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- Feb 19, 2011
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Review - Pounds Cross
(Version August 3rd 2022)
Description: Pounds Cross is a 6-player map featuring an arid desert theme. The starting bases are extremely safe and ground access to them is very restricted. The map can be played as teams or free-for-all.
Terrain: The Barrens tileset gives little to work with, but there is still great room for improvement. No height variation tool is used, leaving the ground looking flat and synthetic - please fix this (raise/lower tool). The tile variation is also insufficient: barely any other tile than Desert is used, creating large, flat, empty areas of just one tile type used. If you want to keep the strong emphasis on the barren wasteland, you can try to find more tiles suitable for this use, or even re-use the Desert tile again to give the terrain more depth. The tile type suddenly changes when it runs into a cliff, which makes the issue even more dramatic. Try to improve the overall look of the terrain.
Layout: The map features extremely well-protected starting bases - too well-protected. The bases are only accessible from two narrow bridged gaps that lead to the high ground, making the possible clash extremely unfair and one-sided. There are also two gold mines in the starting locations, giving very little no to no incentive to leave your base. The map is not perfectly mirrored, which is to be expected, but the radial mirroring you have achieved is almost good enough: do take another look at the chokepoints and narrow turns around the map and make sure each player has equally fair conditions (for example red starting location features different bridging to any other player). The central area of the map is too crammed and armies cannot navigate through the map without running into creeps, try to fix this, as forcing players to encounter creeps is not desirable unless intended, and still kept optional.
Creeps: The creep camps near the starting locations are quite okay, though the wolves break the thematic coherency a little. The item drops however are too randomized: one camp cannot drop any level of an item. Please balance the item drops to appropriate levels depending on the strength of the creep camp. The middle area features creeps that seem out of place (turtles in a desert) as well as randomized creeps with randomized item drops. This creates too heavy emphasis on the luck of players and you should tone down the randomness greatly. While randomizing creep camps is a nice way to offer freshness and replayability, make sure that the creep camps change as a package, instead of individual creep randomly rolling into something else. The item drops are the biggest issue though, they are too random and imbalanced. For reference, you can look at other melee maps or check a tutorial that includes item drops.
Gameplay: The gameplay heavily favors flying units due to the very limited and restricted ground access - too heavily. The layout of the map limits players a little too much as they cannot navigate across the map without running into creeps. These factors combined with the extreme randomness of item drops can make the gameplay very frustrating or very rewarding - ultimately leading to a game where luck dictates too much of the outcome.
Recommendations:
I would recommend opening up the starting positions to make them more vulnerable or less permanent forts by increasing the incentive to leave them. The randomness of item drops and creeps is too much and creates too much imbalance on the map, please fix that. Try to open up the central area by relocating the creep camps and shifting the terrain slightly, as now it is too cramped. The terrain is too pale and is not visually pleasing, try to improve if, you can look up some tutorials if need be.
The map's author name does not match your name. Also correct the filename to the same as the name here - (6)PoundsCross.
(Version August 3rd 2022)
Description: Pounds Cross is a 6-player map featuring an arid desert theme. The starting bases are extremely safe and ground access to them is very restricted. The map can be played as teams or free-for-all.
Terrain: The Barrens tileset gives little to work with, but there is still great room for improvement. No height variation tool is used, leaving the ground looking flat and synthetic - please fix this (raise/lower tool). The tile variation is also insufficient: barely any other tile than Desert is used, creating large, flat, empty areas of just one tile type used. If you want to keep the strong emphasis on the barren wasteland, you can try to find more tiles suitable for this use, or even re-use the Desert tile again to give the terrain more depth. The tile type suddenly changes when it runs into a cliff, which makes the issue even more dramatic. Try to improve the overall look of the terrain.
Layout: The map features extremely well-protected starting bases - too well-protected. The bases are only accessible from two narrow bridged gaps that lead to the high ground, making the possible clash extremely unfair and one-sided. There are also two gold mines in the starting locations, giving very little no to no incentive to leave your base. The map is not perfectly mirrored, which is to be expected, but the radial mirroring you have achieved is almost good enough: do take another look at the chokepoints and narrow turns around the map and make sure each player has equally fair conditions (for example red starting location features different bridging to any other player). The central area of the map is too crammed and armies cannot navigate through the map without running into creeps, try to fix this, as forcing players to encounter creeps is not desirable unless intended, and still kept optional.
Creeps: The creep camps near the starting locations are quite okay, though the wolves break the thematic coherency a little. The item drops however are too randomized: one camp cannot drop any level of an item. Please balance the item drops to appropriate levels depending on the strength of the creep camp. The middle area features creeps that seem out of place (turtles in a desert) as well as randomized creeps with randomized item drops. This creates too heavy emphasis on the luck of players and you should tone down the randomness greatly. While randomizing creep camps is a nice way to offer freshness and replayability, make sure that the creep camps change as a package, instead of individual creep randomly rolling into something else. The item drops are the biggest issue though, they are too random and imbalanced. For reference, you can look at other melee maps or check a tutorial that includes item drops.
Gameplay: The gameplay heavily favors flying units due to the very limited and restricted ground access - too heavily. The layout of the map limits players a little too much as they cannot navigate across the map without running into creeps. These factors combined with the extreme randomness of item drops can make the gameplay very frustrating or very rewarding - ultimately leading to a game where luck dictates too much of the outcome.
Recommendations:
I would recommend opening up the starting positions to make them more vulnerable or less permanent forts by increasing the incentive to leave them. The randomness of item drops and creeps is too much and creates too much imbalance on the map, please fix that. Try to open up the central area by relocating the creep camps and shifting the terrain slightly, as now it is too cramped. The terrain is too pale and is not visually pleasing, try to improve if, you can look up some tutorials if need be.
The map's author name does not match your name. Also correct the filename to the same as the name here - (6)PoundsCross.
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