PAlAT (id: palat) |
Posted on 07/26/15 @ 04:40 PM
Settlement
My previous comment should have covered my own personal experience with this map. As I mentioned, I found it to be a very casual sort of map, almost like a freebuild. The events were properly spaced out, so they did not come off as a nuisance.
There were no serious flaws in my playthrough. Everything worked as intended; there was no buggy pathfinding as is commonly the case with many complex SH maps. Simple maps, few problems of this sort - simple, solid, straightforward. That said, I was able to note two MINOR issues, the first being that enemy units tended to try to cross the river at the right-side chokepoint. The AI would send bows and xbows at my troops at both chokepoints, but for some reason, it would only send swords, pikes, and spears against the right point. The second issue of some significance is that any engineers spawning in the invasions would not properly build siege equipment.
Balance is where this map does suffer a bit. It is NOT hard. It is too easy - FAR too easy, not because it is easy to win, but because it is difficult to lose. As long as the player can set up a decent defense, the invasions can be repulsed easily, and there can effectively be as much time as needed available to complete the objectives - there's no time limit. That said, if the author chooses to update this map, I would strongly recommend AGAINST putting a hard time limit: firstly, it would feel unnatural in terms of gameplay (you would need to, at the very least, justify this time limit in the story), and secondly, it is very difficult to accurately assess how much time is actually needed without drastically changing difficulty. I was able to complete the mission in little under 15 game-years, but of course, I was playing on VH. Also, remember, we all have different levels of skill when it comes to SH. So, to recap, don't set a hard time limit, because a lot of factors will have to be taken into account. Rather, change the invasions so they are larger and more effective. Relevant to this map, that is the better choice of the two.
Creativity and map design, or what may be called aesthetics, may be (and should be) further improved on. While I liked the ruins and the attempt at detail, the map needs some novelty. Map design, especially with terrain, is very crude - many things appear to have been hastily drawn. Many rough, unblended, unnatural edges. Terrain types do not blend into each other, as well. For instance, the beach area contrasts highly with the adjacent grassland. Check out some tutorials on the site for advice.
I appreciated the story that came with the map, but there is not too much to be said here, as it serves as a good introductory paragraph but is wholly unoriginal. This work has a lot of potential, with its good gameplay; it just needs a lot of polishing.
3.0/5.0 |