Lord of the Rings Builder v 1.4

[Moderator]

09:46, 1st Jun 2015
Shadow Fury: Map approved based on Ardenian's review with a rating of 2/5. Please do work on your map to make it even better.

 

[FullBasher]

hi there... i really like your map but lag problem. when i spam units and also i have friend to play with me he also spam after that... lags then appear on my screen fatal error.

 

[Gumberbunbder]

hi there... i really like your map but lag problem. when i spam units and also i have friend to play with me he also spam after that... lags then appear on my screen fatal error.

Hey, amazing, it's like you were waiting for me to upload this map lol. Either way, how long ago did you play my map? I may have fixed the lag problem since then. Thanks for telling me btw

 

[FullBasher]

Hey, amazing, it's like you were waiting for me to upload this map lol. Either way, how long ago did you play my map? I may have fixed the lag problem since then. Thanks for telling me btw

nah im just interested playing LOTR maps, Zombie maps, and Coming of the Horde cuz they can be challenge using your tactics and strategy..

 

[Valandil]

The best of all lotr builder, i wish you add another faction, Angmar ....

 

[Gumberbunbder]

The best of all lotr builder, i wish you add another faction, Angmar ....

Thank you for your kind words good sir, you inspire me to keep working on this map of mine. What would be the traits of the race of Agmar? I put the Witch King as the hero of the Mordor race but i could swap him.

 

[Valandil]

Yes, Witch King should be for Angmar you can put Barrowwights spirits, Northern wargs, The Black Numenorian, Savage men of Rhudaur ... Orcs of gundabad (give them strong defences) and Trolls.... hAve you upload this map to makemehost.com __??

Also I havent tested Harad faction but you should include the Esterlings there and maybe call it The Evil men of the South and East.
there was 3 type of Easterling described >
1.Variag of Khand (Horse riding soldier)
2. Balchot (The Easterling warrior that Frodo and Sam are hiding from near the Black gates in the Two Towers)
3. Wainriders (Carioth rider, can use horsemen archer for this...)

and for Harad

1.Trol-men of Far Harad.
2. Mumakil
3.Pirates of Umbar
3. and diferent haradrim warriors ....

 

[Orcnet]

Maxley, please fix the author's name (e.g Unknown), let me know once you fixed that.

 

[Valandil]

Why This map is not approved ?(

 

[Gumberbunbder]

Why This map is not approved ?(

I know not my son, but the moderators work in mysterious ways. We must trust them at their word, and let the timing and the means be of their own devices! Now let us bow our heads in a prayer to the many eyed god of moderation and fathomless judgment- judge us and may the way be clear!

 

[Peaces]

Is there AI?

 

[JenkovAA]

i've seen this map before but i dont remember it.

 

[Gumberbunbder]

i've seen this map before but i dont remember it.

What does that mean? You may have played with me on battlenet before since I was beta testing it a lot for a while.

 

[Ardenian]

Unofficial Review Positive things I noticed: Other things: Suggestions: good use of customized resources, offering a great LOTR feeling order commands make army build and rebuild a lot easier a dragon (?) as threat for gold greedy players ? Great! good strategically options for invading armies to take over a fortress initialization timers seem a bit too long, in my opinion, maybe slightly reduce them the hero icon minimap symbol of the commander dummy is visible on the minimap and it has also sight range, maybe remove sight range and move it somewhere else. You can hide the hero icon in the unit options in the object editor slightly increase build time of income buildings. I mean, it depends on what you want to have for a game speed, but it seems very fast at the moment, especially with ten builders you can easily raise the income to everything ( beside the game mode) door close and open mana cost seem strange to me and it is also a bit long, don't you think ? Why would there be a cooldown ? If you want to add a 'timer' to simulate the progress that is made to open and close such big doors, you should add 0 mana as initial mana, too. for the income buildings, you could think about whether it would be better to have an upgrade for them or a tech that upgrades the income rather than massing the buildings

Terrain

The terrain looks overall very empty. Tho it is not flat, mostly, it has nearly no doodads to improve its look. Terrain is always a difficult question for such big and themed maps. Many creators ask themselves 'Should I add a decent terrain but slow down the loading speed and increase map size, or should I focus only on the gameplay ?' It seems you chose the second option. The fortresses are very empty, having hardly any doodad to improve their look, beside the 'custom' walls and some archways. I noticed that the dwarf builder has a custom wall, but the terrain itself could look decent, too, couldn't it ? I saw other LOTR Builder maps that have a far more better terrain. Also, the map is a bit unproportional. Of course, the map is very big and it is hard to create a terrain that perfectly fits into the map size, but I think you did a bit a sloppy job with it. As I said before, you seem to focus on the gameplay, but gameplay is not all. Rating: 2/10 - Could be a lot better, add more doodads!

Gameplay

Now the best of this map, the gameplay! I have to say, I was surprised about it. You did a great job importing a lot of matching custom resources and creating custom races like the dwarves. You offer the choice between different game modes and this is a great option to give a taste to your map. Additionally, the food limit is well chosen, compared to the amount of units an army consists of. Different unit types offer great tactical options, especially for teams that consist of different races. I feel the LOTR! But, with the limitation of Infantry, Archer, Cavalry and Elite comes also a limitation to the gameplay itself. Maybe additional unit types like Mage and Monster could greatly improve it. I also like that you limit the hero count to one, making the hero more unique and valuable. But, only one hero to 'choose' is a bit boring, isn't it ? LOTR offers many different characters for all races, you could think about adding more heroes that match different strategically builds. Overall, it seems to be a very good battle atmosphere and I hope to play it again! Rating: 6/10 - I can feel the LOTR

Result

Lord of the Rings Builder by Maxley is a nice addition to the pool of LOTR themed maps. The different custom races promise the player to get into the LOTR feeling again, especially if you have played other LOTR games, like the old 'Battle for Middle Earth'. However, the terrain kind of ruins the gameplay for players that pay attention to it, as it is poor made and offers hardly any good view on the LOTR terrain as known from the movies, games and the book, which is especially sad for the fortresses which are a main part of this game. Nonetheless, the gameplay comforts the player, offering intense battles and epic clashes for famous fortresses. If you work more on it, it will become a great map! Personal Rating: 4,5/10 - Good job Personal Vote: Approval

 

[RamzaBeouIve]

Could you please make a group in for players in Garena + like the Sunken City map Creator who made a group for players who would join and chat with each other who would be willing to play the map

 

[Gumberbunbder]

Unofficial Review Positive things I noticed: Other things: Suggestions: good use of customized resources, offering a great LOTR feeling order commands make army build and rebuild a lot easier a dragon (?) as threat for gold greedy players ? Great! good strategically options for invading armies to take over a fortress initialization timers seem a bit too long, in my opinion, maybe slightly reduce them the hero icon minimap symbol of the commander dummy is visible on the minimap and it has also sight range, maybe remove sight range and move it somewhere else. You can hide the hero icon in the unit options in the object editor slightly increase build time of income buildings. I mean, it depends on what you want to have for a game speed, but it seems very fast at the moment, especially with ten builders you can easily raise the income to everything ( beside the game mode) door close and open mana cost seem strange to me and it is also a bit long, don't you think ? Why would there be a cooldown ? If you want to add a 'timer' to simulate the progress that is made to open and close such big doors, you should add 0 mana as initial mana, too. for the income buildings, you could think about whether it would be better to have an upgrade for them or a tech that upgrades the income rather than massing the buildings

Terrain

The terrain looks overall very empty. Tho it is not flat, mostly, it has nearly no doodads to improve its look. Terrain is always a difficult question for such big and themed maps. Many creators ask themselves 'Should I add a decent terrain but slow down the loading speed and increase map size, or should I focus only on the gameplay ?' It seems you chose the second option. The fortresses are very empty, having hardly any doodad to improve their look, beside the 'custom' walls and some archways. I noticed that the dwarf builder has a custom wall, but the terrain itself could look decent, too, couldn't it ? I saw other LOTR Builder maps that have a far more better terrain. Also, the map is a bit unproportional. Of course, the map is very big and it is hard to create a terrain that perfectly fits into the map size, but I think you did a bit a sloppy job with it. As I said before, you seem to focus on the gameplay, but gameplay is not all. Rating: 2/10 - Could be a lot better, add more doodads!

Gameplay

Now the best of this map, the gameplay! I have to say, I was surprised about it. You did a great job importing a lot of matching custom resources and creating custom races like the dwarves. You offer the choice between different game modes and this is a great option to give a taste to your map. Additionally, the food limit is well chosen, compared to the amount of units an army consists of. Different unit types offer great tactical options, especially for teams that consist of different races. I feel the LOTR! But, with the limitation of Infantry, Archer, Cavalry and Elite comes also a limitation to the gameplay itself. Maybe additional unit types like Mage and Monster could greatly improve it. I also like that you limit the hero count to one, making the hero more unique and valuable. But, only one hero to 'choose' is a bit boring, isn't it ? LOTR offers many different characters for all races, you could think about adding more heroes that match different strategically builds. Overall, it seems to be a very good battle atmosphere and I hope to play it again! Rating: 6/10 - I can feel the LOTR

Result

Lord of the Rings Builder by Maxley is a nice addition to the pool of LOTR themed maps. The different custom races promise the player to get into the LOTR feeling again, especially if you have played other LOTR games, like the old 'Battle for Middle Earth'. However, the terrain kind of ruins the gameplay for players that pay attention to it, as it is poor made and offers hardly any good view on the LOTR terrain as known from the movies, games and the book, which is especially sad for the fortresses which are a main part of this game. Nonetheless, the gameplay comforts the player, offering intense battles and epic clashes for famous fortresses. If you work more on it, it will become a great map! Personal Rating: 4,5/10 - Good job Personal Vote: Approval

Thanks for the detailed review! Is always nice for people to be honest. First off i want to address the things you mentioned under the suggestions category. The gates have a mana cool down so that people can't abuse the use of gates. If there was no cool down, people would open and close gates in battle continuously. In other words, if you just smashed open a players gate with battering rams, the player would just open the gate and then close it again and it would be fully regenerated.

Next, I think you left an important element of reviewing a map which is the polish of the map. I spent a lot of time making sure there are zero typos, that button positions make sense, and that there are easy to use hot keys for everything. I made detailed descriptions for every unit that make sense. I created a detailed quest menu that covers every detail of how to play the game. I also added three lord of the rings sound tracks which add to the atmosphere. If you play any other lotr builder you will notice that everything grammatically incorrect, sentences make no sense, models don't fit for what the unit should be (one games warg rider model is a pikeman) hot keys are confusing or don't exist, and so on.

I agree with you partially on the terrain. But you should know that I am just 100 short of reaching the doodad limit. I agree that a lot of the terrain is flat and empty. I will fix that. However I believe the bases I made, with the exception of emyn muil, fangorn, and harad, are fairly accurate to the movie depictions. Look at some of the other version on the hive and look at their helms deep and the compare it to mine. Mine has the same shape and features as the one in the movie. Mimas tiritg is symmetrical and multi leveled. Isengard is also symmetrical and has a breakable dam that you can destroy a players base with.

I'm not going to add other unit types partially because I've already used all the armor and attack types that wc3 has available and partially because I'm going for an easy to understand simple but smooth game style. The more types you have the more worthless each individual type becomes. If I could add pikemen they would be anti cavalry, which is what infantry are now. What would infantry be then? Anti pikemen? That would make them extremely less useful and very particular.

Also, every lotr version I play people always ask what races they aren't allowed to choose. They do this because elves are always over powered. I made every race balanced with each other and I used a system that doesn't use random arbitrary stats.

You're right that I need to add more Herod, I will. Also I will add at least 2 more races: rohan and goblins. Thanks for your review, I would appreciate you consider what I've said because I feel my map deserves higher than a 2

 

[Gumberbunbder]

Could you please make a group in for players in Garena + like the Sunken City map Creator who made a group for players who would join and chat with each other who would be willing to play the map

Great idea! I've never really used Gardena but I'll figure it out. Im out of town now but when I get back tomorrow I'll work on it.

 

[Ardenian]

Answers to answer to review

The gates have a mana cool down so that people can't abuse the use of gates. If there was no cool down, people would open and close gates in battle continuously. In other words, if you just smashed open a players gate with battering rams, the player would just open the gate and then close it again and it would be fully regenerated.

Oh, I understand.

There is an rather easy way to avoid this.
It requires some work tho. You can index each gate and the corresponding gate control and once a gate is destroyed, add a 'Repair Gate' dummy ability or item to the Gate Control and remove the Close/Open.
If the player buys the new dummy, a dummy builder is created and re-builds the gate. Once the gate is finished, set it to the indexed variable and change the Gate Control abilities once again.

Just a suggestion

Next, I think you left an important element of reviewing a map which is the polish of the map. I spent a lot of time making sure there are zero typos, that button positions make sense, and that there are easy to use hot keys for everything. I made detailed descriptions for every unit that make sense. I created a detailed quest menu that covers every detail of how to play the game. I also added three lord of the rings sound tracks which add to the atmosphere. If you play any other lotr builder you will notice that everything grammatically incorrect, sentences make no sense, models don't fit for what the unit should be (one games warg rider model is a pikeman) hot keys are confusing or don't exist, and so on.

I don't want to argue against you and as you might noticed, it is an 'unofficial' review as I am still learning how to create reviews.
I apologize for not taking a greater attention to the things you mention ( my sounds are always muted, so...), but to be honest again, these are things a player notices when they are NOT right, as you did in other LOTR builders, but something players do appreciate, but rather not notice when playing a map. Of course I myself, as a reviewer, should have paid attention to it and I am sorry this was lacking.

But, BUT, the so called 'Polish' of a map greatly includes the basic terrain which is lacking at all.
Of course, you are proud of the things you achieved, but for me, as a player, these are simple things as I don't see the progress behind it ( please note, as a map creator I do notice the progress).
I wasn't aware of the music, but to quote someone: 'A bad terrain is a bad terrain, no matter what else improves the game itself' ( in other words).

Here on Hive, I dare to say, we have high demands on maps and this greatly includes the terrain. The first thing you notice of a game, that's the terrain, not the gameplay, not the abilities, not the custom races, it is the terrain. It is the advertisement for your game.

I agree with you partially on the terrain. But you should know that I am just 100 short of reaching the doodad limit. I agree that a lot of the terrain is flat and empty. I will fix that. However I believe the bases I made, with the exception of emyn muil, fangorn, and harad, are fairly accurate to the movie depictions. Look at some of the other version on the hive and look at their helms deep and the compare it to mine. Mine has the same shape and features as the one in the movie. Mimas tiritg is symmetrical and multi leveled. Isengard is also symmetrical and has a breakable dam that you can destroy a players base with.

Well, between Isengard and Helms Klamm there are days to walk, whereas yours is just like crossing a river, but I think distance is something you simply cannot adapt in maps that have role-models like movies or books.

If you have problems with the doodad limit, there are a few ways how you can reduce the doodad count.

One way: Merge doodads with a tool, that means instead of 10 different pieces of something, there is only one.

Another way: You can scale the doodads in all directions ( I think you already did), you can use this to avoid spaming doodads

Maybe check out some tutorials, they are very helpful if dealing with terrain questions.

I'm not going to add other unit types partially because I've already used all the armor and attack types that wc3 has available and partially because I'm going for an easy to understand simple but smooth game style. The more types you have the more worthless each individual type becomes. If I could add pikemen they would be anti cavalry, which is what infantry are now. What would infantry be then? Anti pikemen? That would make them extremely less useful and very particular.

Hm, I understand. But note, that especially in Good vs. Evil the options are very limited.
Also, here are other ways to create new unit types. You can create a 'Front' class, for example, giving it infantry damage type but make it very low, but give it high armor and HP.

Also, every lotr version I play people always ask what races they aren't allowed to choose. They do this because elves are always over powered. I made every race balanced with each other and I used a system that doesn't use random arbitrary stats.

Hm, I see. You could also created limited food for them instead of 'balance' them out ( I don't know what you did exactly to balance them out), but I think you might destroy an interesting tactical option by making all races just equally strong, instead of giving huge advantages and disadvantages

. Thanks for your review, I would appreciate you consider what I've said because I feel my map deserves higher than a 2

I hope I could help you.
A high rating is achieved with attention to all aspects a custom game features, not being limited to gameplay and overall balance, but also aesthetics and visuals.
I am sure that Shadow Fury will increase the rating if you take a look on the terrain.

 

[crucialAmnesiac]

Hey, uh, I have an issue.
Whenever I try to start the game, it sends me an error message saying that I can't enter because of the teams all being 1.
Can you fix that?

 

[WTFliio]

Does this support AI??? It would be awesome, for those who doesn't have friends to join...