Garden of the Golems

[mafe]

Alright, I quite like this map, but it has a few questionable gameplay choices or outright "bugs":
-Portals: They often make units (including nearby creeps, which might also happen here) behave weirdly. My impression is that reducing the size of the assoziated "region" (or whatever it is called in english) somewhat helps. But I have never really tested this. Still, the placement of portals here might might for interesting dynamics, but I think that it shortens the distance between the main bases by too much.
-Tree "Alleys". Yes they look nice, but that make it virtually impossible to fight there with a melee-based army. Also there are some several small gaps between doodads in general.
-Creeps on expansions are blue, which they should not be (at least one of them).
-However if you build at the foot of the ramp near the expansions, the creeps from the lab will come attacking. They should be blue.
-The lvl 3/4 items look slightly too strong relative to the creep camps (imho you should rather adjust the creeps instead of the items).
-Expanions very open, and not nice too look at with the map boundaries right next to them.
-No possibility for AoW-creeping next to your base.

Good stuff:
-Map looks nice.
-Layout is also good and interesting (ignoring the portals here).
-Barely any gaps between trees.
-For once, gates make sense at the portals, might even consider giving them full hp.

So, I think some of the issues can and should be fixed. It's up to your to decide which ones exactly. Until then, maps set to Awaiting update.

 

[SlushyJones]

Alright, I quite like this map, but it has a few questionable gameplay choices or outright "bugs":
-Portals: They often make units (including nearby creeps, which might also happen here) behave weirdly. My impression is that reducing the size of the assoziated "region" (or whatever it is called in english) somewhat helps. But I have never really tested this. Still, the placement of portals here might might for interesting dynamics, but I think that it shortens the distance between the main bases by too much.
-Tree "Alleys". Yes they look nice, but that make it virtually impossible to fight there with a melee-based army. Also there are some several small gaps between doodads in general.
-Creeps on expansions are blue, which they should not be (at least one of them).
-However if you build at the foot of the ramp near the expansions, the creeps from the lab will come attacking. They should be blue.
-The lvl 3/4 items look slightly too strong relative to the creep camps (imho you should rather adjust the creeps instead of the items).
-Expanions very open, and not nice too look at with the map boundaries right next to them.
-No possibility for AoW-creeping next to your base.

Good stuff:
-Map looks nice.
-Layout is also good and interesting (ignoring the portals here).
-Barely any gaps between trees.
-For once, gates make sense at the portals, might even consider giving them full hp.

So, I think some of the issues can and should be fixed. It's up to your to decide which ones exactly. Until then, maps set to Awaiting update.

Thank you for the review! I have made several changes based on your feedback.

1. Portals have been removed. As you said, the way units behave around them is weird. After a couple tests and remapping of the regions, I decided it would be better to remove them completely. Balance wise, even if the portals worked perfectly, it becomes very easy for a player to attack every gold mine on the map very quickly, which is not desired. The excessive mobility made it so entire armies could be nearly everywhere important on the map. In addition to removing the portals, the locations of some neutral buildings have been changed. The necromancers now guard a Mercenary Camp, the Observatory was moved to where the old Merc Camp used to be, and Marketplaces were added where the old Observatories were.
2. I reduced the amount of trees on the midsection of the roads. There are still some trees on the sides, but there are not too many so I think there can still be good fights on these roads. I took a look at other gaps between doodads and adding ground pathing blockers. Hopefully the pathing is better now.
3. Creeps at gold mines are at their default aggression now.
4. Creeps that are guarding neutral buildings are set to blue. I'll have to do some testing on aggro range to see if everything feels right, but I think it's a step in the right direction.
5. I added a couple of sludges to the necromancers to make the Lvl 3 charged harder, and I reworked the strength of the Lvl 4 charged. The lvl 4 charged still has the same power level, but with 2 bandits and 2 wizards instead of 4 wizards. I'm thinking that the bandits will add a little more hit points to the camp.
6. I moved the gold mines a little closer to the center, and added trees near the cliffs and map border. If an Undead expands here, the blighted trees will look natural compared to other doodads.
7. I changed the texture near the necromancers and the green creeps at the dock. A Night Elf player should be able to AoW creep much more effectively. In addition to the this change of texture, I also moved one of the green camps near the base, so a Night Elf player can build an AoW north of their base and use it to take the gold mine. They have 2 intended options for AoW creeping: North of the base and take the gold mine, or East/West of the base and take the necromancers and bandits.

Finally, I changed camps that were made up of entirely bandits and mixed in some wizards/kobolds. Camps that were made up of only bandits could be completely hidden at night, which is not desired. Now all of the camps have at least 1 creep who is not hiding at night.

 

[mafe]

Ok, looking at the map again:
1. Removing a key feature of a map is always a tough decision, but here it is a good one.
2. Still debatable and not ideal, but "good enough".
3. It means they might no aggro accidentially, but better then before.
4. Yes, that's correct.
5. Except for the level 4 items at the labs, I'm ok with the itemdrops (they are still kinda strong, but within acceptable limits). At the labs, I would add a lvl 3 creep for example.
6. Expansions are still open and hard to defend with towers. It seems hard to find a good way to place them in this general area. It will be problematic at high levels of skill.
7. There are no trees around to heal the AoW unless you build it far away from the creeps? The map still seems unfriendly for AoW-creeping.
8. Good changes to creeps.

So.... the map is good for a few fun games, but still a few steps away from battlenet ladder level. I'd like to see some further changes, but some important issues have been removed.
Therefore map approved.