Knights and Merchants.net Forum

Hi there KaM fans!
Since I love Knights and Merchants and I loved to make maps back in the day, I thought I would try my luck with a Knights and Merchants multiplayer map. Wooded Foothills is the result. Its designed to be very different from other maps like cursed ravine, since Im getting sick of maps like cursed. Cursed ravine has very simmilar locs and therefore gets boring quickly since you always do the same thing. Wooded Foothills is supposed to have something special on every loc ( of course mirrored on the other side, so that balance is assured) and therefore be a map with alot of variation in it . Player 1 and 5 are "power locs" with 5 iron mines and additional 10 gold, corn and 5 timber in their storehouse at the start. Player 3 and 7 have the option to build 3 iron mines while Player 2/4/6 and 8 can only build 2 iron mines. Loc 1 and 5 are very different from all the others, since they are the ONLY players who can build towers on this map! Mainly to protect the tiny entrance to their base close to the enemies territority. This tiny way through the mountain at loc 1 and 5 close to the enemy is supposed to open more tactial options for both teams. I choose to ban towers, since this map is supposed to give the player who camps a disadvantage. Towers normally are a big advantage for the camping player. Also this forces the teams to get control over the middle area to prevent the enemy from getting into your base. Also the map is designed in a way, that defending at your base will hurt your economy badly, since important ressources are positioned in a way, that they are difficult to defend.
Well it might not be the best map in the world, but I'm pretty happy with the result for my first multiplayer map!
Of course I would love to get suggestions and feedback about the map!

The layout of the map:


The upper part of the map:


The lower part of the map


The middle vulcano:

Hi
First of all I never made a MP map myself, but it looks quite good for your first map, from what I see on the screen shots.
I only don't really like your vulcano, it is quite flat.

First of all, I have to say, that I like your idea! You did a good job balancing locs and giving each of them something special. That would make gampelay interesting for sure . I really like the idea with giving space for 5 iron mines and access to towers to only 2 locs.

As for your first map it's pretty good . Let me point out some minor things:

- There's too few objects overall. I can see some places, where it's okay (94:181, near waterfall and stream), but most places are just empty (like near loc 8). Try to work on that.
- 55:31, 5:40 - fix tile connection
- 94:17, 195:233, 125:192 - try to avoid sharp edges like that, they don't look good (check all mountains for that)
- That big stone mountain near loc 5 has way too sharp edges...
- I think there's too few trees around storehouses at each loc (Especially loc 7, trees are shattered and far from base, only 5 trees below storehouse...). It can cause wood problems.
- Connecting stone hills with iron mountain doesn't look good IMO (loc 5)
- Maybe it's just me, but it looks like loc 1 has less building space than loc 5.
- Top right of map looks empty, try to add something there (from that stream on left to the right, maybe another mountain somewhere or something like that...)
- Some areas look too flat, like the one below loc 2 (from coal to iron mountain) or far right coal at loc 4
- 48:242 - try to fix water direction

I like that trees on stone hill at 9:43 , streams and waterfalls look good too. Nice elevation at 30:100 area. That volcano doesn't look that flat in editor . You did good job with water tiles direction. There're some places with nice elevation (30:96, 63:90), but the map should be more elevated I think. You can try elevating whole areas like 150:182, 171:142, 100:222, so they're different not only because of tile colour.

It's hard to begin your journey with map making from the biggest size. But overall, you did pretty good job as I wrote before .

One more thing: the map's name. I'm not sure if "Wooded" is correct word, you should probably use "wooden".

Thanks for the tips to improve my map! I will work on the problems you mentioned and hopefully improve the look overall! The idea for the name of the map came from a Magic the Gathering card so either that card used bad english (which might totally be possible ) or wooded is a word . Either way i think I will stick with the name as it is.

Wooded is a correct word, it means "Covered with trees or woods" (woods can mean forest). I think it's a good map name

Thank you Lewin for teaching us a lesson in English

I updated the looks of the map and worked on the problems TianK mentioned. Download in the starting post!