I don't play melee, but the layout seems ok.
The fire effects however are hard on the eyes.
You don't need fire everywhere to give the impression of a "city on fire".
A great tip would be to remove a few fire effects and replace others with "fire small" or smoke smudge.
The camps in the corners are a death trap for anyone going in there.
If you get bodyblocked and don't have any teleport scroll it's game over.
You should open a secondary path there where players can escape.

Updated:

-Fire has been been reduced greatly, there's also more variety of fire (normal and small).
-There's now a "hidden" path between the trees near the red creep camp, but you can still break through the trees on the other path to reach there, it's still rather a risky spot but you have more ways to work around now if you get ambushed.
-The amount of trees you have to destroy from the green camp to reach the red camp has been reduced significantly, so it's easier to get through there with siege units.
-The merchant creep camp no longer has non-sleeping units, so now players can buy items at night without problems.
-Fixed some doodads and terrain issues, like mushrooms right inside the city or the merchants being too protected by terrain walls, also added a few more scorched remains in some empty spots.
-Map description improved.

EDIT: I forgot to update the wall surrounding the merchant camp for both sides, it has already been fixed, sorry.

I'll update the screenshots once I don't have to change too much anymore.

I am glad to see a new map from you!!!

Good things:

1) Base layout, neutrals positions. Good amount of wood and gold.
2) Pathing is very good and complex.
3)creep selection: mix of melee and ranged. Mix from different tiles.
4) Good terrain mix, different areas, cliff use, water parts. Map with theme, nice fog.
5) Doodad used like 6000.
6) map with critters for undead creeping.
7) goldmines are easy to camp and follows the HU Vs Un requisite.
8) Loot is good.
9) the mix of buildable terrain and unbuidable terrain allows to build towers but can´t do a proper wall of it, I like it.
10) The trees allows scouting the NE, and also many open paths options.

Things to Improve:


1) You can´t build an age of war near the merc. camp and the goblin shop:
NE try to camp the merc camp or goblin shop with the age of war.

easy fix with 1-2 clicks: make the part near the building buildable.

a very very very miscelaneus thing for competitive melee play:

2) green creeps formed by skeletons archers and skeletons can´t be targeted with death coil of the death knigth.
Same goes for Orange creeps formed by revenants and skeletons

Sugestion: mix with some others units such as deamons or units from outlan like:

voidwalkers, fellbeasts (avoid the mana burn ones).

At least have 1 target that can be hit with death coil.



3) A maybe (not necesary) sugestion: goblin labs maybe here: for fun you know:
zeppelings, saw log machine.
I can buy the zapper and open a paths, that stuff






Rating 5/5


Such talent to map with balance and creativity... I am wondering wich tile-set would you try next...
(Hint: If you reach 5 melee maps, you can do a melee pack )

---

1. Caster only neutral camps might be a problem especially for orcs who have healing later unless it is bought from the shop and it is not instant. Such camps are generally stronger than their colour, maybe.
2. Encircle neutral hostile units, especially ranged ones properly so that they won't be attacked and attack units over/through doodads/destructibles as seen here:

Awaiting Update.


If you're not satisfied with the review and wish another opinion, contact the other reviewers or use the staff contact:
Paillan
twojstaryjakcie
Daffa the Mage
https://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/staff-contact.692/

deepstrasz said:

You have to give reason why.

Click to expand...

Sister-she review of the last year:

"The mercenaries sold there contain mana burn, a rather powerfull spell."
Page 12: Review of the map forgoten realm.

Hive Melee Map Contest

mafe tutorial: merc. cam. part

"Satyr soulstealer have lvl 2 manaburn. The consequences are beyond imagination. If nightelves buy them, they can drain all mana from hero like mk/tc within the first seconds of a fight, and for the other races he could also change the game in unforeseen ways."

Also in Orange videos, he said "that mana burn was an instant veto"... when he reviewed a map


what I mean is, I heard x3 times to avoid mana-burn in very good users (mafe, Sister-she and Orange) but I can´t give a decent reason, I just repeat the warning of avoid it.

Ragnaros17 said:

"The mercenaries sold there contain mana burn, a rather powerfull spell."

Click to expand...

I played the map afterwards and thought you meant neutral hostile units not mercenaries.

Updated.

I had to get rid of that camp you posted because there was nowhere I could relocate it without making them aggro easily or without having to change a lot of the map :/, but it shouldn't be a huge deal considering there's still 10 orange camps. I reworked a couple of creep camps loot to make the whole loot more varied (since I had deleted one per side), and reworked the orange creep camp that is on that little space in the long wall because it had the same problem you mentioned with the walls, too. It should be fixed now.

I ended up adding a tiny buildable terrain in front of the mercenary camp near the trees so NE can build ancient of war, I didn't do the same with the goblin merchants because honestly I think you can already build one nearby and even next to the trees. I also moved the mercenary camp a bit backwards near the water because I realized it was easy to aggro those creeps if you just passed by.

deepstrasz said:

Caster only neutral camps might be a problem especially for orcs who have healing later unless it is bought from the shop and it is not instant. Such camps are generally stronger than their colour, maybe.

Click to expand...

I'm sorry but which camps are you referring to?

Ragnaros17 said:

Such talent to map with balance and creativity... I am wondering wich tile-set would you try next...
(Hint: If you reach 5 melee maps, you can do a melee pack )

Click to expand...

Hehe thanks c:
I can't promise anything but the next one might be based on Barrens or Outland tileset.

Tiriel said:

I'm sorry but which camps are you referring to?

Click to expand...

Most of them are like that, especially the tougher ones but it's not a problem since most casters are ranged and weak against melee units.

Hmm, maybe you could have just replaced those trees with some vision blocking doodad or cliff instead so you'd not have had to remove the camps.

Changes made,
approved.

(previous review: Stratholme)

deepstrasz said:

I played the map afterwards and thought you meant neutral hostile units not mercenaries.

Click to expand...

I mean both, but I am going to ask

Tiriel said:

Updated.
Hehe thanks c:
I can't promise anything but the next one might be based on Barrens or Outland tileset.

Click to expand...

Those tiles are hard one to do enviroment. I hope you cand do something very unique like the others two maps.

To be honest I had to readjust that camp like 4-5 times while I was making the map and still couldn't make it work, so I'm lowkey happy to see it gone haha.

Ragnaros17 said:

Those tiles are hard one to do enviroment. I hope you cand do something very unique like the others two maps.

Click to expand...

Well, I already have a "theme" for an Outland map, I just need to start to work on it x)

Mal'Ganis would have been so proud. 4/5

Stratholme, the city where I grew up... lol
The red fog is a bit too much, and I wonder why your maps don't have proper melee status flag, kinda bothers me.