Custom Race: Pandaren Empire

[MogulKahn]

Pretty cool race. Meditation felt underwhelming a little bit while also being dangerously abusive with that short window of invulnerbility.
Sky Viper felt unfiting, kind of more of a Troll unit. Spirit Binder was oke, but would have preffered some unique abilities for him.
You are also missing one more Hero and I would say at least 1 more unit. Maybe anti-caster one?
Celestial Disciple model is little bit buggy after dying. And also your neutrals are not dropping any items.
Also, that Spirit Arrow was doing stupid amount of damage.


Keep it up, good job overall!

 

[Galendor an'Kreil]

A funny map that really made me try hard. At first, out of ignorance, I went with the starting army to the yaungols at the expand - bad, very bad idea. Fortunately, it was merely a setback. Reaching the Celestial Dragon and Celestial Disciple turned out to be decisive, and I can’t help but say how much I like the Disciple and its abilities. Mist Form? Genius!

Still, the faction currently feels more like a prototype, and here’s why:

1) I was surprised to see the total number of units in the faction. This doesn’t quite fit the typical Blizzard design, especially considering the race doesn’t have many summons or transformations like the Undead’s Obsidian Statue. The current tech tree offers 3 (!) buildings with two units each - that’s very unorthodox.
1.1) Perhaps because of this, basic units feel overloaded with passive and active abilities, for example, the Vanguard. It’s as if, in an attempt to compensate for the absence of a unit, part of its functionality has been transferred to other units via upgrades.
1.2) Meanwhile, there are only three heroes, and they lack a healing function, which, combined with the regeneration penalty, reduces the options available to the player.
2) Speaking of regeneration: Meditation works fine, but I can’t shake the feeling that there’s no real reason to limit regeneration other than gameplay mechanics. Unfortunately, I have no ideas what Meditation could provide instead, so this point is more of a grumble from me.
3) The faction’s shop lacks its own special touch. It’s not that you continue to deny spheres in your design , it’s just that at T2 the shop can’t offer anything special besides potions and a scroll, and at T3 it offers a Scroll of the Beast - a rather odd choice, honestly.

 

[Panda]

Ah yes my family.

 

[CollectorofStoriesUntold]

Pretty cool race. Meditation felt underwhelming a little bit while also being dangerously abusive with that short window of invulnerbility.
Sky Viper felt unfiting, kind of more of a Troll unit. Spirit Binder was oke, but would have preffered some unique abilities for him.
You are also missing one more Hero and I would say at least 1 more unit. Maybe anti-caster one?
Celestial Disciple model is little bit buggy after dying. And also your neutrals are not dropping any items.
Also, that Spirit Arrow was doing stupid amount of damage.


Keep it up, good job overall!

MogulKah, thank you for the review.

Meditation was hard to get where it is, but I feel the duration and cool keep it from being OP. When against AI, it can be abusive easily; however, it functions like sleep, so if forced attacked, or dispelled, it will be canceled.

There are not that many air models that aesthetically fit the Pandaren, though I may either tweak its ability set or replace it with the one from https://www.hiveworkshop.com/threads/pandaren-hotair-balloon.353815/.

Spirit binder abilities are kind of generic, but felt they were good enough for his role. May look into expanding their function in the future.
I'll look into additional heroes in a future update. Initially there was another caster unit, but with a 28-unit ability already, I felt that it was not necessary.

I'll look into why there are no drops.

A funny map that really made me try hard. At first, out of ignorance, I went with the starting army to the yaungols at the expand - bad, very bad idea. Fortunately, it was merely a setback. Reaching the Celestial Dragon and Celestial Disciple turned out to be decisive, and I can’t help but say how much I like the Disciple and its abilities. Mist Form? Genius!

Still, the faction currently feels more like a prototype, and here’s why:

1) I was surprised to see the total number of units in the faction. This doesn’t quite fit the typical Blizzard design, especially considering the race doesn’t have many summons or transformations like the Undead’s Obsidian Statue. The current tech tree offers 3 (!) buildings with two units each - that’s very unorthodox.
1.1) Perhaps because of this, basic units feel overloaded with passive and active abilities, for example, the Vanguard. It’s as if, in an attempt to compensate for the absence of a unit, part of its functionality has been transferred to other units via upgrades.
1.2) Meanwhile, there are only three heroes, and they lack a healing function, which, combined with the regeneration penalty, reduces the options available to the player.
2) Speaking of regeneration: Meditation works fine, but I can’t shake the feeling that there’s no real reason to limit regeneration other than gameplay mechanics. Unfortunately, I have no ideas what Meditation could provide instead, so this point is more of a grumble from me.
3) The faction’s shop lacks its own special touch. It’s not that you continue to deny spheres in your design , it’s just that at T2 the shop can’t offer anything special besides potions and a scroll, and at T3 it offers a Scroll of the Beast - a rather odd choice, honestly.

Galendor an'Kreil, thank you for the review.

Yeah, the camp is pretty tough; made it that way to prevent too fast of an expansion. It takes the AI 2 tries. Initially the Mist Form was a target ability that transformed a target ally.

1. I'll look into expanding the roster in the future, maybe adding researchable Zodiac animals. I did feel the lack of a third trainable unit initially but kind of put it out of my mind after a few playtest rounds.

1. You have a point there. The initial plan had the second and third abilities unlocked through a karma system with mana being upgraded through 3-tiered upgrades. However, I had a hard time coming up with and implementing the idea without it being tacked on. I will probably give it another go in a future update.

1. Having 3 heroes on the release is my standard at this point. When I try to do 4 heroes for the release, I get a creative block, and the race will sit untouched for months at a time. I didn't really think about healing abilities for the heroes. If I create a 4th hero; I'll probably give it a battle mediation ability to regenerate HP in an AOE based on its current mana or HP.

1. The meditation was difficult to manage. I wanted to do more, but there was a potential for it to be broken. I almost removed it at points, but I really wanted to keep it. The regeneration was more of a reference to pandas' poor diet and reproductiveness.

1. I agree with a shop overhaul. I had a hard time coming up with item ideas that did not return too far from base shop items. I added the scroll of beasts because “panda bear”

Now that you got me thinking, in a future update I may add a karma mechanic where attacking/casting grants positive karma that gives bonuses and being attacked/targeting grants negative karma, giving debuffs.

How was the AI? During the playtest, the AI acted differently each time; sometimes it would rush me or tech fast or just reach tier 2 and idle for 10 minutes before doing anything.

 

[deepstrasz]

Terrain fits the pandaren theme and overall look.
A nice custom techtree but evidently based on the human faction as a basis.
The gray text in the descriptions is kind of annoying to read at times depending on the background.
Approved.

---

If you want more reviews, you should participate in the The Grand Review Exchange!

R U L E S

Site Rules
Map Submission Rules

M A P - D E S C R I P T I O N

Details

BB CODES
BB Codes | HIVE

MELEE MAPS
Description Guide - Melee Maps
Describing Your Melee Map
Melee Map Description Generator v1.3

MAPS IN GENERAL
The importance of a Description
Description Guide - Maps
Map Thread Guide
Map Description Making: Good & Bad
Map Description - Templates
Map Description Generator [1.2]

How to Add a Screenshot to your Map Description

ADDITIONAL NECESSARY INFORMATION

• 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.
• A detailed changelog in the first post would be helpful to reviewers and notify fans about the newest implementations to your map.
• Map thread tags are important. Please use those that fit and not more or none.

M A P - C R E A T I O N - G U I D E S

Details

GENERAL MAPPING
A Beginner's Guide to Map Making
The Ultimate Beginners Terrain Tutorial
Advanced Terraining Tutorial
A Guideline to Terraining and the Hive's Terraining Section
Various Terraining Tips!
Basic Mapping Video Tutorial
WE Map Editor for Newbies!
The Path Of Proper Map Making - What to do and what should be avoided

MELEE MAPPING
How to create Melee Maps
General - Melee Maps like the Professionals
Competitive Melee Map
Melee mapping - The reasons behind common aspects of competitive 1v1 maps
Melee Do's and Dont's

PATHING
Pathing - Everything about it
[Terraining] Alternative Pathing Technique

LEAKS
Triggers - Memory Leaks and Custom Scripts

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

 

[Blackgrowl]

Very good! It was fun to play as the Pandaren, they have a very similar techtree to the Humans and that's my go-to faction.

All Pandaren units have "Meditation", it was hard getting used to it, so I can't judge it fair just yet.
The basic units are alright, although it's strange that they have a lot of abilities, meanwhile the "Vanguard" can't get any upgrades to make him useful past late game.

The two magic types that we get are great, straight-forward magic, nothing too flashy but also not useless, it's very practical and versatile and I love that.

Tamed Turtle is fantastic, I love how it's a Ranged (even if short) Siege unit that can become into a tank.

The only thing I didn't like are the heroes, or at least one of them. It was...I forgot the name, but it's the only Mighty/Strength hero that the Pandaren have. His smash is okay, but his toggled ability to increase armour is completely boring and not as practical, while that 3rd ability made to aid units? I tend to forget to do it due to how underwhelming it is.

I think you can change it with an area-of-effect that increases the allies' armour and attack speed instead, with the armour staying longer while the attack speed goes away faster for balance reasons, call it "Honor Shout".

His toggled ability? Turn it into "Dueling Elation", gives a chance to increase his armour whenever he gets hurt, stacking up to 7/8 when it's Level 3, with the timed stack going from 5/10/15.

Hope you don't mind these suggestions, it's your racemod after all.

Also, the creeps are mostly fine, but how come some are just incredibly powerful? The Minotaur (I forgot his name in the map, sorry) Lord has Chaos damage, can easily kill your whole army even if you're careful.

 

[Althavis]

The terrain was Excellent; I really like how you flesh out the flavor with it. Though there are times I struggle to make sense out of all the details, I don't know if it's my eye or the trees. I agree with the others, especially about the shop. It's also my least favorite part when making maps, you can start with replacing at least the 2 tier I items for now.
I'm also making a Pandaren Race (can I finish it? probably won't), and they do really lack air units. My current draft will use this and the hot-air ballon you mentioned.

Looking forward to more of your custom races!

 

[Blackgrowl]

The terrain was Excellent; I really like how you flesh out the flavor with it. Though there are times I struggle to make sense out of all the details, I don't know if it's my eye or the trees. I agree with the others, especially about the shop. It's also my least favorite part when making maps, you can start with replacing at least the 2 tier I items for now.
I'm also making a Pandaren Race (can I finish it? probably won't), and they do really lack air units. My current draft will use this and the hot-air ballon you mentioned.

Looking forward to more of your custom races!

Nice to see you around, Althavis! I've recently tried your updated Quillboar tribes, to try the Centaurs, if I get the time to try it again I'll give it a proper review, I should try your other Racemods too