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Ben's Multiplayer Maps

PostPosted: 12 Nov 2011, 19:37
by Ben
EDIT:
As of today, I am abandoning this topic. I prefer starting new topics for each individual map. So long as the map section of the forum does not get overrun, I will not be returning to this topic.

PostPosted: 12 Nov 2011, 19:43
by pawel95
I will play it tomorrow :D

PostPosted: 13 Nov 2011, 17:24
by Shadaoe
Hey ! This map looks quite cool ! Good job :wink:
I think I'll do a thread for my maps too, when I'll have some more finished :p

Re: Ben's Multiplayer Maps

PostPosted: 13 Jan 2012, 06:20
by Ben
So I haven't been able to play much anymore so I can't tell if anyone is playing my maps.
So, out of curiosity, how many of you guys play on my maps?

Re: Ben's Multiplayer Maps

PostPosted: 13 Jan 2012, 20:57
by batoonike
I don't play besieged because it was either battle map or lots of prebuilt stuff. Don't remember which.
I don't play horseshoe. It looks very good for 1o1 but somehow I usually end up on maps for more players even if 1o1. Havent seen anyone host either of these but I haven't been playing too much.

Re: Ben's Multiplayer Maps

PostPosted: 13 Jan 2012, 23:02
by The Dark Lord
I've played on Oasis Struggle (which was an interesting match without towers although I felt we should've lost (but we won)), I've played on The Tyrant and on Besieged!
I liked Besieged! very much. I've also seen people playing on Horseshoe and on your 8 player map (I forgot it's name, please forgive me :P).

Re: Ben's Multiplayer Maps

PostPosted: 16 Jan 2012, 20:30
by Jeronimo
In my opinion, Horseshoe is one of best maps of multiplayer.
Perfect Resources start, Perfect Map balance, Unique 1v1 construction.

I like the idea of the Tyrant, havent tried it yet... you see people is not often willing to try 2v1.
In the other hand, I find Oasis Struggle nice... few iron, so going to leather units becomes crucial.

The Map "Besieged!" is not of my type :D, however looks fine.

Re: Ben's Multiplayer Maps

PostPosted: 17 Jan 2012, 06:45
by krisdw
I have played Oasis Struggle and I like it but somehow I feel like it would be *perfect* as a 2v2 map but not for 2v2v2v2 or 4v4.

1 player top left, 1 player top right, 1 player bottom left, 1 player bottom right. I haven't played a game like that yet but it could be lots of fun.

I have wanted to play Horseshoe but people tend to not want 1v1s :) so if someone wants to play it... hook me up.

Re: Ben's Multiplayer Maps

PostPosted: 17 Jan 2012, 13:48
by Lewin
I have played Oasis Struggle and I like it but somehow I feel like it would be *perfect* as a 2v2 map but not for 2v2v2v2 or 4v4.
If you play in the positions: 1+3 vs 5+7 OR 2+4 vs 6+8 then you'll have a 2 vs 2. (bottom vs top) I agree with you, the only time I played it we ran out of space. Although I've only played it once so I'm probably not a good judge.

Re: Ben's Multiplayer Maps

PostPosted: 18 Jan 2012, 20:15
by Ben
I have played Oasis Struggle and I like it but somehow I feel like it would be *perfect* as a 2v2 map but not for 2v2v2v2 or 4v4.
I can't remember the positions of the map, but you can play a 2v2 (top vs bottom or left vs right; although I would recommend top vs bottom) if you set the positions accordingly (just don't let more than 4 people in the lobby).
You will see that many of my maps include the feature to have co-op bases, such as Borderlands, Blitzkrieg, and Oasis Struggle, for those who like big games.

EDIT
Lewin beat me to it. Of course his post was better. More informed.

Re: Ben's Multiplayer Maps

PostPosted: 13 Nov 2012, 01:58
by Ben
I'm back in the saddle of making maps. I've one on the way, but I'm wondering about my maps that are already included with the Remake. I'm terribly disappointed in them. With the exception of Horseshoe, these maps are all of terrible quality. I got really excited and just started pumping out poor maps.

To those who have played my maps, which ones are any good? Do Blitzkrieg and Besieged even work? I've heard that Borderlands is played sometimes. What flaws were found in this map?

I'm interested and thankful for your criticism. Thank you!

Re: Ben's Multiplayer Maps

PostPosted: 13 Nov 2012, 05:05
by Lewin
Most of your maps are quite interesting and unique, so I'd definitely like to see them improved :)

Besieged: I've never played it. The idea is interesting but I can't judge whether it works or not. You could improve it by adding stone to all the watch towers at the start of the game (using the new command !ADD_WARE_TO that we added in the Remake) and also move all those weapons from the storehouse to the barracks, so your serfs aren't moving them across for the first few hours of the game (unless that was your intention?). The Remake allows you to put more than 255 weapons in the barracks.

Blitzkrieg: I really like the visuals of this map (especially the narrow bridges across the chasm). I like the way you've chosen a few terrain types and used only them, instead of trying to put every terrain type on one map. I did play this once although it was during an RC test against some inexperienced players, so it wasn't really a proper game. I would say that having players so close doesn't work so well, there's not much space to build both of your villages and you end up with a very long narrow village leading up to the iron. In my opinion the iron hills would look better if you made them out of the richest iron tile (like the original maps mostly do), rather than a mixture of iron tiles. Another thing: There's basically no space for farms and building amongst the trees is hard.

Borderlands: I've never played it but it looks like an interesting map. I think the terrain could be improved, look at this image for a suggestion on how to improve your coal. Another thing to consider is that the bottom players have their stone below them so their stonemason needs to walk a long way around the hill, since he'll only mine from the bottom. There's also large areas of uninteresting grass, look at some of The Dark Lord's maps (and the originals) for ideas on how to make grassy areas interesting (which is one of the hardest things about making KaM maps). I also don't like seeing dark green trees mixed with other types of trees, I think they look best on their own (that's how it mostly is in the original maps)

Horseshoe: This map seems to be pretty popular, I often see people playing it. Once again the grass is a bit uninteresting and the beach really needs some of those dead shrubs you see on the tutorial beach, as well as crabs! :) The elevation at the edges of the dividing iron hill in the middle look a bit strange at places, you may need to edit it in the Remake editor as it can look a bit different in Krom's editor depending on what graphics card you have. Some areas of the beach are too steep to walk on and some areas of the map are too steep to build on (use canWalk/canBuild in the Remake editor to see this). The player on the right seems to suffer from more of this.

Oasis Struggle: IMO this map is really too small for 8 players, I think it would be better for 4 players. I have played it once and it was kind of fun, although we lost quickly, perhaps due to the fact you can't build towers (was that intentional or just because there's no stone?). I remember struggling to find space for woodcutters with two players at each location. The location in the top right has 40 less gold than the others :P (use the Remake editor to see resource numbers)

The Tyrant: I haven't played it so I don't know whether it's balanced. 1vs2 is difficult to balance because the 1 player must be twice as powerful as the others. The bonus of iron and extra starting resources should be enough to balance this, but it would need thorough testing to really decide if it's balanced. I quite like the terrain, I think you could make the iron hills look better and the edges of the coal more smooth/gradual.

Re: Ben's Multiplayer Maps

PostPosted: 13 Nov 2012, 08:58
by The Dark Lord
I have played Besieged once and I enjoyed it. :) But I think the map could be better; there are large parts with just grass and some random tiles and those don't look very good. I haven't played Blitzkrieg (well only for 10 minutes, but my ally was afk so we all left) and Horseshoe. I like the idea behind The Tyrant but I can't really say if it's very balanced. The only time I played it one of my enemies didn't have any soldiers so it was pretty easy. I agree with Lewin about Oasis Struggle, I don't think it works well for 8 players; there is just not enough space. Other than that I have played some nice games on it. :)
Boarderlands is imbalanced if you ask me. Just look at the stone, the players at the top have a great advantage because the players at the bottom have to build their way around the stone.

Your new map looks very promising. I also like the name. I can't say much about the map, but judging by the screenshot the bridges in the center look a bit weird. Also, watch out with those huge fields of dirt or grass, it's not easy to make them look interesting.

Re: Ben's Multiplayer Maps

PostPosted: 13 Nov 2012, 18:28
by Ben
I read every word. Thanks for your advice.
Besieged needs work. I forgot about the Remake letting you add more weapons to the barracks (defiantly not my intention). I like the new command (!ADD_WARE_TO). Does it work the same way as adding wares to the storehouse?

Oasis struggle really needs to be cut down to four players. The map is very boring, too. Watch Towers were to be disabled because of the large amount of stone in the storehouse, but it probably isn't a huge issue because of the lack of room (can't build a thousand towers with so little space) Also, gold ore needs to be disabled in the marketplace and there needs to be a larger amount of starting trees/starting tree-trunks in the storehouse.

I need two people to help me test the Tyrant. In the meantime, I will work on the map.

Blitzkrieg's map also needs work., although I really like my wooden bridges :) The idea was for food to not be important in this map. Do you think I should just disable it and have players start with large quantities? Also, should the map be cut down to a two player map?

I hate Borderlands. The players at the bottom get a huge disadvantage from being so far away from stone, but if they were to be underneath the stone (like the players at the top) they would have much less room for their town and they would be further from other resources. I could move the stone, but that would cause other problems, too, like having the bottom players have a huge environmental defensive advantage. I'd have to redo the whole map, but the concept of it is so boring, it isn't worth it to me. What I would really like is to see it removed completely from the Remake.

@The Dark Lord, would you mind if I sent you the map for Unclaimed Territory so you could give me some more specific advice?

Thanks again. I look forward to hearing from you guys :)

Re: Ben's Multiplayer Maps

PostPosted: 14 Nov 2012, 14:35
by The Dark Lord
Sure, send it, I'll be happy to give some constructive criticism. :)