Outland Bridges

[Moderator]

17:05, 21st Feb 2016
Remixer:

Remixer's Comment

The map lacks variation in many factors: creeps, terrain and gameplay. That being said it's unacceptable.

The map has been set to Awaiting Update.

 

[Eldin HawkWing]

There's a lot of space in the terrain.
I Suggest adding more Rocks and Outland Trees and Plants.

 

[Warseeker]

It's like an arena, isn't it?

 

[Daffa]

I would say having an additional gold mine would be much better.
Though this map suits for tactical war with limited resources. Being able to mass in seconds.

 

[Legal_Ease]

Terrain = too flat, too few tile types.
Mercenary camps = too many.
Gold mines = too few.
Doodads = spammed in groups for no reason.

My vote = rejection.

Overall, the quality is too low for approval. Please don't be discouraged though. You choose an interesting tileset and attempted some more difficult features - bridges. So, I can see you have potential.

You made a good try but you need to work more on blending everything.

Please read these:
Beginners Terrain Tutorial
Advanced Terraining
Village Forest Terrain
Easy Waterfalls

 

[Chuave]

I have played about 20 games in the last few days. I made some changes to either make it look better or to improve the overall gameplay (since I think its equally important).

* Added a place in the back of the base to hide buildings for surprise factor (some examples are Lumber Mill / War Mill for tower rushes, Gryphon Aviary, Ancient of Wind, Chimaera Roost, Boneyard and Sacrificial Pit).
* Removed a Merc camp and Merc shop because I never had the resourses to actually use the 3 of them. The 3rd small camp was also quite op at times since you could reach Lv4 with any hero easily if you got Exp books.
* Removed the big Dragon since he was too OP. Going for that camp without mass air was a suicide because the Bridges generates a choke point, the Dragon would obvliterate half of your army and if your opponents gank you you kind of lost the game.

There's a lot of space in the terrain.
I Suggest adding more Rocks and Outland Trees and Plants.

I have done some changes. What do you think?

It's like an arena, isn't it?

The first name of the map was "Outland Arena", then I changed it to Bridges since I added way more bridges that I originally intended.

I would say having an additional gold mine would be much better.
Though this map suits for tactical war with limited resources. Being able to mass in seconds.

I thought about adding an additional gold mine, but it goes against the concept of the tiny/fast map.
Thats why I only added Merc/Dragon camps + Tabern, rather than shops. Originally, I had a Market in the middle, but ended with the double Dragon Nest since, since it goes better with that theme.

Terrain = too flat, too few tile types.
Mercenary camps = too many.
Gold mines = too few.
Doodads = spammed in groups for no reason.

My vote = rejection.

Overall, the quality is too low for approval. Please don't be discouraged though. You choose an interesting tileset and attempted some more difficult features - bridges. So, I can see you have potential.

You made a good try but you need to work more on blending everything.

Please read these:
Beginners Terrain Tutorial
Advanced Terraining
Village Forest Terrain
Easy Waterfalls

I made some changes to the flatness. Now the Tabern/Mercs are at 2 elevation, and the rest of the side ilands and the main is at 1 elevation.
The map now is about 20% Abyss, 25% Dirt, 25% Rough Dirt, 15% Flat Stone, 10% Rock and 5% Light Flat Stone.
I also removed one of the Merc camps and Merc shop and moved the Tabern there, for the reasons I explained before.
About the Gold mines I already said what I think.
Doodads were rearrenged, what do you think about them now?
Finally, I didnt expect to get an awesome perfect map in my first try at my first map ever, so Im not discouraged at all I will be reading those links and see if I make further changes.

Any more feedback is welcome!

 

[Legal_Ease]

That's a decent update. I would still like to see more jagged lines rather than straight lines and mixed up tiles rather than blobs of the same tiles. There are major improvements here though. I like what you did with the tavern. Are the portals active? I didn't get to play it because I don't have my WE with me. The terrain still looks flat from the screenshot, but you said you changed levels so that's good. I'd say keep going. Read all those tutorials and try to add some custom lighting and blended tiles. Maybe some effects mixed in with the doodads. It needs something to mix it up. Maybe try removing the pathing on some doodads and creating a wall around the outside with them, because right now it looks like just fields of doodads evenly spaced with a few featured ones right in the middle of the play area. This is not great. It is better if it looks like a real/surreal landscape with natural looking transitions. Here is an example of a well made underground map. Look at some of sonofjay's other maps for examples of excellent terraining. I'm not that good and you don't have to be either, but that is a good goal to shoot for. Try to make it seem like it was made professionally. You can do it.

 

[Chuave]

That's a decent update. I would still like to see more jagged lines rather than straight lines and mixed up tiles rather than blobs of the same tiles. There are major improvements here though. I like what you did with the tavern. Are the portals active? I didn't get to play it because I don't have my WE with me. The terrain still looks flat from the screenshot, but you said you changed levels so that's good. I'd say keep going. Read all those tutorials and try to add some custom lighting and blended tiles. Maybe some effects mixed in with the doodads. It needs something to mix it up. Maybe try removing the pathing on some doodads and creating a wall around the outside with them, because right now it looks like just fields of doodads evenly spaced with a few featured ones right in the middle of the play area. This is not great. It is better if it looks like a real/surreal landscape with natural looking transitions. Here is an example of a well made underground map. Look at some of sonofjay's other maps for examples of excellent terraining. I'm not that good and you don't have to be either, but that is a good goal to shoot for. Try to make it seem like it was made professionally. You can do it.

Thanks!
Portals arent active.

Here is a screenshot of the elevations of the map (made in about 20 seconds at MS Paint lol):

Screenshots

I will be reading the guides this week and see if I can came up with another update.

 

[Legal_Ease]

I will be reading the guides this week and see if I can came up with another update.

Cool. It's showing improvement. Read those and update it. There are also some tricks with doodads you should learn. Mostly how to remove the pathing so you can place them to overlap. Some of the doodads look just placed together like a set of toys on a shelf. If you remove the pathing on some you can place them in ways that make it look more like natural terrain.

http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/...world-editor-doodads-destrucibles-hints-6469/

 

[Remixer]

Quota	Annotation
Rules	The map does not break any rules and can be reviewed.
Terrain	The map's terrain is very pale: only few decorative doodads are used and they are far apart. There's no height variation which causes the map look flat and dull, additionally the diagonally placed ramp require height tool to look neat. The bridges, that work as the only passages in the map, are not very neatly placed either - some of them are literally floating in the air, you need to set their height correctly. Tile variation is nonexistent as well. There's no combinations of multiple tiles which make the ground look very unrealistic and unnatural which creates odd feeling as the map is "naturalistic", not a city scene.
Gameplay	Meanwhile the terrain lacks good execution, it's balanced nevertheless. The map is equally fair and thus balanced. Meanwhile the gameplay may be balanced it is not very amusing: there's very little creeps and their item drops are very repetitive. The small size of the map does not demand many creep camps but their placement is a bit off as well (you may end up fighting two creeps camps simultaneously). The complete layout pushes the map towards a fast gameplay style but there's really nothing strategical in it - no cliffs you could use to your advantage and the bridges overall are very narrow. The map does not really offer anything unique or fresh to the players and the execution does not provide anything special.
Notable factors	Notable uniqueness. Notable exectution. Notable experience.	Summary	Merits: + The map is balanced. + Bases' sizes are acceptable + Enough resources for the size Demerits: - No height variation - Poor tile variation - Bridge placement - Few doodads and decoration - Creep camp placement - Bunched up neutral buildings - Map does not have a description Suggestions: • Improve height variation • Improve tile variation • Increase the amount of decorative doodads • Fix placement of bunched up doodads • Fix placement of the bridges • Fix the placement of bunched up creep camps • Fix the placement of bunched up neutral buildings • Add a description to the map • If possible, think of an alternative layout

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