Hammerhands |
Posted on 04/30/10 @ 12:21 AM
Playability 3
I was actually quite impressed with this map. It's not often I find a map from a new designer that is well made, and not
overdone. Not to dis any other designers, though, this map needed some work. Fixed, for example. I had to take it into the
Editor to make it playable. But I'll get to that in a bit. It was decent fun to play, I liked the city that I was supposed
to destroy. It wasn't too elegant, or too simple, but looked more like a small time military fortress.
Balance 4
The balance was very good. When I got it into the editor, I saw all those units, and thought it'd be tough. I don't know if
it's because of the lack of an active AI, or what, but I managed to demolish them with some forty myrmidons, and about twenty
colossus. Not all at once, though, there wasn't enough population room. There was more than enough resources in the area,
well designed for a turtler like me, so I never felt like I had to expand. This helps with the playability rating. It wasn't
too easy... I lost a lot of guys, but it wasn't a nightmare either.
Creativity 2
The creativity was low, actually. The story wasn't told, the map was... okay, but it needed more spice, zest, zing,or whatever
you want to call it. There wasn't much to get me excited, the initial cinematic was there... but told the player nothing. As
I said above, the enemy city was neat, But still lacking that something extra, that little spice that makes it awesome.
Don't fret though... It wasn't awful.
Map Design 2
Mix in more of the grass terrains, and add rocks flowers, and such. This is a common problem among new map makers, I know I
had it, but it's easy to fix. Just make the ground look camouflaged. Then add flowers and rocks. The Limestone sprites work
best; but add a few of the large rocks in low spots around cliffs and such. And a neat trick I found for Greek cliffs, is to
start with cliff A and then paint some cliff Greek over it. So that it, too, looks mottled.
Story/Instructions 2
As I said, the story wasn't told. The instructions were... there... but the never played. So... The glaring problem here, is
that your distance to unit conditions had no distance or 'less than or equal too' set. If you leave them at == the sourced
unit will have to be EXACTLY that distance from the target unit. This is so improbable it's nearly impossible for the player
to achieve. Use less than or equal to . This way precision isn't necessary. Also, for the
initial cinematic, I suggest using run immediately, and high priority, so that it fires right after the game starts. It's
smoother that way.
Otherwise a decent map. Good work, keep it up!
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