


- v2.4.1 - Spells fixes. Edited Flamebinder's attachment point. Fixed Scroll of Spirit Link. Now heroes start at level 1.


- v2.4.0 - Added extra spells that are sold in the Obelisk. Removed Orbital Strike ability. Whenever an unit buys a spell, it will be learned by the hero. Balance fixes.


- v2.3.3 - Spell bug fixes and balances.


- v2.3.2 - Added landmarks to help new players navigate.


- v2.3.1 - AI heroes now cast all of their spells.


- v2.3.0 - Optimizations for Reforged and file size reduction, added abilities for Doom Ship, decreased life of creeps, players' starting points get evenly distributed on the map according to number of players, added passive icons for bonus skills, general fixes.


- v2.2.1 - Spell balances.


- v2.2.0 - When a player is defeated all allies get defeated as well. Bug fixes.


- v2.1.7 - Spells balances.


- v2.1.6 - Spells and items modifications.


- v2.1.5 - AI and bug fixes. Decreased prices of units and upgrades.


- v2.1.4 - nagas can use items.


- v2.1.2 - improved AI.


- v2.1.1 - added tutorial.


- v2.1.0 - changed items and attributes balancing.


- v2.0.0 - reduced max players from 8 to 6, naga spawning grounds, ships building, armor and weapons, banking system. Heroes balance, new stats (crit chance, hit chance, chance to avoid damage, chance to avoid crit, spell damage, damage reduction), bug fixes. Works fine on v1.33.


- v1.1.0 - terrain changes, added doodads, improved AI, added items.


- v1.0.2 - reduced map size, slight terrain changes.


- v1.0.1 - edited game messages; added submerge to naga units.


Credits


Models by: Champara Bros, exfyre, Kuhneghetz, Infrisios, Sellenisko, inhuman89, Kenntaur, JetFangInferno, Freddyk, 67chrome, nGy, UgoUgo, Devine, JesusHipster, -Grendel, Freezer, Daelin, General Frank, armel, Lord_T, Tranquil, Kuhneghetz, Power, Callahan, Tarrasque, MiniMagem, communist_orc, sPy, Trollschnitzel, Vinz, kangyun, WILL THE ALMIGHTY
Icons by: real138, Palaslayer, Anachron, Apheraz Lucent, Amargard, Norinrad, Ginufe, The Panda, darkdeathknight, zbc, CRAZYRUSSIAN, deathgod.scythe, Blizzard Entertainment, ~Nightmare, morbent, I3lackDeath, Sin'dorei300, Darkfang, 67chrome, kola, Hemske, Justicebringer, KelThuzad, Dalharukn, Marcos DAB, Coinblin, NFWar, PeeKay, Paladon, BLazeKraze, Apheraz Lucent, SuPa-, D.ee, Chen, -Grendel, -Dieser-, Heinvers, JollyD, Kanadaj, -Berz-, armel, dickxunder, Hellx-Magnus, Lockheart, Mad, Afronight_76
Spells: Paladon, D4RK_G4ND4LF, Tank-Commander, Bluebay, Squiggy, jakeZinc, NightSkyAurora, Chaosy, cyberkid, Grantuu, -Berz-, Marsal, Klingo
Damage detection system by: Weep, Floating damages by: Julian


Discord
Keywords:
arena, battleground, capture, flag, sand, desert, take and hold, ai, defense
Contents

Sand Storm Arena v4.1.0 AI (Map)

Reviews
20:54, 3rd Aug 2015 Shadow Fury: A very nice and successful mixture of "Capture the Flag" and "Arena" gameplay styles. A lot of custom heroes with awesome skills ensure a great gameplay. Teamwork here is required to take over the 4 control points and...

Moderator

M

Moderator

20:54, 3rd Aug 2015
Shadow Fury: A very nice and successful mixture of "Capture the Flag" and "Arena" gameplay styles. A lot of custom heroes with awesome skills ensure a great gameplay. Teamwork here is required to take over the 4 control points and destroy a flag. The presence of a smart AI is really marvellous because it makes this map playable both in single player and multiplayer with an enjoyable experience. A few items purchasable at the center of the map and in every player's base also contribute to a better gameplay experience yet more items = more combos. I hope to see more items in the future updates.
In this game, you can also hire units. This is surely a great feature and it can easily turn the tides of the battle to someone's favor.
Talking about the terrain, it looks fantastic and definitely suits the name "Sand Storm Arena". Vegetation is not missing to give a natural look to the map. Perhaps the seaweeds on the shallow water are a bit excessive don't you think so?

Overall this map offers a great entertainment and encourages a lot teamwork and cooperation between players. It is approved with a rating of 4/5
 
Level 21
Joined
Nov 4, 2013
Messages
2,017
I have tested the map and I must admit it is full of misconceptions, unbalances and bugs. Just a few words on the visuals first.

You did a great job with the terrain, it definitely matches the name Sand Storm. Tile variation was manipulated efficiently and the doodads management was good but subject to improvements. A few block of stones around the arena do not give it a pleasant aspect, rather an empty one. Why not filling it with some decorative doodads? In addition, beside the trees you may consider adding some plants (shurbs, flowers, viny plants etc...) to give a more environmental look to the vegetation.

Ok time to talk about the critical issues. Apart from the lacking AI, there are a few awkward things. First of all, when I tested the hero before approving my choice, I used the ultimate which had a long cooldown but unfortunately the cooldown was not reset to 0 once I picked the hero. You should use this function:

  • Unit - Reset ability cooldowns for (The Hero)
One other annoying bug was going to my own circle power and seeing that my hero was automatically ordered to move somewhere in the map. Why that? I simply wanted to go to the shop just beside one of the circle of powers and the hero just walked away. I think this has to do with some orders to the AI. Are you sure you used this condition?

  • ((Owner of (Triggering unit)) controller) Equal to Computer
So if a human player moves there the actions are not triggered.

Enough with bugs, time to speak about gameplay. Generally, it is enjoyable. Heroes have a set of cool skills with pleasant effects and sounds however there's a little misconception. Why do all heroes start at level 10? What makes a game with heroes progressive is the levelling up. If you just start with all skills learnt, your game doesn't develop any further. I'd strongly recommend letting all heroes start at level 1 as in any normal map with heroes.
If there's one thing that really ruined the map then it's the items. Come on, all items are plain consumables and some spell books? Why aren't there items to boost damage, armor, attack speed and these stuff? I see that there are learnable stats from the Hero Abilities but that limits the variation. Once again, what makes a map like yours progressive is buying stronger items as the game evolves, not being stuck with the same upgradeable stats from the very beginning. I highly recommend adding items that boost stats and, if you want, that add some passive/active skills.
Why are the towers so weak? I can just sneak past them without even feeling that they're attacking. I mean, they're just useless. Increase their attack damage so that they really stand as true defenders of the flag rather than weaklings.
The final negative part of your map is the capability of hiring units. The Naga Royal Guards are just too overpowered and far too cheap for their immense power. A damn stun of 3 seconds is fatal, imagine if one player gets 3 naga royal guards... it's 9 seconds of stun and that's blatanly unacceptable. In this way, players will focus more on getting as many of this unit as possible instead of using their heroes. When I played the game and hired a few of them, nobody could even touch me. My suggestions is not removing this unit but simply increasing their cost to something in between 1000-1500 and decreasing the stun to 1 second so even if a player is lucky enough to get even 3 of them, the stun will be 3 seconds, an acceptable value. Also consider increasing the cost of other units.

All in all, the map has a strong potential but it crucially needs to be polished and have its bugs fixed. For now, it stays as needs fix with a rating of 3/5.
 
Level 5
Joined
Feb 12, 2015
Messages
15
I fixed the bugs you mentioned and added environment doodads. Also increased gold costs of units and some items, set the food limit to 50, added items for boosting stats/additional skills(located in the pyramid in the middle of the arena), including droppable gems that give extra stats when attached to certain items. I increased the damage of the towers a little - their purpose is not to destroy passing units from the begining, but just weaken/slow them unless their damage is upgraded. The AI is also improved. For now i am going to leave the heroes start at level 10.
 
Level 21
Joined
Nov 4, 2013
Messages
2,017
Great! I see the bugs have been fixed and I noticed that the AI is much harder to kill. The terrain was also improved. Now the map is approvable, good job! It doesn't really matter if all heroes start at level 10 because the gameplay is still enjoyable. That was just a simple recommendation from me after all; you can keep it as such.
 

deepstrasz

Map Reviewer
Level 69
Joined
Jun 4, 2009
Messages
18,801
-some minor bugs with who killed who text
-an AI had 23 kills in the score panel even though it didn't do so many unless neutral creeps counted
-Gem of the Sun can be sold and for a good price. The others cannot

Other than those, the concept is nice though can be a pain to play with many players when a flag has to be taken to all those 4 points and for each point one has to wait 10 or more seconds.
 
Level 5
Joined
May 5, 2021
Messages
22
Yo yo
I tried this map out alone in a ffa with the AI and in a two team setting with a couple of friends. The map is very well made with tons of different things to interact with which gives a lot of possibilities in the long run but can seem a bit overwhelming at first. I am glad i played against the AI first to kind of try the map and copy some of the things they did.

The map is a capture the flag style hero arena were you have to capture the flag of each enemy three times by collecting it in their base and then bring the flag to four circles of power in the middle. Having to bring the flag to capture points gives the enemy some time to react instead of some ninja character just running into the base of the enemy and stealing their flags repeatedly. In addition to the hero arena element you have the possibility of training units and workers to gather gold and build static defenses.

The map has a lot of cool ideas implemented like the shadow "bosses" you can kill to change a spell and the unit building, but for me it is a bit too much because you don't really know what you should be doing. I found focussing on one thing like either your hero or building units makes it more manageable

Going a little more into the details:


1. Heroes 3/5 - The heroes are interesting enough but with the ability to change spells the main focus is not on each hero but more on building one you like. The balance needs to be a little better as in the game with people we had a leaver and it ended up being 2v1 with me almost being able to kill both my opponents with my hero (the one with two stun abilities and a heal) despite the fact I was focussing on units. I am also not a big fan of not being able to see how close you are to rank up, the system is nice with you being able to specialize your character as you want but not knowing when you will level feels little wierd. Especially the first time playing as it actually takes a while to get a level which made me very confused about whether I would level up by killing things or there were some objective you had to do to level

2. Items 3.5/5 - Most of the items are pretty basic but i really like the gem system to upgrade them and the fact that most items have a usefull active. It is a little sad that the last level of items upgraded in the legendary shop lose their active to gain another gem slot and extra stats. For the two legendary items i kind of dislike that they are dropped on death. The cost of them is really high and in a map like this you will get focussed if you have one which means you are investing 5000 gold to put the item into rotation. Both legendary items are really cool with their special effect tho but when the stacks on the sword is lost on death the mage one feels a little better because every extra stat point gives you a permanent power-up. In general i don't mind items that are dropped on death but it feels bad if you spend a lot of money on them. Also i don't really understand the chance to hit stat, it seems pretty useless as there is not a lot of evasion and it is always a very low percentage.

3. Gameplay 3/5 - The gameplay is pretty straight forward, the map feels a little slow for this type of map with a long time to kill and with the capture system taking so long it is a little to easy to defend which makes the map go very long. I like the capture system but it could be a bit faster in my taste. I think the map would benefit from being a bit more focussed on one thing but from the description I see you wanted to make a map with all the features you like and i respect that, that is exactly what mapmaking is about.

In general the map is very well made and we found no bugs. It also has good AI which is a huge plus when people don't really join less known maps and it made it very chill to play around with in single player. For me it could be a bit faster with higher damage early on, faster leveling and a little shorter time on the capture points since you need 4 and the enemies can deny them but all of that is preference.

Try out the map if you like Hero Arenas or if you need something to chill with in singleplayer

3.5/5
 
Level 5
Joined
Feb 12, 2015
Messages
15
Thank you for your time to share your insights on my map!
The things you pointed out generally summarize my observations of players' behaviour on Battle.net and I am really grateful I finally saw them in a written form.

The map is very well made with tons of different things to interact with which gives a lot of possibilities in the long run but can seem a bit overwhelming at first.
Indeed, there is a lot happening in the map, hence some steeper learning curve is inevitable. I put many info messages, plus a detailed description in the Quests log, but unfortunatelly most people don't read.


The heroes are interesting enough but with the ability to change spells the main focus is not on each hero but more on building one you like.
This is a new feature in v3 and helps making each game more upredictable.


it ended up being 2v1 with me almost being able to kill both my opponents with my hero
As I see you played the 1 of the 2 toughest heroes to kill with brute force. Each hero has a unique gameplay and has its strengths and weaknesses, in addition one needs to adapt to the actions of the enemy. The fighting in this arena gives a lot of opportunities to show off creativity, but it also requires some knowledge and thinking.


I am also not a big fan of not being able to see how close you are to rank up
You level up when you kill a hero 5 times. Each bonus skill gives some upper hand against your enemies, so it depends on each player whether the opponent will get stronger or not. The leveling is also mentioned in the descriptions.



It is a little sad that the last level of items upgraded in the legendary shop lose their active
Buying the top tier items is a tradeoff, not a straight bonus. You decide how you want to play. After an hour of playing, heroes can get very strong and the battles could potentially be decided quickly, so you may prefer to be stronger, than losing time casting a minor item ability.


For the two legendary items i kind of dislike that they are dropped on death.
These items break the balance, with great power comes great responsibillity. Nobody makes you buying them, but they can change the game.


Also i don't really understand the chance to hit stat
This counters the chance to avoid damage and is a crucial stat. Wether you need it or not depends on your opponents, but as you build agility, strength and put chance to avoid damage on your items, you could avoid nearly each second attack or spell.



the map feels a little slow for this type of map. I think the map would benefit from being a bit more focussed on one thing
The map is a hybrid and a moderate amount of creativity is put into the gameplay. It is more of a tactical game, than a 'go kill these guys' game. It was more focused in previous versions, because of the lesser amount of features, but my intentions were to make the map unpredictable and different each time you play, hence the larger variety of play styles.


Overall this map is not simple by any means. How interesting would it be depends mostly on the players' thinking, control and knowledge about the game. There is not 1 strategy beats all and everything changes dynamically as the game goes. I as the creator have been stunned seeing someone beats me in a way I never thought about. I have also been beaten quite a few times by some good Warcraft players, who haven't ever played this map.
 
General:

  • The in-game documentation via Quests is extensive and well explained.
  • The AI is interesting to play against.
  • Terrain is well suited for an arena, with clear delineated areas for bases, upgrades, and combat.
  • The gem + item system creates a lot of replay value.
  • There's a lot of engaging content here. The next step is to polish all of it, which is a great place to be.

Recommendations:

  • While I appreciate the them behind the four circles, it may be too much. Have you considered using a single point with stages?
  • Alternatively I might consider making it only one flag if you keep the four circles. My concern is that the game loop can be quite long based on player proficiency.
  • Adding another layer of detail around stones, obelisks, and other objects to bring more life to the environment would go a long way. I'm happy to help clarify this with examples if you want me to.
  • The flags being in the shop area of the base is a bit awkward. I think a smaller island in between the base and the center arena just for the flags and towers would make for better gameplay. Right now I don't get there sense there is any "safe" area. As the attacking hero, running through their base feels awkward.
  • You could remove the Main Quests and Optional Quests text, and rename the tab to Info.
  • The enemy hero I was playing against was magic immune in the beginning, and I wasn't clear why as it was not an issue later.
  • I may have missed it, but I didn't know I could only buy one ability from the Obelisk of Storms, so I wasted 1600 gold.

Bug
  • There is a message "Default string" when my hero enters the arena. I chose Shaman.
Rating

  • 4 / 5
  • I will reserve rating the resource. I'm hopeful with some iteration this can be a 5 / 5. =)
 
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