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- Feb 19, 2011
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Review - The Zoo
(Version August 7th 2022)
Description: The Zoo is a small 1v1 melee map revolving around an enclosed zoo, where you find various types of creeps, the inhabitants of the zoo, and fight them.
Terrain: There's room for improvement in the terrain: both in technical execution but also in the faithfulness to the theme. As the idea of the map is a zoo, one expects to see more man-made structures, but as of now, the zoo seems quite natural-born which breaks the immersion quite heavily. The tile usage, while quite sufficient, still slightly lacks detail, especially the roads.
Layout: The map is not perfectly centered and Player 1 (Red) is slightly farther away from the Tavern than the other player, although this is a very slight disparity, still try to pay attention to these details where it matters. The layout around the center is appealing with a classical criss-cross pattern with various objectives located around it, offering players the opportunity to contest objectives. The pathways however are too narrow and need to be widened up - there needs to be enough room to handle melee armies. The pathing is better executed on the round ring around the center. The green creep camps are placed quite isolatedly and have narrow entrances to fight them. They also do not give them the chance to use the Ancient of War to fight them due to lack of space. Generally, you want the creep camps to be placed distinctly away from pathways, but in areas that are open enough to access with your troops. The layout offers various pathways to attack your enemy, although the main bases are placed in corners in such a way that ultimately only one angle is vulnerable.
Creeps: The selection of creep races used does justice to the theme of the map, with more unusual creeps, such as Salamander, being used. The mixtures of creeps in a single camp can be a little confusing, however - you typically do not want to mix two very different kinds of creeps together. For example, Thunder Lizard is a weird combination with Wolves - why not place only Wolves of different kinds, or perhaps Gnolls and Wolves or Trolls and Wolves? Those are more natural combinations. Save the Thunder Lizard for another camp. The creep camps seem of an appropriate level, although the Red Camp is very hard. The item drops suffer from level changes between the previous and latest melee versions, please fix this issue (One camp should not drop an item that can be Level 2, 3, or 4). Few permanent items dropped, but perhaps this is intentional.
Gameplay: The gameplay revolves around contesting the central area creep camps and getting an advantage through that. The narrow passages however make this a little uncomfortable. The gold mines along with their creeps are equal, making no further contestation situations. The bases are placed on high ground, making them difficult to attack, especially since there is only one angle to attack from.
Recommendations:
Similar to your other maps this suffers from the same issues: item drop inconsistencies, gaps between trees and other objects, and slight misuse of tile (especially the roads). I'd also encourage you to take a look at the mirroring of the map and make sure the shops are exactly equally far away from both players and that the bases are of the same size. Widen the choke points on the map - some passages are inconveniently small at the moment. The theme of the zoo is lovely and I encourage you to refine it even further by taking a look at the creep combinations and thematic terrain: do you want the creeps to be portrayed as enclosed creatures in their corresponding dens or have they perhaps escaped, leaving empty, ruined enclosures behind them? In the current version, the zoo looks a little too wild to be considered a zoo, apart from the variation of creeps. Try to improve visual clarity and avoid placing unwalkable objects on the roads or walkways, such as the benches around the Tavern: you could place the benches right next to the Tavern so no small, walkable gaps are left between them and the Tavern and reduce the number of benches.
Player starting locations are placed too close to the gold mine, making the map classified as non-melee. This is also caused by using the version selected in gameplay options.
The file name could be preferably written without spaces.
(Version August 7th 2022)
Description: The Zoo is a small 1v1 melee map revolving around an enclosed zoo, where you find various types of creeps, the inhabitants of the zoo, and fight them.
Terrain: There's room for improvement in the terrain: both in technical execution but also in the faithfulness to the theme. As the idea of the map is a zoo, one expects to see more man-made structures, but as of now, the zoo seems quite natural-born which breaks the immersion quite heavily. The tile usage, while quite sufficient, still slightly lacks detail, especially the roads.
Layout: The map is not perfectly centered and Player 1 (Red) is slightly farther away from the Tavern than the other player, although this is a very slight disparity, still try to pay attention to these details where it matters. The layout around the center is appealing with a classical criss-cross pattern with various objectives located around it, offering players the opportunity to contest objectives. The pathways however are too narrow and need to be widened up - there needs to be enough room to handle melee armies. The pathing is better executed on the round ring around the center. The green creep camps are placed quite isolatedly and have narrow entrances to fight them. They also do not give them the chance to use the Ancient of War to fight them due to lack of space. Generally, you want the creep camps to be placed distinctly away from pathways, but in areas that are open enough to access with your troops. The layout offers various pathways to attack your enemy, although the main bases are placed in corners in such a way that ultimately only one angle is vulnerable.
Creeps: The selection of creep races used does justice to the theme of the map, with more unusual creeps, such as Salamander, being used. The mixtures of creeps in a single camp can be a little confusing, however - you typically do not want to mix two very different kinds of creeps together. For example, Thunder Lizard is a weird combination with Wolves - why not place only Wolves of different kinds, or perhaps Gnolls and Wolves or Trolls and Wolves? Those are more natural combinations. Save the Thunder Lizard for another camp. The creep camps seem of an appropriate level, although the Red Camp is very hard. The item drops suffer from level changes between the previous and latest melee versions, please fix this issue (One camp should not drop an item that can be Level 2, 3, or 4). Few permanent items dropped, but perhaps this is intentional.
Gameplay: The gameplay revolves around contesting the central area creep camps and getting an advantage through that. The narrow passages however make this a little uncomfortable. The gold mines along with their creeps are equal, making no further contestation situations. The bases are placed on high ground, making them difficult to attack, especially since there is only one angle to attack from.
Recommendations:
Similar to your other maps this suffers from the same issues: item drop inconsistencies, gaps between trees and other objects, and slight misuse of tile (especially the roads). I'd also encourage you to take a look at the mirroring of the map and make sure the shops are exactly equally far away from both players and that the bases are of the same size. Widen the choke points on the map - some passages are inconveniently small at the moment. The theme of the zoo is lovely and I encourage you to refine it even further by taking a look at the creep combinations and thematic terrain: do you want the creeps to be portrayed as enclosed creatures in their corresponding dens or have they perhaps escaped, leaving empty, ruined enclosures behind them? In the current version, the zoo looks a little too wild to be considered a zoo, apart from the variation of creeps. Try to improve visual clarity and avoid placing unwalkable objects on the roads or walkways, such as the benches around the Tavern: you could place the benches right next to the Tavern so no small, walkable gaps are left between them and the Tavern and reduce the number of benches.
Player starting locations are placed too close to the gold mine, making the map classified as non-melee. This is also caused by using the version selected in gameplay options.
The file name could be preferably written without spaces.
