The Curse of Barrow Den

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StoPCampinGn00b 01:45, 9th Apr 2015 [TD]

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Comment - My Review​

Verdict - Status, 4/5​

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Map Moderated - The Curse of Barrow Den (1.04)​

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[Lacky]

Nice description, fix it a little bit. If you don't know how to add screenshots, then go here.

 

[LittleBigApple]

Thanks for your comment. Are the screenshots visible now?

 

[WhiteFang]

Thanks for your comment. Are the screenshots visible now?

Yes,they are.
I could test this for you and feel free to contact me if you need help or have question

 

[LittleBigApple]

Would be awesome. Please note that the fight itself can be very hard!
Feel free to ask too if you have any questions about the encounter.

 

[WhiteFang]

Good Points:
-There is a good variety of spells
-you used a decent amount of custom models skins and icons
-the terrain isn't too bad
-the player has a healing spell

Bad Points:
-there aren't any potions.
-This is a bit too hard on singleplayer,even on normal.(personal opinion)
-the gameplay gets a bit boring after a while

Suggestions:
-add a few starting potions
-decrease the power and amount of the first few attacks
-delay the time until the Curse attacks for the first time
-add more variety to waves

I give this 3/5 and vote for awaiting update!

 

[LittleBigApple]

Thank you very much for your feedback!
I have added an option to choose whether the heroes will get potions for the encounter or not, and delayed the time until the Curse attacks for the first time. I 100% agree on your suggestions.

-the gameplay gets a bit boring after a while

Hmm, that's not very good. You suggested that I should add more variety in the minion waves . Is this regarded to the overall fight or just phase 1?

 

[WhiteFang]

The overall fight.Variety is always good

 

[Lacky]

[TD] The Curse of Barrow Den LittleBigApple (Wooden_knife)​ Gameplay Terrain Suggestion Verdict Gameplay ​ [R] This is a great map, it has a potential. Well, I played alone, with Morgrim Lighthammer the Far Seer, and Kaista Nightrunner the Warden, and the mode I choose is Normal. The main objective of the map, is to kill the Forgotten One, or the Cure of the Barrow Den. This map has a wonderful Boss Fight. It has many Phases. The Heroes are well made. Also the abilities are well made too. Maybe Adding starting potions? And, I though it spawn a runes, or potion around the room. I don't like the way you summon the wretched undead. I think there too many, but the idea of the poison is good. The Grave thing, or the name is Call of the Grave, was good, but kinda unfair, it has high damage. When the Forgotten One, or the Curse of the Barrow Den attacked. He cast a 10 dark waves, or the thing called Vapours of Darkness, maybe you can lower it to 50?, It kinda too high, or just 5 dark waves (Vapours of Darkness), and 100 damages. I like the way you made the Risen Overload, or the idea called Death Returns. It spawns on the grave. Then he strikes me with his bone stick, and my armor got reduced 20, and it takes too long to remove it. Maybe you can reduced its duration? Maybe 10 reducing armor, or 15 reducing armor, over 20 seconds, or 15 seconds. The Howling Shadewalker, is better than Risen Overload. The Kaista Nightrunner the Warden, got immobilize, for a short time, it damage over time, that thing called Dark Execution. Maybe you can reduce the damage? Then, the Morgim Lighthammer the Far Seer, attacked Forgotten One (The Curse of the Barrow Den), it got damage over time, called the Light's End, but it's a great idea. The violet skull thing, or Dark Harvest, is a wonderful idea, but too many. Maybe making a limit for it? Corrupted Cleaver, is a nice idea, but too strong, lower the expiring damage from 375 to 300. The Boss (Forgotten One/The Curse of the Barrow Den) spins, and spawns a acid, or called Acid Rain, is good, nothing much to say about it. But the four lanes of acid is a awesome idea. The four lanes of acid is called Corrosive Ground. The orb thing is a nice idea, it has a good damage. The manisfestation of the Boss (Forgotten One/The Curse of the Barrow Den) was a great idea. It splits to 4, and that is, Damnation, Revenant, Curroption and Darkness. Spawns in every corner of the room. The Markings? was the awesome idea in this map (For me). It has a different effects, it stacks. I didn't manage to kill the Boss (Forgetten One/The Curse of the Barrow Den), and didn't manage to finish this. I see the map it has a potential on it. Anyways, it is a awesome and wonderful map. Score: 10/15​ Terrain ​ [R] Nothing much to say about the terrain. It really looks awesome to the theme of the map. The tiles are well choosed and well placed. Also, the doodads are well choosed and placed too. Score: 10/10​ Suggestion ​ [R] Add Starting Potions. Reduce the spawning of Wretched Undead. Reduce the spawning, or damage of the dark waves (Vapours of Darkness). Reduce the duration, and armor reduced of the Bone Strike. Reduce the damage of the Dark Execution. Reduce the expiring damage of the Corrupted Cleaver. Limit the Dark Harvest? Make spawning about runes or potion around the room. ​ Verdict ​ [R] Total Score Explanation Unexpected tab 3 Total Score ​ Score Rate Status 20/25 Approved Explanation ​ Score Rate Status 21 - 25 Approved 16 - 20 Approved | Pending 11 - 15 Approved | Pending | Rejection 6 - 10 Approved | Pending | Rejection 1 - 5 Rejection [/color]

 

[Dreadwing]

Look interesting!! I'll gonna try this!

 

[LittleBigApple]

@Lacky, thank you for your great review! - haha, i'm flattered. And thanks alot for your explanation behind your suggestions and constructive criticism.
I am currently working on a new patch which mainly reduces the difficulty on normal-mode (mostly by following your suggestions).

Look interesting!! I'll gonna try this!

Great to hear!!

 

[Lacky]

@Lacky, thank you for your great review! - haha, i'm flattered. And thanks alot for your explanation behind your suggestions and constructive criticism.
I am currently working on a new patch which mainly reduces the difficulty on normal-mode (mostly by following your suggestions).

You're welcome. It's summer here (And I have no class), I get bored. So, I just review maps. If you want more, just VM, or PM.

Oh, you already add starting potion.

 

[Kino]

Interesting map.
A few things to note however.

- You have way too much passive AOE on your heroes. Never had to use any real actives to clear adds.
- You can hide in the corner and the boss will lose sight of you and stop attacking.
- The phases are a little slow. If other users are complaining about the map being boring, its likely because of this. As far as I noticed, the boss doesn't get stronger over time hence there's very little reason for so much time spent on the same repeated attacks.

If I were to comment on your boss design, I think it needs to be abit more flexible.
For example.
- Opportunities and means to actually apply burst on the boss, currently your damage output is more or less flat (beyond potion actives.)
- More variance in how the boss abilities affect your play. The X ground poison could spawn with the arms of the X in varied directions etc.

As of now the boss is very much hit X% life > change attack pattern > repeat.
Which would be forgiveable if it were just one of many encounters.
You only have one boss, so better make it top notch.

 

[LittleBigApple]

Interesting suggestions... I will surely think about modifying the phases & durations of them. Also the heroes' AoE passive - you are indeed right about that their skill-sets are a bit boring regarding to adds.

 

[Dreadwing]

Dammit, I can't beat this... So hard even in normal mode...

But, Terrains is good, and those dark effects is cool too.

 

[LittleBigApple]

But, Terrains is good, and those dark effects is cool too

Thanks!
Hehe, the fight is meant to be difficult. How far did you get with the boss? Maybe I can aid with some additional tips to the encounter!

btw, did you play the newest patch? I have reduced the difficulty alot on normal mode, but it may need more adjustment.

 

[Dreadwing]

Thanks!
Hehe, the fight is meant to be difficult. How far did you get with the boss? Maybe I can aid with some additional tips to the encounter!

btw, did you play the newest patch? I have reduced the difficulty alot on normal mode, but it may need more adjustment.

How far? Hmm.... Last time, The boss HP is.... Almost half... I guess...
I need some lifesteals Item or Skill....

Also, Can you change that ancient/stone golem to something else? Maybe a Bear or a Giant Wolf or another animals? That just my opinion anyway...

Well, Updating ~

 

[DD Mikasa]

Well the map is hard as hell.When you play it alone.
Mod:Normal
Players:1

Well the map is really well made and i had alot of fun...Even tho the boss pwned me like 6 times (feeling abit rusty :| )
-Hero spells are really well made.Their split attack passives are really usefull to clear the creeps.You just position your hero between as many enemy creeps and the passive dose the rest.You summon the earth elemental and keep healing him with the Far seer while you use Warden third spell on Far seer so his mana pool dose not deplete.This combo seems to get the job done for the first to phases
-Phase 3.Here it got really hard for me.I had to manage two unites...Seem like this phase is ideal for Warden kit.You just kite the boss and when he comes near you use your orbs to avoid him.While Far seer...Well...You just spam tornado and hope for the best.
-Phase 4.Welcome to hell...Playing this solo was really hard.I had to manage the stacks in both heros and i keept screwing up.This chapter required perfect timing and you will survive.

-Bug report:
1.Well i could use Far seer's tornado to go outside of the map borders.This helped me alot during phase 4 and the 180 seconds before phase 4 begun...
2.Both unites and boss could pass the glowing wall.
3.During Phase 3 i noticed you could pass through the big tree and go outside of the map
4.When both hero died the game keept going on.

-Sugestion:
1.I would sugest you to add a grace period in between phases.When you can stoke up in potions or buy items
2.Add a spell that reduces the boss armour (to make the map more noob friendly)


This map has alot of potential.Will keep an eye on it for further progress.

 

[Sclammerz]

TERRAIN:

Well, the terrain was nicely done but doesn't feel very scary. Maybe make it feel more scary to suit the map theme more. Overall I think you've done a great job on the terrain just make some adjustments.

GAMEPLAY:

Well, the gameplay was nice and a bit hard, the objective is to kill the boss. You see the gameplay is very straight forward, kill all enemies and it's kinda boring maybe you could make twists on the gameplay? The Heroes has nicely done spells and very useful to the battle. The spawning of enemies was somehow many, maybe you can less it a bit or make it more frequently to spawn. The potions was useful but I think the Heroes needs more of useful items, maybe make the enemies drop useful items/potions or add shops too, it's necessary to a battle. Overall I think you could improve the gameplay more. I did not manage to kill the Boss, my potions run out as my Hero too.

OVERALL:

I think the map needs reworking specially on the gameplay maybe instead of just killing the boss, add some more fun elements like maybe riddles or such. Overall 3/5 - I vote for Awaiting Update.

 

[LittleBigApple]

Thank you for your reviews and suggestions!

-Phase 4.Welcome to hell...Playing this solo was really hard.I had to manage the stacks in both heros and i keept screwing up.This chapter required perfect timing and you will survive.

Very glad to hear that the map was fun even when it's hard as hell - that was my goal.
Yeah, phase 4 is clearly the hardest part of the encounter. I was aiming for a phase where lack of coordination and tactics causes you to fail instead of unlucky moves or being overwhelmed by enemy minions - glad you agreed on that.

I have just released 1.04 which offers bug fixes and an item-shop before the encounter. Hope you like the items!

 

[MasterHaosis]

LittleBigApple, I have to say that map is very good, but hard as hell.
When my heroes died, I did not lose, but it stayed, skeletons keep spawning for some time, then I restarted match.
But I really like how terrain is done, small but awesome. Those dark, horror creppy effects are awesome, fogs, graveyards, skins for skeletons I am impressed. I liked that Forgotten one. I like custom voices for him.
Items are good, decent, serve to purpose. Those spirits which blocks heroes to get back can be actually avoided by Warden's orb teleports. Well, player should be able to back and buy some items.
Nice map, 4/5 I would give.

 

[StoPCampinGn00b]

[TD]

GENERAL The Curse of Barrow (version 1.04) is a minuscule, visually stimulating, and non-generic cooperative boss fight arena flexible for one or two players. Though challenging, players might just find them selves looking for new strategies, tactics, and ideas on how to advance further. Do not be discouraged by some comments directed at older versions, as this map got some major upgrades.​ GAMEPLAY As do many co-op arenas / boss fight maps, heroes start in one area and have time to prepare. The fact that the map has quest information that could be essential to winning is a major offset to the difficulty some may complain about. Yes, it is likely it will take more than three rounds to achieve victory for most even with the tips and map info the quest log / information tab being read. But, that isn't necessarily a fault in the map. It isn't a fault because you can only learn or improve in this map if you lose. Either if that's trying out new item combos, memorizing events, using abilities in different ways, or other strategies, the map isn't the same all the time. Repetitiveness is kept to a minimum compared to other maps of this type. Equipping one item in the map can offer more differing gameplay than choosing another. These abilities and items cater to a variety of play styles that none of the ability / item types (Summons, passive, spells, etc) seem to be overpowering any of the others in terms of usefulness. The combat in the map isn't strait forward auto attacking and ability spamming. I won't give all the details of the boss stages I've went through, but let's just say it was a nice mash of favorites people enjoy in other boss fight maps plus more. The map is mostly polished. Items and abilities have organized and informative tool tips. The hotkeys work and are easy to use. There are a few faults here and there, however. ➤ At the start of the game, one of the heroes can be separated from the other by the banshee wall. This wasn't too much of an annoyance, but it doesn't set a good first impression. ➤ The boss' selection size circle is too huge for comfort. This is a problem when collecting frost orbs near the boss, trying to micro murlocs near the boss, or trying to target other things near the boss. ➤ It would help ease down frustration if items were able to be sold. People will make mistakes and restarting a map due to something small like this is usually looked down upon. ➤ The warden's teleport could be an exploit but I personally don't mind. ➤ Some areas still have doodads you can walk through. The left of the starting position has this "hiccup". It isn't an issue at all, but perhaps it would be best to fix it before someone else points it out and asks you to fix it. ➤ This is also hiccup with the same reasoning to fix it as a above. Sometimes the boss is facing the wrong way in cinematic mode! ​ AMBIENCE & AESTHETICS The atmosphere definitely corresponds with other things in the map greatly. The dark theme is kept consistent and is looking spiffy. You also did an awesome job in keeping the terrain / doodads not obstructing things in the gameplay. Could it be better? Well, maybe. More doodads near the edges may or may not add more flavor to the map. The choice of music and visual effects - from triggers, abilities, projectiles, etc - also added on to how great the map look aesthetically. For some, some of the visual effects can be too stimulating for their tastes, but as it stands there isn't anything wrong with it. ​ MISCELLANEOUS You should include in the description that playing with one player is a lot more challenging than playing with another with reasons. I also noticed there are broken images at the top of your description. Maybe you should fix those ​

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Well, player should be able to back and buy some items.

Ah, but that would require gold ^^
Plus, it's one of the map's core features to not buy more items.

EDIT: I almost forgot. I prefer that games don't have losing conditions so players can chat about the game in the game. It's a turn off for me if a map kicks someone if they lose.

*My pet peeve*

 

[LittleBigApple]

Thank you very much for your reviews, guys. Glad to hear you enjoyed the map!
I have just released 1.05 which fixes most of the faults that are mentioned in StoPCampinGn00b's map review, and features a new item instead of Steel Wind (25 flat dmg). Stacking 4 of Steel Winds for each hero was quite ridiculous.

The boss' selection size circle is too huge for comfort.

Yeah, I agree. Sadly, I don't know how to reduce his selection box. It has something to do with the model itself. Reducing his selection box to proper size would cause him to be smaller than the heroes which seems off.

EDIT: Just tried removing the two broken images at the top, but it ruined the whole layout of my descriptions! Don't ask me why. So i'm just sticking with them.

 

[Kino]

Yeah, I agree. Sadly, I don't know how to reduce his selection box. It has something to do with the model itself. Reducing his selection box to proper size would cause him to be smaller than the heroes which seems off.

Unit model size and selection size are different, you can change them independently.

 

[LittleBigApple]

I know. It isn't the selection that is causing the problem. It is rather small and is set to 1.50 in the Object Editor. It is the model itself that is causing the problem. The model has wide wings which makes it very easy to target the boss instead of objectives near him.
Which is seen here:

(I'm targeting him even though there is some space between the mouse and the boss).

Well, I think this is what StoPCampinGn00b meant!

 

[jonbon29]

I played you're map and I have some fun, I thought it will be some kind of a dungeon where I'll have to face some minions first and some traps too. But as soon as I enter area its already a boss battle, but that was kinda cool actually. I like the spell too, did you made them? Also you should weaken the boss a bit because its hard even in normal mode, although the heroes have some healing spells the boss still hit pretty hard. I like the icons and skins too. The terrain is neat, it will be great if you make the dungeon bigger so the it wouldn't be boring fighting in one place.

 

[LeGoLaSyO]

This is bullshit!!!Worse map ever omg!you can't win!I used whosyourddady and nothing!

 

[LittleBigApple]

This is bullshit!!!Worse map ever omg!you can't win!I used whosyourddady and nothing!

This map is indeed meant to be hard (even on normal-mode). Heck, i'm still dying sometimes when i'm testing the map. If you can't defeat the boss on your own, try teaming up with a friend; it becomes much easier. Or maybe this map isn't your style at all, but please, what you wrote above is just dumb.

 

[LittleBigApple]

I have remade phase 2. It's now entirely different. Hope you want to try it out!