Quote from Multivision-Doors
Alright, let's see.... I have no idea how much of this map you finalized Yoshi, but here's some thoughts I had after playing your map. I realize this topic is old now.
a. UU is correct about the terrain, there's too much detail. The original terrain created by Blizzard looks like shit, let's face it. However, you put too much effort into making the terrain look "detailed", instead of looking "good". The terrain is too unnatural, and that makes it an eyesore. It's also very trying on the eyes, which I'm sure everyone here has spent a great deal of time staring as their computer screens. It's painful, and that's no good.
b. The spell costs are too high. Notably, spells 2, 3 and fire arrows. Spell 4, Chain Bolt, being higher damage and casting quicker makes spells 2 and 3 virtually unused.
c. Normal arrows are unnecessary(and probably removable with slight edits). At times I forgot to move the arrows away and when cornered I'd be switching to normal arrows instead of casting the spells. I wish you would remove this and let the player use spells either while the arrows are out, or remove the arrows when casting spells.
d. I don't understand why you used observers for the screen center. This is harmful in the final battle where you can't use your bow in the center of the room due to preventing the observer from moving. This should be simpler using a burrowed unit if I understand this correctly(which I'm not sure I do), at least on the boss fight.
e. Shields are too high and armor is too low. It's too easy to die in a bind and too difficult to die otherwise. This would be better balanced we're the armor set to 1/2 and the shields lowered slightly. This should also indirectly effect potion usage, by making players take slightly more damage from random enemies but not 40>0 when cornered. Which brings me to point f...
f. Too many (health)potions. This is far too spammy, because the player is taking too much damage in dangerous situations, and not able to be conservative about the use. By the logic of point e players should be using potions more conservatively. In either case, players are finding too many potions too often, and can hold onto too many at a time.
Let me explain more about points e and f. During the boss fight you can stand in the boss's attack range and take no damage from him while preparing the bow. You only need to move far enough to keep him on you and not get hit by his firebats. This battle is by no means easy, but not knowing how to kill the boss has the player getting killed too often, and knowing how to kill him makes the fight too easy.
By this logic reducing the players shields slightly should have him taking a small amount of damage from the boss, but with a small amount of armor, prevent him from being completely destroyed when surrounded by multiple enemies, which you'll be fighting constantly if you don't know how to fight the boss, and thus death or spamming potions, leading to death. This is a very similar problem to Remisa's map Spellsword. The damage was way too bursty, and that map didn't even have potions.
As for point a, I'd take a note from Tux's Rush map as far as terrain goes, specifically the metropolis district. Although his map is similar in detail(although not to the extent yours is), this area is more open and less of an eyesore, and yet also detailed enough to be cool to look at.
Okay, that's a lot. I haven't done that since Temple Siege. Yoshi, you're map was extremely well made, and as I've touched up on terrain quite a few times, I understand the amount of effort you put into it. I hope you take this criticism constructively, and if you can't, then simply ignore it, as I truly think your map is undoubtedly the best RPG for Starcraft.
My sincerest thanks for creating this awesome map, and hopes that you create a sequel.
a. UU is correct about the terrain, there's too much detail. The original terrain created by Blizzard looks like shit, let's face it. However, you put too much effort into making the terrain look "detailed", instead of looking "good". The terrain is too unnatural, and that makes it an eyesore. It's also very trying on the eyes, which I'm sure everyone here has spent a great deal of time staring as their computer screens. It's painful, and that's no good.
b. The spell costs are too high. Notably, spells 2, 3 and fire arrows. Spell 4, Chain Bolt, being higher damage and casting quicker makes spells 2 and 3 virtually unused.
c. Normal arrows are unnecessary(and probably removable with slight edits). At times I forgot to move the arrows away and when cornered I'd be switching to normal arrows instead of casting the spells. I wish you would remove this and let the player use spells either while the arrows are out, or remove the arrows when casting spells.
d. I don't understand why you used observers for the screen center. This is harmful in the final battle where you can't use your bow in the center of the room due to preventing the observer from moving. This should be simpler using a burrowed unit if I understand this correctly(which I'm not sure I do), at least on the boss fight.
e. Shields are too high and armor is too low. It's too easy to die in a bind and too difficult to die otherwise. This would be better balanced we're the armor set to 1/2 and the shields lowered slightly. This should also indirectly effect potion usage, by making players take slightly more damage from random enemies but not 40>0 when cornered. Which brings me to point f...
f. Too many (health)potions. This is far too spammy, because the player is taking too much damage in dangerous situations, and not able to be conservative about the use. By the logic of point e players should be using potions more conservatively. In either case, players are finding too many potions too often, and can hold onto too many at a time.
Let me explain more about points e and f. During the boss fight you can stand in the boss's attack range and take no damage from him while preparing the bow. You only need to move far enough to keep him on you and not get hit by his firebats. This battle is by no means easy, but not knowing how to kill the boss has the player getting killed too often, and knowing how to kill him makes the fight too easy.
By this logic reducing the players shields slightly should have him taking a small amount of damage from the boss, but with a small amount of armor, prevent him from being completely destroyed when surrounded by multiple enemies, which you'll be fighting constantly if you don't know how to fight the boss, and thus death or spamming potions, leading to death. This is a very similar problem to Remisa's map Spellsword. The damage was way too bursty, and that map didn't even have potions.
As for point a, I'd take a note from Tux's Rush map as far as terrain goes, specifically the metropolis district. Although his map is similar in detail(although not to the extent yours is), this area is more open and less of an eyesore, and yet also detailed enough to be cool to look at.
Okay, that's a lot. I haven't done that since Temple Siege. Yoshi, you're map was extremely well made, and as I've touched up on terrain quite a few times, I understand the amount of effort you put into it. I hope you take this criticism constructively, and if you can't, then simply ignore it, as I truly think your map is undoubtedly the best RPG for Starcraft.
My sincerest thanks for creating this awesome map, and hopes that you create a sequel.
None.
