| War Carts - Christmas Edition - v1.0 (Pre-Beta) Review |
Thought this was a really fun map to play, and I really like it, this map lacks a lot on replay-ability and uniqueness. The map can't be customized too much, except for cart choosing. There is low amount of abilities, and some of them just don't make sense for this type of map. Camera could benefit from some sharper transitions when you fall from the cliff, and when you enter a tube. I suggest you to immediately pan camera upon tube entrance - it can cost you a lot if it's rotating and your enemy is coming from the sides. I don't like the hotkey for spells, neither the random rotation. Hotkey should be Q or something similar, so that the hand can rest on the keyboard, not to balance on it's edge. The random rotation - I haven't noticed it until I saw the trigger. Because of Warcraft's messy interface for this type of map, it's hard to look down for what skill you got, and then up again to aim and drive, all the time, loosing precious time. The terrain is really small sized for a clash of ten players, and I think that you should make a map 4.5 times bigger, and then just add four different arenas from players to pick from. You can make the game more unique and customized even more - each arena can have it's own feature: drifting for ice, non-stop for space, waves that move you for underwater, etc... If you plan on adding this feature, make you map bigger than I said - you will probably add new arenas in future.
What you can do to improve the map is to make the carts unique. Example would be variations with speed and health, damage increase, or trap length increase/decrease. I think that every cart should have a racial ability, a unique spell that can help you. If you are interested in this feature, feel free to ask me for some great ideas. Same goes for item abilities - add more of them; I think that about ten would be reasonable number without forcing players in confusion.
First of all, even thought this is a Christmas Edition, I still think that you should remove the snow, unless you plan on adding more arenas. In both cases, I think that arena should be more random, with more doodads rather than simple edges and bridges. You can cover the floor, which sure looks ugly when faced from close, with some animated grass or shrubs, which will greatly impact on visuals. You can also greatly benefit from a snowy weather effect, rather than light rays, and from fog. There are some bumps and lumps in the terrain, made with raise and lower tools, which, not only they're not functional, but they look like mistakes. Flat terrain would be best for this type of map. About the random rotation for items, I think it should be re-created like this: you can replace it with a pause of 1 second when picking a box, removing the original picked box from the game, and creating a dummy unit over the head of the picker. Vertex coloring starts with 0, and it quickly fades in over 0.5 seconds. After 100% transparency, the box shrinks and falls down to the picker, giving you an ability.
Upon picking a cart, the tavern gets destroyed and you can see your character. Ugly, in my opinion, because it reveals the triggers so easily. I suggest to fade out the screen for the players who already picked a cart, with a message "Please wait!". When the timer reaches 0, the screen fades in, revealing a box that falls from heavens. Upon impact with the ground, the box plays it's Death animation, and reveals what's inside - your cart. Check out the Wyvern Cage model (found in Units, the wooden one, not metal) to see what I'm talking about. Then, after a short pause, three wisps will appear, or come from the sides of the screen - all are in neutral color. When the speaker says "Three, two, one", the wisps will change color - red, yellow, green, like a traffic light, right?
Abilities' visuals are, I have to admit, awful. I know you tried to make them appealing, but you just dug yourself up. You could use a custom model (I can edit it for you, if you want) for the Web, since it has a tornado and hurl ribbon, which are both looking weird. Fake Item could benefit from the shadow strike laughter sound, which really fits it, and can make people grin. Pursuit Bash should change colors to Yellow, I think, which represents invulnerability, and it should go smoothly from regular color to complete yellow. There should also be a sound effect during it's duration. I think that you should completely remove Wide Swarm, so no visuals suggested.
You need new features and advanced visuals to make the game unique and replay-able. This is a great start, however!
Regarding of tips and ideas, you can always ask me.[r]
| Cart Racial Skills: | |
| Demolition Cart | Hurls a missile that will stop first target it encounters, and deal damage. |
| Diablo Cart | Leaves a blazing path of fire behind you for some time. |
| Dwarf Cart | Repairs some hit points. |
| Glaive Cart | Hurls a missile that will push target forward until it hits an obstacle (wall, other cart). |
| Gyro Cart | Fires out a heat seeking rocket that will hunt down enemies to slow and deal low damage. |
| Meat Cart | Leaves a flesh heap behind you that blocks missiles and carts. |
| Obsidian Cart | Creates an illusion that moves forward, grants invisibility. |
| Orc Cart | Increases movement and blocks half of damage for a duration. |
| Robo Cart | Leaves a mine behind that will explode upon contact. |
| Undead Cart | Sends a haunting ghost that will steal ability and silence upon impact. |
| Wagon Cart | Shoots out several light missiles around you, dealing damage. |
. I will make a normal edition sometime after this one as well as it wouldn't be that hard, as Christmas is soon.
