[Highland Woods] First 'real' map

[FrozenFlame]

This is the first map i've really put time into. (about my 3rd map if you count tests etc)
I playtested the first version and I good some really enthousiastic responses, and after emailing updated versions to Lewin a few times (which didn't get accepted) and taking his advice of (finally) checking out the forums, I decided to post it here, to save my time, and to save Lewin's time since I can imagine he doesn't have time for one of my emails again

I now think I really put everything into it i have (and all of Lewin's advice), and I'm looking to be criticized one more time before I send it to Lewin to be judged once more.

It's designed for 3vs3 games since there weren't many maps which were built for that. Every player has balanced resources (3 gold mine spots, 3 iron mine spots). I can only be sure once the map has been played several times. I'm concerned about stone and coal, but if it becomes a real issue, I will update it.



download link:
http://www.mediafire.com/?r427tn8cmoug69m

[Da Revolution]

Played the map once about one month ago. At that point i already liked the map. About the mines...maybe I'm blind but loc 5 has 2 iron mines.

Coal can be tight indeed but stone seems ok.

[Bo_]

Han sended me this map and yes it's a great map, I realy enjoy playing on it.
Stone is good but if the game takes a long time you will need more.
But yes, you could update coal, and maybe iron for loc 6? As you can see the mountain is very small, so not much iron.

[Lewin]

Great work on the mountains and coal, it's really improved since you sent it to me
I think it's just about ready, but you could wait a day or two for feedback from other people. The release won't be made until at least this weekend, (maybe after) so don't worry you won't miss it.

[Leeuwgie]

Hi there, I've played this map too once. I think it's a good map and much better than many others. I played on the 1st loc and noticed I didn't had much space to build my farms even when I cut the trees for it. But many people online build there base to big imo so to keep it thight is not always a bad idea. Same for the resources, it doesn't need to be many mines on all maps. I noticed some trees on moutains, they can't be cut by the woodcutter so doesn't that give an error if a woodcutter is nearby? Keeping it small and reduced peacetime is the way to go I'd say. And btw; I don't know if you did it already but make sure you fix some sharp tiles on the map.

Greetings,
To

[FrozenFlame]

I don't know if it will bug the woodcutters. The trees up there are just for scenery to decorate an otherwise 'boring' mountain. I guess we'll have to wait and see. And if you mean loc 1 as in top left, that's actually loc 3 (the actual loc 1 is bottom left, and had plenty of space for farms, i've played on that loc). I might look into this, but i think it will only be possible once the texture brushes in the remake editor are updated.

[Lewin]

lol don't worry the woodcutters will ignore any trees they can't reach. We put a lot of work into our flood fill algorithm which allows us to very efficiently check whether a unit can walk to somewhere. It's checked in all situations like that.

[The Dark Lord]

Hi,
I looked at your map and I noticed some things that can be improved.
I won't complain about the mountains because those are pretty good. But I think the terrain (grass/dirt) is too flat. The bridges could be better too; I recommend looking at the original maps (TSK 4 for example) to see how they did it. One more thing: I think your tree placement is too random. Especially the forest in the center of the map doesn't look good. Good job on the coal fields, many people do it wrong.

[FrozenFlame]

Good point, but it's hard to change that because every single tree has to be placed by hand. As soon as the map editor gets some updates i'll update the map for better quality.

[Da Revolution]

Would be a shame when a map like yours doesn't make it into a official release

[Lewin]

I agree, I'd like to include it in this release I don't think we'll have brushes to place lots of trees at once any time soon, (we don't even have terrain brushes working yet) the map editor in general is lower priority than the game itself.

I think all The Dark Lord meant was to clump the trees together a bit more, not so spread out. So you wouldn't need to replace all the trees, just delete some and replace them in different places.

[FrozenFlame]

The tree's main purpose is decoration. I think if I clump them together, the map will look much more barren.

[Lewin]

I had another look at the trees, I think the problem is more that you mixed the types a lot. Normally in KaM you put all of the dark green trees separate to the other kinds of trees.
I see what you mean that clumping them would make it look barren, it is called Highland Woods after all. Of course The Dark Lord is the expert at maps not me.

[The Dark Lord]

Well a tree here and there doesn't make a forest either. I meant both things Lewin brought up. Especially the forest in the middle is too random. You've mixed pine trees with broad-leaved trees and I don't think it looks really good. These are two different forest types.
And I also meant that the tree placement is a bit too random (a tree here, a tree there, one more here, one more there...). If you look at the original maps you'll see large areas without trees that do not necessarily look barren. There are other ways to decorate terrain than decorating with trees.

[Da Revolution]

Just played your map. A few things that I think that should be changed. Maybe add a bit more coal at certain locs. Maybe give some locs an extra gold mine (the ones who have only 2).