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Re: [Highland Woods] First 'real' map

PostPosted: 10 May 2012, 17:12
by FrozenFlame
-Fixed goldmines (every location can build 3 goldmines)
-Reduced tree variety in the middle forest to pine tree only
-added more coal around the map
-removed swamp area at location 3 (top left) for more building space

I think that's all.

Download link:
http://www.mediafire.com/?db77mnyid6v76vm

Re: [Highland Woods] First 'real' map

PostPosted: 11 May 2012, 09:17
by Da Revolution
I did check your improved version. But I didn't see much changes at the coal (maybe i am blind). The building space is a good improvement ;)

Re: [Highland Woods] First 'real' map

PostPosted: 11 May 2012, 14:46
by FrozenFlame
Well the coal fields weren't expanded (only on loc 1). I just added more of them around the starting locations ^^

Re: [Highland Woods] First 'real' map

PostPosted: 11 May 2012, 21:37
by The Dark Lord
There are just two more things to fix and then your maps seems ready to be added to the Remake. ;)
- The bridge doesn't look really good. Try to look at one of the original maps to look how they did it.
- There are some faulty tile transitions on your map.
This is an image with wrong transitions just to show what I mean, it's not from your map:
Image
I also still think the random trees could be fixed but okay.

Re: [Highland Woods] First 'real' map

PostPosted: 12 May 2012, 01:30
by Lewin
I agree with The Dark Lord, your map is almost ready :)

With the bridges, the bottom one is not curved enough in my opinion.
The top one just needs a few minor adjustments. The water above the bridge looks shadowy because the top row of the bridge is higher. You can make this not noticeable by making the water slope up slightly towards the bridge. The elevation on the top bridge needs minor tweaks with the brush size on smallest, to make it look smooth and nice. The top edge of the bridge looks kind of too low and bumpy. (not smooth and continuous)

The tile transitions can often be fixed by placing the tiles by hand, but in the worst case where you can't fix it you can use an object like a rock or tree to cover it (try to not make this too obvious though, don't put a big rock to cover every place, put dead trees and other stuff as well)

You should put the "underwater" part of the bridge supports (columns that hold it up in the water) If you look at the campaign maps you'll see they put the underwater part, the same as you do around hills when they connect to water. If you turn on "show flow direction" you should be able to find one which doesn't make your water flow the wrong way. (there are 3 tiles)
I like the way you put the supports close together, it looks interesting and different to other maps which usually have them spread out.

Re: [Highland Woods] First 'real' map

PostPosted: 30 Jul 2012, 10:37
by The Dark Lord
Hi FrozenFlame,
It's been a while since your map was added to Remake and as you may or not may have noticed it is quite a success. Congratulations on that. :)
However, I've played on your map too now and then and I think it is a bit unbalanced.
The players on the left side have positions that are easy to defend, while the players on the right side have to build towers everywhere (especially loc 5). Furthermore the iron distribution is not the best I've seen; player 6 can make 5 iron mines, player 5 only 2 and all other players 3. Also, some players have much more iron at their disposal than others (especially player 4 has a lot).
What do you think?

Re: [Highland Woods] First 'real' map

PostPosted: 03 Aug 2012, 22:04
by FrozenFlame
Well to be honest, I have not been playing KaM for last couple of months. I am pleased to hear that it's such a success :)

The map was not really designed to have easily defendable positions, but looking at my map now, I think you are right when you say that the left side positions are easier to defend. I might look into it once I make an eventual return to KaM, which may or may not happen. As of the resources, they might not be balanced. Since it was my first (and only map thus far) I had no idea at the time how to balance resources properly, except by making sure everyone has the same amount of mine spots.

Player 5 is indeed quite the underdog here, I think that's because I didnt find many players for my test rounds, so position 2 and 5 weren't really properly tested.

However, since I may not be returning to my old map, you can update the map yourself if it's really that bad (: Or you could just put the more skilled player on loc 5, which does balance things out.

Re: [Highland Woods] First 'real' map

PostPosted: 13 Aug 2012, 00:47
by Lewin
However, since I may not be returning to my old map, you can update the map yourself if it's really that bad (: Or you could just put the more skilled player on loc 5, which does balance things out.
I'd just like to bump this topic and say I'd love to see you improve Highland Woods further. It's the 5th most popular map at the moment with over 500 plays (it's actually the second most popular fan-made map after Golden Cliffs, that's a great achievement!). I think players would love to see the small balance issues improved. We're planning a new release of the Remake in about a month (beta testing starts soon) so if you have time before then that would be great :)