Heroesflorian |
Posted on 12/04/09 @ 04:44 PM
The minimap looks quite rough - almost everything is kind of square-shaped.
But it looks rather interesting though.
(Edit: Strange is the better word, I think)
Hint#1: Try not to call your map-file "My first map =)". Not everyone is a gifted poet or something, but you could at least call it somehow like... "Big economy - castle with stadium and palm park" to give people some information, what your map is about.
Hint#2: Write some description here - not just "please rate" - and NEVER write in CAPITAL LETTERS, if you do NOT want to emphasize that word. If there are only two words, there is nothing else to read, so you do not have to emphasize this two words. And someone shouting "PLEASE COMMENT!!!" is likely to be left alone by me, and probably by most people here.
Edit: I took a look at the map.
Well, you have dozens of mills - i think more than bakeries. You have dozens of blacksmiths etc., but no iron mines. You have dozens of leather makers - but no cows! You separate your "castle" - the whole map - into many different sections: Here 50 breweries, here 25 wheat farms, there 25 hop farms, there hundreds of hovels, all strictly square-shaped. That's not very productive in the way you did it, and it does neither look nice, nor natural.
When you have a population of 650 finally, the inns may be exactly enough for 99% drunken...
The massive amount of starting goods is not needed - especially, on a map with no single enemy and no signpost to set invasions, no one needs 200 crossbows at start - or 230 stones.
I can understand some amount of food, wood or wheat, but... well, I don't need 200 beer immediately, when it takes around 10 minutes to even get the inns working, as they are occupied at last - after dozens of hop farms and breweries have started producing beer.
And I really hate scenarios, where from the very beginning you have to build 15 extra granaries, 3 armories, 10 stockpiles (for storing the starting goods), have 0 starting population and must wait at least 10 minutes until all buildings are occupied.
Moreover, your "castle" is not very functional - good things are spread out all over the map, making your workers travel around more than working. When they finally go back to work, they have to run across half of the map to get their resources, run the whole way back to their workplace, produce something, and RUN AGAIN huge distances to store their products.
And if this wouldn't be enough, you have put ford around the whole weapons production, and in between of the single parts of it, making your workers moving very slowly. Additional, you have made kind of labyrinths with hundreds of gardens, to create extra-long ways. That's not cool, nor funny, just... unprofessional.
(In a scenario with time limits, it would be a way of making it harder (and thereby more challenging) to create (with walls, rivers, rocks, etc.) longer ways. But in a castle builder with 60000 starting gold, no target and a pre-built castle, it makes definitely no sense.)
And this walls and towers: What are they for (except the stadium)? Remember - there is no possibility to get enemies onto your map! And a straight wall across oasis is not THAT beautiful (if it shall be decoration)...
Oasis... brings me to the "landscape", or probably it should better be called wasteland/emptiness. It's absolutely flat, without any bushes, rocks, water, elevation or animals, just the standard-terrain on the whole map, except an U-shaped strip of built-over-with-wheat-farms oasis. There is no stone, swamp or iron on the map (not necessarily needed, but helpful, nice-looking, interesting and probably individualizing your map in any way).
But, of course, there are positive aspects of your map as well.
First, you have made the map startable, you have placed stockpile with some wood and/or granary to make it playable, and it doesn't crash up.
Then, there is a kind of stadium, some "ornaments" in front of the long wall, a special enclosed park area with symmetrical arranged palm trees (~kind of eye-candy) and the oasis is not exactly square-shaped like the rest. Parts of your map are symmetrical, which is rather boring here, but also may be considered as special/interesting/whatever.
Moreover, you have no inaccessible workplaces.
Ah, and you have added a picture to the zip-file.
Hint#3: Don't upload your first tries - only upload maps you consider as interesting/well done.
Of course, everyone has to learn at first, but you can also learn without uploading nonsense. If you need help with designing, take a look at the Mapmaking tips:
http://stronghold.heavengames.com/maps/index_html#sod
If you have read these guides and tips, and you still need help, THEN you can upload your work to get further/more individual hints.
Florian
PS: I do not personally dislike you, but this map is really not the best one. And I have taken some time for downloading, extracting and playing your map, as well as for writing these lines. So please take some time for reading them, use the link, and try to improve your skills in mapmaking. [Edited on 12/04/09 @ 06:22 PM]
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