Mystic Isles

[Moderator]

08:22, 11th Apr 2009 by bounty hunter2:
An altered melee that tries to bring Warcraft II back, although lacking in terrain in balance, still a decent map, Approved with a 3/5 (Useful) rating.

You can find my full review Here.

 

[arafor]

This is really cool keep up the good work.

 

[Narandza]

Great!!! 5/5

 

[Cyper95]

does this have AI that works or what?

 

[Kam]

Yes, all three difficulties.

 

[busterkomo]

This is my review of Mystic Isles

Pros:
-Contains the same quality as Tides of Darkness. This includes the excellent AI, techtree, and naval combat.
-Terrain was done quite well.
-The portrayal of heroes worked well in this map. Each player had a completely different hero.
-Terrain was done quite well, save for an area where a doodad was placed quite strangely. I attached the occasion in a screenshot in my post. It was of a floating rock.
-The use of black mask in an altered melee map was an interesting idea.

Cons:
-None, save for the rare occasion in which a doodad was placed strangely.

Rating: 4.9 and recommended for approval.

 

[bounty hunter2]

bounty hunter2's Review on Mystic Isles

Proper resource crediting √
Proper description X (Lacks images, tags.)
Proper author name √
Doesn't crash √

Mystic Isles is a six player altered melee map, thus I don't see how is 2 - 4 players suggested, shouldn't 3 - 3 work as well? You take control of one of the two warcraft II races, orc or human and your goal is to destroy the opponent with or without allyes.

The terrain of the map was done quite nicely although lacking in parts, such as the water. This should elaborate you on how to make rivers: How to make smooth rivers - Wc3campaigns To continue you lack shrubery and rocks in places.

The drops weren't done so good, neither were the creeps. Satyrs and lizards just don't fit together, and some of the creeps weren't placed symmetricaly to the others. The huge creep drops near my base dropped only an invurnability potion, that isn't much.

About the balance, the two middle players are really in a huge minus. They don't have any NPC buildings close to them. The north east player has the goldmine much further then the rest. And on six players only two additional mines, that's quite imbalanced.

The races themselves were done good. You managed to pull it out nicely and I can't complain much.

Now we come to another huge issue, the lag. I played against AI, and the map suddenly started to lag after a period of time. Then I typed iseedeadpeople, and I saw how the AI massed zounds of units. Warcraft just isn't for that, it's not for massing units. Although the AI addition is really good.

Overall, a good map, my complains go on the terrain, balance and packaging here. You gave a link to the forum topic, but you should write everything here and add screenshots. You should also put a list of authors here aswell. Approved with a 3/5 (Useful) rating.

 

[Kam]

I realized I forgot to update the suggested players right after I submitted it. Honestly I will improve the terrain as I can, but I would hope the rating focuses more on the mod. Thanks for the tutorial though, that is really useful.

Updated to include info here too.


The center players have it worse for shops, but that's why they have such close access to a second mine.

 

[Zelda.Alex]

Beyond the Throne v3.8.9p-Mystic Isles

1.....Some info about the game on the loading screen is helpful
2.....The credits are well done. Only if you mention who gave what it will be just perfect.
3.....In general Information it is written "Units of players who leave become rescuable"--What does that mean?
4.....In Orc tips the last sentence is "Altar of Teron is an important support abil"---What does that mean?
5.....There is a big time lag in case I play with all the computer players too soon in the game. It is taking out the fun.
6.....Why I cannot ally with the computer?
7.....There was a random hero in the beginning. There should be a choice for it to be present or not.
8.....I think there is some problem with human AI. It is building maximum archers & very less melee attackers.
9.....You have written that there is naval tech tree. Tell me is the water big enough for naval battles? I don't think so. I never got a chance to test that much due to the high lag.

I played the map for 13 minutes with all computer players. The lag has become too much so I cannot play it anymore.

My Rating: 3/5
>Good work on developing the tech trees
>Improve the lag otherwise its fun factor evaporates too fast

 

[LordPerenolde II]

thehubb.co.uk

This site seems no longer available.

P.S. Kam i sent you a PM days ago. Still waiting for an answer(without missing respect for you, buddy)

 

[Kam]

I don't know why people are reporting lag, I never encountered any. Are you using older machines perhaps?

If a player leaves the game, not is defeated, then all their units become rescuable (recoverable) by any other player.
If it's building archers, then you must have set it to a lower difficulty.
Altar of Teron is a support ability, meaning it's too weak to be used by itself.
The AI won't build naval units, there is no distinction for sea units with AI and thus it presents some unsolvable issues. This is a game engine issue.

 

[HFR]

Too bad, whitout sea AI.

I played your first 2 maps, "Islands" and "Lake", and I was quite imprssed about your map, and an very good AI, and never having lag problems.

Now I have an answer: Is this map the same of your previous two, only with different terrain, or it's have more elements (like abilities for heroes)?

If this map is the same, only with new terrain, I can review it now.

 

[Kam]

There are many balance and unit changes. Part of the balance changes were using Blizzard maps, which are already highly balanced. Heroes have a single passive aura ability based on their class. You should see the change log for a specific list of things.

 

[HFR]

I'll test soon, expect my review for today already.

Played with Dalaran, Normal AI in all players.

[+] - The Balance

The 2 races are very balanced, like the old Warcraft 2, but whitout an grunt having the same amount of HP of a Footman, I liked it.

[+] - The Terrain

You still needs some final touchs, like rolling shores and bushes, but the terriain is acceptable, because it has the Blizzard style of melee maps.

[+] - The Fun Factor

Is very fun to play with an mix of Warcraft 2, 3 and your ideas, along with a naval techtree.

[+ -] - The AI

I'm a big fan of maps with AI, your AI is very good, but, it has some flaws. For example the mass archers on Normal dificulty. But the biggest flaw is the unit mass that the players use, like 15 footman, 10 archers and 20 Paladins.

[+ -] - The Alliance

Your map is just "Free for all", I suggest you making the map allie's like the standard melee maps.

[-] - The L.A.G.

The infamous lag, feared by 10 in 10 map makers.Your map have lag. I don't know why. Bounty_hunter2 said that's because the mass unit, but I played your previous maps, "Island" and "Lake". I tried 40 paladins, 25 archers and some Mages, raged a epic battle against 30 ogres, 20 trolls and 5 Catapults. Guess what happened? No Lag!!!. So, I don't know what cause the lag, it can be the terrain, or some triggers. But, please, fix it, as I want to play again.

I still can't rate your map, because it's nearly unplayble. When you fix the lag, I'll give my rate.

HFR's suggestion:
If the problem is some triggers, read Septimus tutorials, that you can find in the Tutorials section.

 

[Kam]

I'm going to have to release a fix for this I suppose. Look for it tonight or tomorrow.

While I'm lag hunting, are there any other bugs or issues you notice?

 

[HFR]

You should fix the Allies thing. Make it like the standard Melee maps, were you can chose what team you'll gonna play.

 

[Kam]

Two problems with that.

1 - Then you can choose race as well, and I don't want to have to have a in-game dialogue box where you choose your race by clicking a button. I hate those.

2 - The AI relies on specific regions for players for various reasons. It would complicate things greatly.

 

[HFR]

Oh, at least, you can make the Alliance command avaliable only for the player who write it, like:

Player Blue tips the chat message for alliy with Player Green. Done, instead of the 2 players write the command, just one does.

 

[Kam]

I could but then your enemy could just ally you without you realizing it, move into your base, and attack.

It works the same way as blizzards does, both players must agree.

 

[HFR]

Aw. This is impossible with only AI...

 

[Kam]

Ok the lag should be fixed now.

 

[HFR]

You updated already?

 

[Kam]

Yes, the lag issue was important to fix as soon as possible.

I believe it was the triggers used to tell AI's to ally each other under certain conditions.

 

[HFR]

Ok, I'll download now and tomorrow I play and tell you what I saw. It's already night here...

 

[Zelda.Alex]

I replayed the map. The lag is fixed now.
>I want to know which is the building where we revive our heroes?
>Do the hero abilities never upgrade wit level or by any other way? (I haven't played WC2 if it is an idea from there)


The AI is limited. Needs improvement if possible.
>It builds ranged units mostly & tier2 melee units (for orcs I noticed it quite quickly). Due to that thing the tier1 melee units get completely ignored by the AI.

>In case I choose easy difficulty it builds less amount of ranged units. The difficulty increases the number of ranged units. It should include melee units too. Otherwise I can just build melee units along with the ranged units & it will give me an edge over the computer.

 

[bounty hunter2]

I'l check your map again asap.

 

[HFR]

I played again, and here's my review. (some parts are from my previous one):

Played with Nation of Azeroth - Easy AI

[++++] - Lag Free

You fixed the lag, now the game runs smootly even with an epic battle. I made an army composed of 35 Paladins, 15 Archers and 5 Clerics, and I didn't suffered any Lag, even with the dozens of enemy Grunts, Trolls, Footmans and Archers.

[+] - The Balance

The 2 races are very balanced, like the old Warcraft 2, but whitout an grunt having the same amount of HP of a Footman, I liked it.

[+] - The Terrain

You still needs some final touchs, like rolling shores and bushes, but the terriain is acceptable, because it has the Blizzard style of melee maps.

[+] - The Fun Factor

Is very fun to play with an mix of Warcraft 2, 3 and your ideas, along with a naval techtree.

[+ -] - The AI

I'm a big fan of maps with AI, your AI is very good, but, it has some flaws. For example the mass archers on Normal dificulty. But the biggest flaw is the unit mass that the players use, like 15 footman, 10 archers and 20 Paladins.

[+ -] - The Alliance

Your map is just "Free for all", I suggest you making the map allie's like the standard melee maps. But you already explained this to me, so it's an neutral point.

[-] - Bug

I found a bug: The Reclaim ability doesn't work, fix it.

Overall, I rate it 4/5, you didn't scored an 5/5 because of the bug, that can turn the tides of the game sometimes and some flaws in the AI.

 

[thenellt]

This looked cool, so I just downloaded it and installed it like I install any other warcraft III map, by placing it in my maps folder, and I have the latest patch, 1.23 something, but when I launch warcraft III the map doesn't show up in the list of maps.... Help?

 

[Linaze]

I like this mod, good work and keep it up!

 

[arthas_king]

i dont know why but when i download the map i cant play it its invisible at the map selection folders please help me

 

[Kam]

You have the latest version of TFT?

 

[arthas_king]

yep,downloaded these 2 maps but they wont work,hope they do when i get home they look nice anyways dude GJ

 

[Kam]

Updated again, further balanced the terrain for naval and fixed Reclaim.


Still waiting for that re-review bounty hunter2. =)

 

[arthas_king]

may i ask,is there any AI controled naval fights?

 

[Kam]

No unfortunately the AI can't use naval. This is a bit of an explanation, but basically: the WC3 engine can only use one waypoint at a time. Thus, if you give it a unit such as a boat that can't move inland it will get "stuck" on the shore of where the AI is attacking and ignore any enemies trying to kill it. In addition the AI can't make the distinction between ground and shallow water, so it has no idea how to build naval structures. I can trigger that, but then it still won't know how to use naval units. Blame Blizzard.

 

[arthas_king]

I have an idea,Make a trigger for AI players to make ships or any attacking naval it has(i cant play the maps as i told you before)and make a trigger to attack units in range then i think it will work i dunno if you tryed it.

 

[HFR]

Or you can use triggers like in campaigns... By the way, I'll download the map as soon as possible, and check it. I'll play with the Horde now.

For the Horde!

 

[FullScale]

i never played wc2 but i feel as though wc3 should have been a lot more like it if this is what it had to offer. Warcraft melee has never felt so right. 5/5

 

[thenellt]

Help?

I just downloaded the most recent version, and it still doesn't show up in my maps folder. I have the latest version of warcraft, 1.23...... This looks cool, wish I could play it.

 

[Kam]

Not sure what to tell you, no one else seems to be having this issue. Did you try downloading it again or putting it in a different folder?

 

[arthas_king]

Hey,i have this same problem tootold ya before.

 

[Kam]

I've had over 200 downloads of this and no other reports. I had assumed you fixed it. It works fine on my machine, and two of my friends machines. bounty hunter2 was obviously able to use it.

Try the suggestions I made above and if it still doesn't work for you let me know.

 

[arthas_king]

I dont see any. Are those at older posts coz i dont see anithing.

 

[Kam]

Try downloading it again or putting it in a different folder. Did you try to open it with WE, if so you may have corrupted it.

 

[arthas_king]

Ok,i dowloaded it(didnt tested if works)When i open it at world editor i just see a blank open map :*( dling it right now.


Edit:wont work

 

[Kam]

I will work on it tonight. If two people are having a problem then there is an issue. Look for an update in 2 or so hours.

 

[arthas_king]

Okay,i might look tomorow coz here its midnight contratz on 500 posts!

 

[Kam]

Ok well here's the deal. I realized that I hadn't updated to the new patch yet, so I did. Upon saving it under the new patch it no longer appears in the game list. I am hoping it's something to do with jass newgen, a system my map uses. I will investigate and leave the current version up - it may work for some of you.

Until then I apologize and I will try to fix it.

 

[arthas_king]

So i will work now?I dont have time to test it now.