wow! After a few month break this map sure was a nice surprise. I really appreciate what you are doing for the W3 community. As someone who's been playing since RoC and has spend hundreds if not thousands of hours on RPG's hope my review ill be appreciated. In the end what's important is what kind of map you want to make.
NOTE: I am describing the "supreme" RPG that I would like to play, taking points from all the other maps. My English is rusty but I hope you get it.
What makes an RPG great? For me it's the following 5 points, the more (and better implemented) the better it will be.In no particular order:
1)Feeling powerful. I don't want to play as a peasant, I want to be legendary, I need to feel like I have an impact on monsters.
How to do it: skills that have meaning and look nice. Every class needs to be suited for a particular role(s). If i'm a healer I must feel like everyone would be dead without me, if I'm a tank I must feel invincible... Upgrading skill visuals should help with this too. At lvl 1 your ring of fire looks weak, at lvl 3 it not only deals more dmg it looks more dangerous(and so on)
2)Progression. Power is nothing if you don't earn it. The black road 1.36 does it very nicely. I would like to see another RPG on the same level.
How to do it: The golden rule is that you have to earn everything.
a) at each lvl you can choose stats STR, INT or AGI. Can be used with others too, this makes the progression linear.
b) Basically each hero should have 6 active skills. You start with 3 and and build your way up. This will really make you feel cool after upgrading/getting a new one. Again, TBR is a great example of this.
c) Bosses.This is where the fun starts. More bosses the better. Each time you kill one you should be expecting something for your class. 10%-20% is probably the best drop rate for ordinary items with 5-10% being for the Epic loot.
d) Items. You need a lot of them. Basically your hero has 6 slots. To have the best experience you always should decide what you want to wear. This (with the stat and skill system) really helps to create a hero that's unique. Something like +5 STR does it in the begging, but in the end you need to feel strong with what you have.
3) Diversity. Doing the same thing over and over gets boring, to spice things up you need things to be different.
How to do it: Give more reasons to play and different monsters.
a)You have the normal monsters in the begging, these are the ones you click on to kill
b)Stronger monsters come in pairs and/or have a deadly attack (like fire storm that deals 50% of damage if you don't move out of the way) you can't afford to just A move on them.
c)Dungeons are packed with mobs, it's tough but you get dungeon points(example) so it's worth it.
d)different events that need to be triggered. Defend some guy for 5 minutes, kill a monster that has large movement speed and blink or a boss that randomly appears and you must chase him away...many possibilities.
e)crafting, being able to reforge items.
4) Team work
This is self explanatory. I need to feel important in a party. If a friend chooses a tank and I'm a healer/DPS than we must each adhere to that role. We both need to feel the difference when one gets stronger so the game is pleasurable for both.
5) Always having a reason to play. Just killing monsters is boring, killing monsters to get some items is cool. The more incentives in the game the better it will be. Killing a boss 10 times to get a skill makes it even sweeter when you're finally there. Farming for money for your upgrade/item/whatever make the whole boring experience worth it.
Damn, that was long. I just got really excited about playing your map and thought to share some ideas. I hope at least a few help you out. Wish you all the best with this project!
