Osiris has taken over the entire universe and command to see which mortal is most loyal unto him. Unearthly riches and powers will be bestowed unto the one who proves himself worthy. To gain favour with Osiris you must destroy the oppossing Guardians. Only one question is left, can you step up to the challenge?
Had enough of fighting titanic battles on land, why not fight a titanic battle on sea? This is the intent of Navy Blood however the scenario falls short in quite a few respects. The concept is similar to many other bloods expect this one takes places on water as opposed to land. There is a flame in the centre in which you must have units around in order to acquire resources. The goal is to destroy the other player’s guardians that are on islands surrounding the centre flame. Accompanying the guardians are auto respawning sons of Osiris’s . As you can imagine the centre of the map quickly fills with a tremendous amount of lighting bolts. To spawn units you must place the ship or myth unit in question by some columns at the side of your base.
[Playability]
First of all while playing this scenario I am happy to say that I did not experience a hint of lag. Even when all four players were fighting will full steam at the centre of the map and god powers were going off. The scenario, sadly, has quite a few bugs and other gameplay hindering aspects that make the scenario much less enjoyable then it could have been. Near the end of the game I found that I could no longer spawn any kind of naval unit, this kind of ended the game, as I could no longer fight against my opponents. When I played I was able to get Apollo’s underground passage power which allowed me to conduct land warfare against my opponents bases. Somehow, I felt that that was not the intention of the game and that problem should be fixed. Another bug that occurred a few times was Sons of Osris’s would spawn even though the other one had yet to die. When this happened it gave the other players a tremendous advantage. The biggest problem was attempting to complete the goal of the game. Killing the guardian was almost next to impossible and 2 of the 4 people I played with felt the same way I did and they resigned as a result. The placing of the sons of Osris’s in the centre of the map was both a blessing and a curse. It was nice to have him when my opponents sent myth units at me because he could easily mop them up. But at the same time it was annoying to be constantly bombarded with lightning bolts.
Improvements
- If the bugs and gameplay problems were cleaned up the score in this area would easily be raised to a 4
- Having some other naval units besides Triremes and myth units would give the scenario a little more strategy
--Score = 3--
[Balance]
The balance in the scenario was pretty good, but maybe a little to good. Being able to choose different civilizations at the beginning made for a diversified game and gave players several options about how they decided to progress. Some civilizations had huge advantages over others. If the author were to play around a little with the civilizations to make the game more balances it could really help the balance score. The scenario was a little to balanced in the way that it was almost impossible for anybody to win, as the guardians were far too hard to kill.
Improvements
- Balancing out the civilization bonuses would really help in balancing the scenario out
- Choosing another game winning goal as opposed to killing the guardian would also help
--Score = 3--
[Creativity]
This scenario was able to differentiate itself from other blood style maps by taking place on the water, but the author still needs to do something further with the scenario in order to make it truly different
Improvements
- Try doing something nobody else has ever tried in a blood map before
--Score = 3--
[Map Design]
Blood maps are generally designed to minimize lag so you should never expect to find a lot of eye candy on a blood map. This scenario stays to true to that formula and as such the map never experience any lag and the transfer time for the scenario is very short which is also important to a blood map. Though the map design is lag free it does not offer much excitement in the gameplay department as there is only one way into the conflict zone and the conflict zone itself is a little cramped. The starting city could use a little sprucing up, anything other than a block of buildings would look good.
Improvements
- Add just a touch of eye candy, nothing to significant, but something just to spruce the map up a bit
- Open the centre up and create multiple pathways towards in order to create more interesting battles
--Score =3--
[Instructions/Story]
The scenario does not have any real story, but that is really insignificant in a blood map and should not be counted against the final score. Figuring out what to do was not very difficult but it would help if there were specific instructions given on how to spawn units. The goal of the scenario was clearly laid out.
Improvements
- Add a simple message explaining how to spawn units
--Score =4--
If the author of this scenario were to make some of the improvements suggested there is no reason why the scenario should not receive a 4+ rating. If some of the corrections suggested are made I would be happy to re review this scenario. In its current stage I can recommend giving this scenario a try if you are a really blood fanatic and you are looking for something a tad different.